You know you can use Firmex virtual data rooms for deals, but did you know that many of Firmex’s Private Equity clients also use Firmex to distribute their LP reporting materials? The reasons are convenience, relevance, and empowerment.
Convenience means your client is notified as soon as a document is updated. They are able to access their portfolio from anywhere, at anytime, from any device, without having to install plugins, software, or additional apps.
Relevance means accessing both historical and recent documents in one place.
And empowerment means being able to do these tasks without emailing you, saving both you and your clients time.
We’ve helped set up thousands of LP reporting projects, and want to explain how it works and the trends we frequently see in the most successful ones.
Share relevant documents
Once your portal is up and running, sharing documents that are relevant to your clients is the key to keeping them coming back.
- Firm materials, presentations, and Form ADV filings are made available to all the LPs.
- Partnership agreements are unique to each LP and are only available to the relevant LP.
- Quarterly statements and tax information are unique to each LP and are only available to the relevant LP.
- Offering documents and fund performance documents are made available to groups of LPs involved in the funds, while remaining inaccessible to those not involved.
Double check your work with View As
You know as well as we do that keeping investor information secure is top priority. Administrators, use Firmex’s “View As” tool to “view” your project “as” one of your investors. When using the tool, folders and documents that are hidden from an investor will be hidden from you. View As reports can be exported by-user to help you double-check your work.
Auto-sync files vs. manual upload
Some PE firms produce quarterly investor statements, while others produce monthly, weekly, and even nightly updates. Whatever frequency your firm uses, Firmex can make the task of uploading and distributing those documents to investors easier and faster.
- Auto-sync using the Firmex Agent
The Firmex Agent automatically uploads and distributes documents from your local system to your LP reporting portal in Firmex. The Firmex Agent can be scheduled to run on specific days and times (e.g. nightly, weekly, or monthly), at which point it looks for new files created by your LP software, uploads those files to Firmex, and then distribute those files to the correct investor.
- Manually drag-and-drop
Less frequent updates are a perfect match for Firmex’s drag-and-drop uploader. It gives you precise control over the documents being uploaded, while still allowing you to upload entire folders at once, in the case of a new LP, for example. The drag-and-drop uploader’s logic automatically uploads documents inside subfolders, and even notifies you of duplicates.
We see PE firms using both auto-upload and manual upload to satisfy their client’s needs. Firmex Client Services can help with either method.
Set a short email notification frequency
Notify your LPs as soon as documents become available by setting a short notification frequency, such as immediate or hourly.
- An immediate email frequency sends an email to an investor as soon as a document becomes available.
- An hourly email frequency sends an email digest to the investor summarizing all of the documents that have become available in the last hour.
We typically don’t recommend setting such short notifications for M&A deals, but these shorter notifications are ideal for monthly or quarterly LP reporting. Keep in mind, LPs may also change their email frequency through their own email preferences.
Embed the Firmex login on your firm’s site
“Out of sight, out of mind” is a proverb that holds true for products as it does for LP reporting portals. It means, “If it’s not in front of me, I’m likely to forget about it.”
Firmex’s embedded login feature lets you embed the Firmex login page directly on your firm’s website. To your clients, it means a seamless experience that’s easy to find, access, and integrates with your firm’s existing branding. The embedded login can be customized with the help of your Webmaster to match your firm’s brand and message.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to use a Firmex virtual data room for LP reporting, just contact us and we’ll be happy answer any questions.