Guide
Portfolio monitoring for fund managers
Portfolio monitoring — sometimes referred to as the schedule of investments — is the process of tracking each investment in your fund's portfolio: how much was invested (cost), what it is worth today (fair value), and how it is performing (IRR and MOIC).
For private equity and venture capital fund managers, portfolio monitoring is essential for quarterly reporting to investors, internal decision-making on follow-on investments and exits, and calculating fund-level performance metrics like TVPI.
Key metrics in portfolio monitoring
Cost basis
The total amount invested in a portfolio company across all rounds and tranches. This includes initial investments, follow-on rounds, and any capitalised costs (such as transaction fees added to the investment cost). Accurate cost tracking is the foundation of all performance calculations.
Fair value
The estimated current market value of the investment. For public securities, this is straightforward — use the market price. For private companies, fair value requires a valuation methodology such as comparable company analysis, recent transaction pricing, or discounted cash flow. Fair value should be updated quarterly and documented for audit purposes.
Unrealised gain or loss
The difference between fair value and cost. A positive number means the investment has appreciated; a negative number means it has declined. This metric is "unrealised" because no exit or distribution has occurred — the gain or loss exists on paper until the position is sold.
Unrealised Gain/Loss = Fair Value − Cost
Deal-level IRR
The internal rate of return for a specific investment, accounting for the timing and size of each cash flow (investment, follow-on, partial exit, dividend). Unlike a simple multiple, IRR penalises investments that tie up capital for longer. A deal with a 2.0x multiple over 2 years has a much higher IRR than a 2.0x multiple over 8 years.
MOIC — Multiple on Invested Capital
The total value of the deal (distributions received plus current fair value) divided by the cost. MOIC is simpler than IRR and is useful for quick comparisons, but it does not account for the time value of money.
MOIC = (Distributions + Fair Value) ÷ Cost
Fund concentration
The percentage of the fund's total portfolio that each investment represents. Monitoring concentration helps ensure the fund is not overly exposed to a single deal, sector, or geography. Most LPAs include concentration limits that the GP must adhere to.
Example portfolio monitoring table
| Company | Cost (USD) | Fair Value | Gain/Loss | IRR | MOIC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Corp. | 12,500,000 | 18,750,000 | 6,250,000 | 22.4% | 1.50x |
| Apple Inc. | 10,000,000 | 16,200,000 | 6,200,000 | 28.1% | 1.62x |
| NVIDIA Corp. | 8,000,000 | 19,600,000 | 11,600,000 | 52.3% | 2.45x |
| Tesla Inc. | 5,000,000 | 4,250,000 | -750,000 | -7.2% | 0.85x |
| Total | 35,500,000 | 58,800,000 | 23,300,000 | 1.66x |
Common challenges
- Spreadsheet sprawl — Many managers track their portfolio in Excel, which works until you have 10+ investments, multiple vintages, and partial exits. Formulas break, versions diverge, and quarter-end becomes a reconciliation nightmare.
- Disconnected from accounting — If your portfolio tracker is separate from your accounting system, investment entries must be manually reconciled between the two. This is a common source of errors.
- Fair value updates — Private company valuations require judgment and documentation. A good system should track valuation history and support audit trails.
- Reporting to investors — LPs expect to see the schedule of investments in their quarterly reports. If your portfolio data lives in a separate spreadsheet, assembling the report involves manual copy-pasting.
Integrated portfolio monitoring
The most efficient approach is to track your portfolio within the same platform where you manage your fund's accounting. When you record an investment journal entry, it should automatically appear in your portfolio monitoring view. When you update a fair value, it should flow through to your fund-level NAV and performance metrics.
Portled includes portfolio monitoring as part of the platform — tracking cost, fair value, unrealised gains, deal-level IRR and MOIC, and fund concentration. All connected to your general ledger and available in your investor portal and quarterly reports.