Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for private equity firms.
A checklist built from how private equity firms work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Deal pipeline
- Companies and contacts
- Diligence workspaces
- Investment committee approvals
- Portfolio monitoring
- Investor and fund records
- Reporting packs
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For partners
- For deal teams
- For portfolio teams
- For finance and investor relations
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Pipeline by stage, deal lead and source
- Diligence requests still open by deal
- Committee decisions and conditions precedent
- Portfolio EBITDA and net debt against budget
- Capital called and distributed by limited partner
- Holdings by currency and valuation date
- Monthly reports outstanding from portfolio companies
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Email and calendar
- Document storage
- Spreadsheet import and export
- Fund administrator exports
- Accounting software export
- Electronic signature
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Is this deal software or investor software?
- Does it replace our fund administrator?
- Can different deals have different access?
- How are diligence documents organised?
- Can we work with several currencies?
- Can portfolio companies enter their own figures?
- Can we import our deal tracker?
- Who owns the data?
- What does it cost?
- Does a small team need it?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Deal history sits in several trackers
- Diligence documents are scattered
- Portfolio figures arrive in different formats
- Investor records are kept by hand
- Approvals leave no clear trail
Prefer to talk it through? See the private equity firms page.