How to make the most of prepare markets

The Prepare markets step is where you input, validate, and organise your market data before running any analysis.

This stage is designed to help you stay focused, avoid errors, and clearly track what is complete and what still needs attention.

1. Market queue

The market queue on the left helps you prioritise your work.

Each market is grouped by status based on how complete the data is. Clicking on any market will open it in the main workspace.

Market statuses

Your markets will be organised into five statuses:

• To do - The market is empty and no data has been entered.

  

• In progress - Some data has been entered, but the market is not yet complete.

  

• Mark as confirmed - All required data has been entered, but still needs final review.

  

• Confirmed - The data has been reviewed and is ready for analysis.

  

• All - Shows all markets regardless of status.

Progress tracking

At the bottom of the market queue, you’ll see a progress bar showing how many markets are confirmed.

This gives you a quick view of how close your dataset is to being ready for analysis.

2. Market workspace

The market workspace is where you input and review data for each market.

Key areas

• Top left - shows the selected geographic and product market

• Top right - shows the current status (e.g. In progress, Confirmed)

Input market data

Use the table to enter and edit your data:

• Click into cells to input values

• Click column headers to sort

• Add a new company using + Add company

• Remove a company by hovering over the row

Automatic calculations and validation

The table includes built-in checks to help prevent errors:

• Others (unknown) is automatically calculated based on your inputs in each company and Total

• If Others (unknown) do not align (e.g. total less than the sum of company values), the table highlights this in red. This ensures your data remains internally consistent before analysis.

Market visualisation

As you enter data, a chart is generated in real time.

This gives you an immediate view of:

• Market shares

• Relative size of parties & competitors

Confirming markets

Once a market is complete:

• Click Mark as confirmed in the top right

• This moves the market to the confirmed state

You can also confirm multiple markets at once:

• Go to the Mark as confirmed status in the queue

• Click Confirm all

Once confirmed, the market is locked. If you need to make changes, you can revert it back to “Mark as confirmed”.

3. Market structure

The market structure panel (right sidebar) helps you navigate and cross-check your data. It is closed by default, but you can toggle it to open by clicking on the open icon on the right edge.

You can:

• View markets by geography or product

• Expand and collapse different levels of the hierarchy

• Quickly move between related markets

Aggregated markets

Some markets are automatically aggregated from underlying data, they're usually greyed out in the list and has a link icon next to it.

For these:

• You cannot input data directly

• Data will only appear once all child markets are confirmed

This ensures that higher-level markets are always consistent with the detailed data beneath them.

When you are ready to analyse

You’ll know your data is ready when:

• All required markets are confirmed

• The progress bar turns fully green

• The Continue button becomes available

At this point, you can move on to analysing your markets.