by Brian Shapiro, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at PCR, a FundCount partner
Implementing a new portfolio accounting system is never accomplished at the press of a button. The process of “implementing” the system requires genuine rigor to ensure nothing is lost in the hand-off.
On the back of a 10-year bull market, balance sheets have expanded and increased in complexity to the point that the traditional patchwork of retail solutions is not up to the task. Many family offices and advisories are evaluating whether adopting a more institutional-grade accounting system to handle their portfolio cash management back and middle office operations makes sense.
Challenges and Successes in Managing Operational Change
Longtime FundCount user Marcie Odum, of the single family office The Lupton Company, wowed the audience at the Marcus Evans ‘Private Wealth Summit’ in December. Speaking on “Challenges and Successes in Managing Operational Change,” Marcie described the years-long process Lupton engaged to revamp office operations. This included operational workflows, general accounting, and investment accounting and analysis. She also highlighted some of the “soft” issues that are keys to success: getting everyone onboard and involved, avoiding groupthink and “history” think, and having a strong mandate from the top.
Foundational to Lupton’s success was choosing FundCount to bring one single source of truth for all investments (both public and private), improve performance measurement and improve investment reporting. Read more about the benefits realized by Lupton in this case study.
New Clients
FundCount is pleased to announce the addition of two new clients: RD Legal and a Family Office based in Florida.
Implementation of FundCount’s portfolio and partnership accounting software has already begun at Cresskill, NJ-based RD Legal, a hedge fund that provides financing to legal firms as well as offers institutional and qualified investors fixed-income products with variable interest rates.
RD Legal selected FundCount for its accurate, automated solution, knowledge of fixed income accounting and ability to support complex fee and interest rate structures. The firm will use FundCount to accrue income and manage daily changes in interest rates across a number of client relationships. Phase 1 is expected to go live in Q1 2019.
A Florida-based family office will be using FundCount’s portfolio accounting and reporting software to support their fixed income and equity investments. The firm selected FundCount for its accuracy, integrated platform and the ability to add partnership accounting in the future. Implementation is due to begin late April, with an anticipated live date by the end of June.
New Features and Functions
FundCount continually enriches its powerful software to meet the evolving needs of our clients. In addition to several new features that increase our ever-growing ability to handle a diverse list of security types, we also have and continue to make improvements in automation and processing efficiencies. For example, new transaction types and data points are now available in our menu of importable data. As always, all of our added features carry over to reporting.
Starting with the foundation, we’ve added to the flexibility and customizability of the Chart of Accounts (COA) by offering additional settings for defining accounts. Clients now have the option to apply COA settings globally across all entities or to manage fee settings locally.
Accounting for a diverse list of security types is a significant strength for FundCount and one that we continue to improve upon. Clients can now set up and track Inflation Linked Bonds and book accurate interest accruals based on FundCount’s new calculation methodology specifically for this security type. Also, setting up and tracking cryptocurrencies is accommodated with a new feature that combines the Custom Currency capability with our existing Exchange Rate table.
On the reporting side, more formula capabilities enable clients to easily combine data columns and create their own calculations right in FundCount’s out-of-the-box reports. We’ve also added more data points to pull into reports, such as additional time periods, and introduced a new Master-Feeder and Inter-Entity Loans report to facilitate viewing of complex nested entity relationships.
Client Quote of the Quarter
“What keeps us at FundCount is the dynamic team we deal with, strong service, and we can
count on FundCount for support. Service is everything.”— Vishal Shah
Director of Accounting and Valuations, Beacon Fund Services
From our blog:
Ad-Hoc Reports: The Crowning Differentiator
Gone are the days where scheduled, one-size-fits-all investment and partnership accounting reports were enough to keep your clients happy. Being able to cater to on-the-fly requests from clients and the UHNWIs in a family office goes a long way toward enhancing overall customer experience. And in the notoriously competitive asset management sector, client experience/client service can be a significant differentiator.
Welcome Aboard
FundCount continues to grow! We have recently added three technical writers, three developers and a quality assurance engineer to the FundCount team. A warm welcome to all.
Awards and Accolades
FundCount is pleased to be shortlisted in the following upcoming awards:
- Family Wealth Report Awards 2019
Accounting, Client Reporting - Private Asset Management (PAM) Awards
Best reporting solution, Best family office service provider - HFM US Hedge Fund Technology Awards 2019
Best Fund Accounting Software
Winners will be announced throughout February and March. Stay tuned for further details.
About Fundcount
Founded in 1999, FundCount provides integrated accounting and investment analysis software that improves operational efficiency and delivers immediate, actionable intelligence to clients around the globe. Today, over 125 hedge funds, single and multi-family offices, fund administrators and private equity firms worldwide with assets totaling more than US $150 billion rely on FundCount for accurate, timely information and flexible reporting. FundCount supports its growing client base from the company’s U.S. headquarters and four additional international locations.
