# Setting up your first portfolio

Source: https://help.businessradar.com/articles/setting-up-your-first-portfolio
Updated: 2026-10-07T12:29:46.011Z

A good first step when starting to use Business Radar is to set up your portfolio. The portfolio can then be used to access information about the same group of companies inside Business Radar.

Follow these steps to set up your first portfolio in Business Radar and begin monitoring companies.

1.  **Access Portfolios**: Log in, open the "Portfolios" tab, and view available or shared portfolios. Tick **Show only my portfolios** to narrow the list to the ones you created.
    
2.  **Create a New Portfolio**: Click **Create New Portfolio**, name your portfolio (e.g., "Demo Portfolio"), and save.
    
3.  **Add Companies**:
    
    *   Search by country and name, and add the company you want to track.
        
    *   Optionally, include subsidiaries or the corporate tree.
        
4.  **Import Companies**: To add a list of companies at once, open the **Import Companies** tab in your portfolio. Click **Download template** to get the Excel template, which contains the required columns, a country dropdown, and instructions per column. Fill it in and drag it into the upload area — .xlsx and .csv files are accepted. More tips: [Batch upload company portfolio](/articles/batch-upload-company-portfolio).
    

### **Can't find a company?**

If the company you want to add doesn't appear with an add option, there are two ways to get it into Business Radar:

1.  **Register the company**: If the company appears in the search results with a "Register Company" button, it exists in our index but isn't loaded into Business Radar yet. Click "Register Company" to load it, after which it can be added to your portfolio.
    
2.  **Start an investigation**: If the company isn't listed at all, click "Start Investigation" below the search results and fill in the request form. The company name is required; any other details help identify the exact company you would like to add. Once started, a placeholder company is created so you can already begin screening.<br>Further details such as directors, UBOs, the corporate linkage, address and registration data will not be available until the completion of the investigation — normally within three to five business days. You will be notified via email once the investigation is completed.
    

### Giving colleagues access to your portfolio

A portfolio you create is only visible to you. Colleagues cannot see it until you give them access, so sharing is part of setting up a new portfolio.

To manage access, go to the **Portfolios** list and click the padlock icon in the **Actions** column next to the portfolio. This opens **Manage permissions for portfolio**, where you can share in three ways:

*   **Organisation-wide access**: every member of your organisation automatically gets the permission level you choose.
    
*   **Groups**: give an entire user group access, using "Select user group".
    
*   **Users**: give named colleagues access, using "Select user". This tab also shows everyone who currently has access and at which level.
    

Four permission levels are available:

| Permission | What it allows |
| --- | --- |
| View only | See the portfolio, its companies and results, without making changes. |
| Write | Add and remove companies and edit the portfolio's contents. |
| Admin | Everything in Write, plus managing the portfolio's settings and access. |
| Owner | Full control of the portfolio, including transferring ownership. |

### Turning on monitoring

Adding companies to a portfolio doesn't start monitoring them. Monitoring becomes available once a company has been screened, and alert emails require monitoring to be on.

1.  Open your portfolio and go to the **Companies** tab.
    
2.  If a company shows **Not assessed** in the Compliance column, select it and choose **Start Compliance Check** from the **Compliance** menu. The monitoring and alert options stay greyed out until a company has been screened.
    
3.  Once a company has been screened, turn monitoring on in either of two ways:
    
    *   **Per company**: click the monitoring icon in the **Compliance** column next to the company's risk status.
        
    *   **For several companies at once**: select them and choose **Enable monitoring** from the **Compliance** menu. **Disable monitoring** stops it again.
        
4.  With monitoring on, use **Subscribe to alerts** to receive adverse media alert emails about the selected companies, or the alert icon next to the company's risk status. **Unsubscribe from alerts** stops them.
    

### Removing companies from your portfolio

1.  Open your portfolio and go to the **Companies** tab.
    
2.  Select the companies you want to remove. The buttons above the list stay greyed out until you select at least one row.
    
3.  Click **Remove** and confirm in the dialog.
    

Removing a company takes it out of this portfolio only. It stays in Business Radar and in any other portfolios it belongs to.

Once your portfolio is set up, shared with the colleagues who need it, and monitoring is switched on, you'll be kept up to date on the companies it contains. Next, learn to [set up alerts](/articles/setting-up-alerts).