Recommended fund accounting software or service?

Hello hedge fund (or other pooled investment) Managers,

I recently started my companies first hedge fund, and will be opening the fund to external shareholders shortly. I need to transition our accounting practices from investing only for family, to investing for multiple shareholders. What fund accounting software or services would you recommend for this purpose?

I imagine the solution should be able to do the expected minimum basic stuff: Track client accounts with number of held shares per client, record client buy and sell transactions, and do NAV and HWM fee calculations. Any other features such as tax capabilities or generating performance reports would be a "bonus". I could use a cloud hosted solution, or I would also consider a locally installed fund accounting program.

I know the basics of hedge accounting concepts and could implement the needed minimal recordkeeping using spreadsheet software. However, I imagine a purpose-built accounting software or service could make the job easier and less error-prone.

Thank you in advance for the names of any software or services that you might recommend.
-Jay77

 

Advent Geneva (now owned by SS&C) is the gold standard, but might be expensive for a startup.

 

I would highly advice you to use an external administrator, it won't cost you that much, they will take care of all NAV, subscriptions, redemptions etc... and people will trust you much more.

 

wintergasp, Do you recommend a particular external administrator?
Thanks.

-Jay77

 

You don't specify what instruments you trade, but NAV Consulting is popular these days with CTAs.

In any case, choice of admin is a different question from choice of accounting software. You'll want to mirror your admin's calculations.

 

> truetype said: You don't specify what instruments you trade,

I trade ETFs almost exclusively. Things like SPY, QQQ, IEF, etc.

 

I would recommend not doing it yourself. Getting the right service providers can make the difference if you get an allocation or not.

 

Robert, Do you recommend any service providers that I should look at?

 

My boss deals with them more than I do. I can't recommend anyone, but I can tell you that NAV that was mentioned by truetype is a provider on a number of our clients.

 

E&Y.