By: Kimberly Kale
Head of Product - Back Office
April 10, 2023
All private equity firms, whether they are launching their first fund or their fourth, face the same challenges brought on by the quarter-end reporting cycle. While it’s an expected process every three months, it does not make the data management process any less cumbersome or the effort required any less time-consuming. Balance sheets, income statements, schedule of investments, statement of cash flow, fund distribution partners’ capital statement – each demands its own calculations and aggregations, packaged nicely but often distinctly for each stakeholder, all churned out at a breakneck pace.
Calculations and analysis take time, a prized resource among fund managers. Rushing through the analysis may save time up front, but increases the window for error. When the result of your quarter-end reports informs you of the next quarter’s targets or potential portfolio changes, there is no room for mistakes. A misplaced decimal could result in a major loss of time, resources, and even capital.
2-MINUTE DEMO: REDUCING YOUR QUARTER-END REPORTING CYCLE
Allvue’s software streamlines the private equity reporting cycle from every angle, improving efficiency and minimizing human error. Here are a few ways Allvue can help you deliver timely and accurate presentation-quality reports to your investors, quarter after quarter.
Access a Library of Reports at Your Fingertips
Staying on outdated technology or continuing to rely on Excel as the business grows only creates more busy work for the operations team. Their ability to create integrated reporting views of data is more error prone, and highly reliant on individual contributors. This day-to-day challenge is only exacerbated when quarter-end reports are required.
Allvue provides all your standard fund financial statements, including a balance sheet, income statement, schedule of investments, statement of cash flows, and more. Utilize ILPA fee templates, investor capital account statements and others with the click of a mouse. Because Allvue’s fund accounting system is built on single-source data, you can easily click into any of those reports to trace back a number or perform other analysis.
And Allvue’s SSRS capabilities allow you generate your customized library of reports on a recurring basis. Simply select a reporting date(s) and fund – and within moments you’ll have an investor-quality presentation ready to report.
Report generation isn’t only about simplicity, but scalability. As your funds grow, it becomes harder to maintain efficiency without increasing headcount (which in and of itself has issues). As Claudia Dunnous, Chief Financial Officer for Osage Partners, told us:
“We were very fortunate. We implemented Allvue at the start of our second fund. I recommend the same for any fund – onboard technology as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more funds you launch, the more difficult it becomes to implement technology.”
-Claudia Dunnous, Chief Financial Officer for Osage Partners
Allvue technology grows with your business, freeing up time and resources while improving the quality of back-office analysis and reporting for the quarter and beyond.
Dive Deeper into Your Results
Save time synthesizing your quarterly results by leveraging Allvue’s drill-through reporting. Allvue clients benefit from connected data, pooling one source of your information so you can easily click into quarterly results and review the specific data point that is relevant to you.
You can see the make of any balance on a financial statement and even reference back and reconcile entries, all within one fund accounting module. Creating one source of truth for your data allows you to access the information you need with simplicity and ease.
Need to see the data from a different perspective? Allvue empowers clients to see a full breakdown of your schedule of investments by security, outlining costs and fair market value of each investment. No matter the vertical, our software is customizable to your portfolio so you can view the details you need to process the information.
For example, if a client has concerns about a company in the news or a specific sector or geography, Allvue’s reports allow you to better see the exposure. Other teams also benefit from these extracted insights, like your front office team. These teams can review data from several viewpoints, gaining critical intelligence on complex portfolios.
Help Your Investors Visualize Your Quarterly Performance
One of the biggest challenges start-up and early-stage venture capital and private equity funds face is creating professional-grade client communications. Allvue’s allocation engine empowers you to produce investor-level reports automatically – and even more importantly – with less risk.
Even with a centrally managed data model, you still may be faced with situations where the sync times might not line up or where you might not have the data available for certain reporting models when you need it. Because Allvue uses one source of data to power all of your workflows, you’ll eliminate the risk of presenting inaccurate figures to investors or basing decisions off unfound logic. Rather than having to manually re-enter data, you can automatically produce investor-level reports and easily route them for four-eyed review, side-stepping the risk that arises from fat-fingered reporting.
Get the jumpstart you need to put high-quality notices and statements in front of your clients quickly and efficiently with our standard reporting templates. For example, Allvue’s ILPA templates are structured to follow best practices down to transaction type. Each report can be personalized for each investor, beyond just reconciliation.
While many of our ready-to-go reports are all encompassing, we know investors may have specific questions that need to be addressed. Whether your client has concerns about a company’s recent appearance in the news or a change to regulation in the industry overall, the Allvue dashboard allows GPs to address specific ad hoc requests as they arise quickly and easily.
INFOGRAPHIC: 4 BIG QUARTER-END REPORTING MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
Allvue Helps Expedite Your Quarter-End Reporting Cycle
Synthesize critical and actionable reporting that accurately reflects your quarterly results, leaving your investors and other stakeholders feeling confident in your partnership. Remove the risk of miscalculation and gain hours of valuable time back with Allvue’s reporting solution. Discover all the ways Allvue’s world-class, fully-integrated suite of solutions can streamline your quarter-end reporting cycle.
More About The Author
Kimberly Kale
Head of Product - Back Office
Kimberly is responsible for back office product management at Allvue. She joined Allvue’s predecessor, AltaReturn, in 2009 and has over 25 years of software management, including 18 years servicing the alternative investments industry. Prior to joining AltaReturn, Kimberly spent seven years with FIS/Investran, first in New York, and then transferring to London to manage the EMEA implementation team. She began her career at KPMG Public Services practice in Washington, DC, and moved on to implement ERP solutions for various insurance and healthcare clients. Kimberly holds a Bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and is currently based in Allvue’s Miami headquarters.
