An Expression of Interest (EOI) in Caruso lets you capture and track investor interest in a capital raise before a formal application is made. The Book Build tab gives you a full sales pipeline view of every EOI, from first contact through to a completed investment.
Note: EOIs are only visible in the Admin App. Investors do not see EOIs or EOI notes in the investor portal.
Understanding the EOI pipeline
Every EOI moves through a nine-stage pipeline. Statuses are updated manually, and any status can be changed to any other at any time.
Status | Meaning |
Identified | New top-of-funnel record |
Contacted | Outreach has been made |
Qualified | The investor meets the fund's criteria |
Soft-Commit | Verbal commitment received |
Hard-Commit | Strong commitment, application pending |
Application Submitted | An application record has been created |
Closed – Invested | The investor completed the investment |
Closed – Lost | The investor did not progress |
Cancelled | The record was cancelled by an admin (for example, a data entry error) |
How to create an Expression of Interest
You can create an EOI from two places.
From the Book Build tab
In the navigation pane, select Capital Raises.
Navigate to the relevant capital raise and select the Book Build tab.
Click Create expression of interest at the top right. The Fund and Capital Raise are prefilled.
From the global Create menu
Click the Create (+) menu at the top of the Admin App and select Create EOI.
Choose the Fund, then the Capital Raise it belongs to.
In the Create EOI sheet, complete the following fields:
Account or Prospect — search for an existing account or prospect, or add a new prospect inline.
EOI Owner — the admin responsible for this EOI. Defaults to you, and can be reassigned to any other admin.
Expressed — the dollar amount the investor has expressed interest in. $0 is allowed if the investor has not named an amount yet.
Status — defaults to Identified.
Note (optional) — an initial note, which becomes the first note on the EOI.
Click Create EOI to save. No emails are sent to the investor when an EOI is created.
Note: EOIs record a dollar amount only, on every capital raise regardless of how that raise is priced. Units, price per unit, and unit class are not captured on an EOI. Those details are entered on the application.
Two ways to view your book build
The Book Build tab has two views, switched from the toggle at the top left:
Table view — every EOI as a row, with sortable columns and the full detail of each record.
Board view — a board with one column per pipeline stage, where you move an EOI by dragging its card.
Your search, filters and sort carry across when you switch views.
Managing the Book Build table
The Book Build table shows every EOI for the capital raise, with columns for ID, Date Received, Status, Contact, EOI Owner, Expressed, Converted, Remaining, Applications, and Latest note.
Note: EOIs created before this update do not have an owner, and show a dash in the EOI Owner column. You can assign an owner from the Edit sheet at any time, and clear it back to unassigned.
Sort by clicking a column header: ID, Date Received, Status, Contact, EOI Owner, Expressed, Converted, or Remaining. The default sort is Date Received, newest first. For example, sort by Remaining descending to see the EOIs with the most unconverted interest.
Filter by Status or EOI Owner. Both support selecting multiple values. Cancelled EOIs are visible by default and can be filtered out.
Search by contact name.
Clicking a row opens the Edit sheet, where you can update the Account or Prospect, EOI Owner, Expressed amount, and Status.
Each row also has an ellipsis (...) actions menu with:
View details — opens the full EOI detail view.
Edit — opens the Edit sheet.
Add note — adds a note to the EOI.
Add application — links an application to the EOI.
Cancel — moves the EOI to the Cancelled status.
Working the pipeline on the board
Board view lays the pipeline out as nine columns, one per status, so you can see where every investor sits at a glance.
Move an EOI by dragging its card into another column. The status change saves immediately, and any stage can move to any other.
Each card shows the contact name, a badge indicating whether they are an account or a prospect, the EOI Owner, Expressed, Date Received, and a preview of the latest note.
The conversion donut in the top right of each card shows how much of the EOI has converted, that is Converted divided by Expressed.
Card order within each column follows the active sort. The board offers the same sort options as the table apart from Status, since the board is already arranged by status.
Empty columns still appear, so you can drag a card into a stage that has no EOIs in it yet.
Changing an EOI's status
Click the Status pill on any row (or in the EOI detail view header) and select the new status. On the board, drag the card into the column for the new stage. The change applies immediately.
Selecting Closed – Lost prompts you to add a note capturing the reason. The note is optional, and the status changes whether or not you save one.
Cancel (from the actions menu) moves the EOI to Cancelled after a confirmation. The record is kept and remains visible in filtered views, and you can change the status back at any time.
Note: EOIs are never deleted. The full lifecycle is managed through statuses, so your pipeline history is always retained.
