The four things a figure should say
- What it means, in one sentence. "Called" is everything asked of LPs across calls that were not cancelled; "paid in" is what has actually arrived. They are not the same number.
- Whose it is. A fund-wide figure and one LP's own figure are different numbers with similar names. Say "whole fund" or "your account" next to the figure, not in a footnote.
- How it was worked out, with the real inputs. "DPI = distributed ÷ paid in = $8M ÷ $40M = 0.20x" lets anyone check it with a calculator. A formula with no numbers in it is a definition, not working.
- As of when. A figure computed this morning and a figure from the last quarter close are both fine, as long as the report says which.
Say what is missing, instead of showing zero
A blank is not a zero. If no capital has been called, "called" is not $0, it is "nothing has been called yet". If an investment has no valuation mark, say it is held at cost, and say how many were left out of a total. Silent zeros are how a report ends up confidently wrong.
Correct mistakes without overwriting them
Figures reported by a portfolio company will sometimes be wrong: a typo, a restatement, a misread unit. The honest way to fix one is to record a correction beside the original, with the reason and who made it, and to show the figure as corrected wherever it appears. Overwriting the number makes the history disappear, and with it the answer to "what did we believe at the time?"
Two further rules help. A correction should not be reported as growth or decline: a company whose ARR was mistyped at 0.5 and corrected to 2.0 did not grow fourfold. And anything computed from the figure, such as a health rating or a trend, should be recomputed from the corrected value, so it matches what you would have shown had the right number arrived first.
Keep one record per company
The same company entered twice splits its history, its documents and its totals. Renaming a company should never create a new one, and merging two records should move everything across and leave nothing behind, with a note of what moved. Merging is not reversible, so ask for explicit confirmation before doing it.
A quick self-check for your next report
- Pick five figures at random. Can you show each one's inputs?
- Does any figure use a different base from a similarly named one on the same page?
- Are estimates labelled as estimates, and are unknowns shown as unknown?
- If a number changed since the last report, can you say whether the business changed or the record was corrected?
How VentureFract does it
On the fund, portfolio, LP portal and billing screens, clicking a key figure opens a card with what it means, whether it is whole-fund or your own account, the formula with the real numbers behind it, and the as-of date. A figure with a missing input says what is missing. Team members can record a correction to a founder-reported figure: the original stays on record, a reason is required, the figure is marked Corrected, and the company's health is recomputed from it. Companies can be renamed with their old names kept, and a duplicate can be merged into the right record by a firm admin, with the move recorded. See funds and LP reporting.
This guide describes practices and what the product does today. It is not financial, legal or audit advice.