Quarterly reporting is a significant process for General Partners (GPs) in private markets, even when leveraging technology. It provides transparency, informs stakeholders, and guides strategic decision-making. However, typical reporting methods often present significant challenges. Data collection isn’t always punctual; it can sit within different systems and structures and can be prone to error due to manual adjustments and formatting.

Piers Dixon, Lantern’s Head of Sales gives an insight into recent technological advancements and how they’ve opened the door to more streamlined, efficient, and accurate reporting processes, that can benefit GPs and their teams.

Typical Pain Points in Traditional Quarterly Reporting

For many GPs, preparing quarterly reports is still a labour-intensive and often frustrating endeavour. Speaking with several GPs in the market, we’re seeing a consistent theme of the following challenges that are prevalent throughout the reporting process:

  • Manual Data Collection: GPs frequently pull data from various administrators, systems and spreadsheets, adding manual adjustments and commentary, making the process time-consuming and often prone to error.
  • Data Inconsistencies: Getting the data in order, let alone getting to the stage of presenting it in a report, is what takes up most of the time and that high number of discrepancies in the raw data significantly compromises report accuracy.
  • Delayed Reporting: The process of compiling, validating, and formatting data results in unnecessary manual effort and reviews that can delay reporting or publishing timelines.
    Lack of Real-Time Insights: By the time reports are complete, the data is often outdated, limiting timely decision-making – While investors need those reports to review performance, internally, firms are demanding more timely insights to drive smarter decision-making. The timeliness and accuracy of this data will only increase in importance as more and more GPs look to incorporate artificial intelligence into their operating models.
  • Resource-Intensive Processes: Overall, Finance teams are spending excessive hours on what they consider to be low-value tasks, such as data consolidation and validation, leaving less time for the strategic activities they need to focus on.

    For many GPs, preparing quarterly reports is still a labour-intensive and often frustrating endeavour.

    Piers Dixon, Head of Sales

How Technology Supports Modern Quarterly Reporting

Technology has reshaped how GPs can approach quarterly reporting by providing tools and solutions across the entire reporting process that address these pain points. Whether delivered by single-point solutions or more comprehensive tools, GPs are seeing technology ease the process, alleviating the burden of both quarterly and ad-hoc reporting.

  • Automated Data Integration: Modern platforms can integrate with multiple fund administrators and portfolio data collection tools, aggregating data efficiently and reducing the need for manual input.
  • Advanced Data Validation: AI-driven systems ensure data accuracy and consistency, by validating the source data with a number of automated checks, significantly reducing the need for manual reconciliation and minimising reliance on shadow accounting.
  • Intuitive Excel Integration: Half of the battle is getting accurate data into one place, which is why a number of tools offer the ability to push data directly into Excel – a place Finance teams know and love! Fuelling and refreshing existing Excel reports with timely, validated fund and portfolio data removes much the manual effort needed in report creation.
  • User-Friendly Dashboards: For those within a firm, getting immediate access to customisable dashboards that offer real-time insights allows teams to track performance metrics in real-time to make smarter, faster decisions on quality data.

The Benefits of Embracing Technology for GPs

The integration of modern technology into the quarterly reporting process offers several quantifiable advantages, from time savings to better investor relations and driving firm-wide smarter decision-making. Of those GPs who have re-imagined their reporting process, and invested in technology to do the heavy lifting, they have seen a range of quantifiable benefits:

  • Time Savings and Efficiency Gains: By automating data collection and validation, GPs can achieve significant time savings – sometimes reducing report preparation times by as much as 50%. This efficiency allows finance teams to reallocate their time to more strategic initiatives, such as scenario analysis and future planning.
  • Enhanced Data Accuracy and Consistency: Technology-driven validation minimises human error by automating checks and reconciling data from different sources. This leads to a higher degree of trust in the source data that drives reporting. Automated validation tools can cross-reference figures against financial statements and capital accounts, ensuring that discrepancies are flagged and corrected early.
  • Scalability and Adaptability: Advanced platforms can easily scale to manage larger volumes of data as GPs grow and acquire more complex portfolios. This adaptability ensures that GPs can maintain streamlined reporting processes even as the demands on their data increase.
  • Improved Stakeholder Communication: Access to clean, validated, and real-time data fosters transparency, which in turn builds trust and confidence among investors and other stakeholders. Technology platforms  often include features that facilitate data visualisation, making complex information easier to understand and present, too. In addition, API-first platforms can pass data automatically to other downstream tools. This empowers GPs to provide the right stakeholders with the data they need, in the format they need it, all of which goes beyond standard reporting.
  • Enhanced Productivity and Focus on Strategic Tasks: By automating routine data tasks, Finance teams can redirect their efforts toward value-added activities such as portfolio analysis and risk management. The shift away from manual data entry and validation allows teams to leverage their expertise more effectively, contributing to more informed decision-making and proactive fund management.

 

How Lantern Supports GPs in Reporting Transformation

Lantern, as a leading data intelligence platform, embodies these technological advancements to help GPs overcome the typical challenges of quarterly reporting. We work with GPs to review and streamline their existing process, letting our advanced technology do the heavy lifting, resulting in tangible benefits to both the quarterly reporting cycle and ad-hoc reports.

Adopting advanced technology can fundamentally shift how GPs approach quarterly reporting, reducing manual effort, improving accuracy, and enabling more strategic use of resources. Lantern’s platform exemplifies how these benefits can be realised, empowering GPs to deliver efficient and precise reports while overcoming traditional challenges.

To learn more about how Lantern can support your quarterly reporting needs, please get in touch with Piers or book a demo or explore our innovative solutions today.