Adding notes to an EOI
EOIs support multiple notes, so your team can keep a running record of conversations and decisions.
Click the ellipsis (...) on an EOI row and select Add note, or use the Notes tab on the EOI detail view.
The Latest note column on the Book Build table shows a preview of the most recent note. Hover to see the full text.
Each note records its author and when it was last updated. Notes are only visible to admins.
Linking applications and tracking conversion
When an investor is ready to commit, link one or more applications to their EOI. The EOI stays in the Book Build with its conversion progress visible. It is not removed.
Click the ellipsis (...) on the EOI row (or the actions menu on the EOI detail view) and select Add application. You can then either:
Link existing applications, searching the same capital raise by application ID, investing entity name, or account name. You can select several applications and link them all in one action. Applications already linked to another EOI cannot be selected.
Create a new application, which opens the create application form prefilled with the EOI's investor context. Enter the investment amount and submit, and the new application is linked to the EOI automatically.
An EOI can be linked to many applications, but each application belongs to at most one EOI. Up to 50 applications can be linked or unlinked in a single action, and the whole selection is applied together.
Every EOI tracks three values:
Value | Definition |
Expressed | The amount entered on the EOI |
Converted | The sum of the investment amounts of all linked applications (cancelled applications are excluded) |
Remaining | Expressed minus Converted |
Remaining can go negative if the linked applications exceed the expressed amount. This is allowed, and simply shows the investor committed more than they originally expressed.
Note: Linking an application does not change the EOI's status automatically. Update the status manually to reflect where the investor is in your pipeline.
The EOI detail view
To open the full record for an EOI, click the ellipsis (...) on its row and select View details.
The detail view shows:
A header with the key facts: Date Received, Status, Expressed, Converted, Remaining, Account or Prospect, EOI Owner, and linked applications.
A Details tab with the full record, including the investor's contact details and the capital raise context.
A Notes tab listing every note on the EOI, newest first, with options to add, edit, or delete notes.
Linked applications are managed from the Conversion & applications section of the Details tab. Each is a hyperlink to the application, with an option to unlink it.
Tracking engagement on the Activity tab
The capital raise page includes an Activity tab that brings together the activity of every investor in your current book build, so you can read the raise's engagement in one place instead of contact by contact.
The tab shows the standard activity table — the same columns and Type, Status, Modified By, and date range filters as the Activity tab on an account or prospect.
It covers every account and prospect holding a current EOI on the raise — any EOI that is not Closed – Lost or Cancelled.
Each investor's activity is shown from the date their EOI was created, so the feed reflects engagement with this raise rather than their full history.
If an EOI moves to Closed – Lost or Cancelled, that investor's activity leaves the feed; a new EOI brings it in.
Only engagement with people appears here — emails and what the investor did with them, meetings and calls your team logs, logins and capital raise views, notes, and documents. Investing entity registry events do not appear.
Combine the filters to answer raise-specific questions — for example, set Modified By to a teammate, Subtype to Call, and the date range to this month to see every call logged against this raise's book this month.
Permissions
EOIs have their own permission set, separate from application permissions. This means you can give your capital-raising team access to create and manage EOIs without giving them the ability to create or edit applications.
A default CRM Admin (Editor) role is available for every tenant. Admins with this role can create, edit, and cancel EOIs, change pipeline statuses, reassign EOI Owners, add notes, and link and unlink existing applications. They can view applications, buy orders, sell orders, and redemption requests, but cannot create, edit, cancel, or confirm any of them.
Tips for managing your book build
Switch views to suit the task. Use the toggle at the top of the Book Build tab to move between Table and Board. Board view suits stage-by-stage work such as a call-down day, where you drag cards between columns as conversations progress. Table view suits sorting on amounts, or scanning the full detail of every record.
Link several applications at once. In the Add application sheet you can select multiple applications and link them to an EOI in a single action, rather than repeating the process for each one. Unlinking works the same way.
Assign an EOI Owner as soon as a lead is identified, so it is always clear who is responsible for following up. Owners can be reassigned at any time, and you can filter by owner to see just your own pipeline.
Sort by Remaining to prioritise the investors with the largest unconverted interest.
Add a note when you mark an EOI as Closed – Lost. The reason is valuable when reviewing pipeline drop-off later.
Keep a running record with multiple notes. Each EOI holds a full note history with author and timestamp, so handovers between team members keep their context.
Tip: Cancelling an EOI keeps the record. Statuses drive the whole lifecycle, so you can always change a status back if something was set in error.
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If you have any questions or need help at any stage, please contact our Caruso Support team either by email or live chat.