LP Quarterly Reporting: How to Meet ILPA's 2025 Standards While Reducing Operational Burden

ILPA's Quarterly Reporting Standards Initiative culminated in January 2025 with updated Reporting and Performance Templates—the first major revision incorporating SEC Private Funds Adviser Rules concepts (though those rules were ultimately vacated). For GPs already struggling with reporting workload, these enhanced standards raise the bar further. When 70% of fund managers cite LP reporting as their top operational challenge, and 37% of LPs now demand weekly NAV updates, the path forward requires automation that delivers more information with less manual effort.

The Evolution of LP Reporting Expectations

LP reporting expectations transformed dramatically over the past decade. What once satisfied investors—quarterly PDF statements delivered 30-45 days after period end—now marks a fund as operationally deficient. Today's LPs expect faster delivery (many want reports within 15 days of quarter end), more granular detail (fee and expense breakdowns, portfolio company metrics, attribution analysis), and interactive access (real-time portals versus static documents).

The driver isn't LP pickiness but portfolio management necessity. Institutional LPs managing billions across hundreds of fund relationships need timely, structured data to manage their own portfolios, report to their stakeholders, and make allocation decisions. When your fund's reporting arrives late or incomplete, you create problems for LPs that influence their future allocation decisions.

ILPA's most downloaded document remains its Due Diligence Questionnaire, which includes detailed questions about reporting capabilities. During fundraising, LPs evaluate whether your reporting meets their needs—and whether your operational infrastructure can deliver consistent quality. Reporting isn't just an operational function; it's a fundraising criterion.

ILPA's January 2025 Reporting Template Updates

What Changed

ILPA's updated Reporting Template 2.0 incorporates several enhancements developed through the 2024 Quarterly Reporting Standards Initiative (QRSI). The fee and expense reporting section now includes concepts from SEC Private Funds Adviser Rules (despite their vacatur), including disclosure on fee rebates, waivers, and offsets, plus greater granularity around expenses allocated or paid to related persons.

The updated template reflects feedback from the August-October 2024 comment period, incorporating input from LPs, GPs, fund administrators, and consultants. This collaborative development ensures the template reflects practical considerations alongside aspirational standards.

Performance Template Additions

Alongside the Reporting Template, ILPA released two Performance Templates standardizing how GPs communicate fund and investment performance. These templates address longstanding LP frustration with inconsistent performance presentation—where the same underlying data could support dramatically different return narratives depending on presentation choices.

Standardization benefits both LPs and GPs. LPs can compare performance across managers using consistent methodologies. GPs avoid the burden of customizing performance reports for each LP's preferred format. The templates create efficiency through shared standards rather than bespoke deliverables.

The Operational Reality of Manual Reporting

Manual quarterly reporting consumes enormous GP resources. According to Allvue's analysis, 61% of portfolio company respondents build a report or deck to report data to PE firms—a time-consuming process that may limit information depth. Fifty-four percent use email with attachments to collect and share data, creating version control issues and security vulnerabilities.

The inefficiency compounds at the GP level. Investor relations teams spend weeks each quarter compiling data from multiple sources, formatting reports to LP specifications, and responding to follow-up questions. This time-intensive process prevents the same staff from higher-value activities like LP relationship development and fundraising support.

Security concerns add risk to operational burden. Thirty-three percent of GPs still distribute sensitive information via email, exposing themselves and LPs to security hazards. When quarterly reports contain confidential fund performance, portfolio company financials, and LP capital account details, email transmission creates unacceptable risk.

Automation Strategies That Actually Work

Integrated Data Architecture

Effective reporting automation begins with integrated data. When portfolio company data, capital accounts, fund accounting, and LP information live in connected systems, report generation becomes query execution rather than data collection. The quarterly close process focuses on verification and review rather than manual compilation.

Many GPs operate with fragmented data—portfolio company financials in Excel spreadsheets, capital accounts in the administrator's system, LP contact information in Outlook, fund accounting in QuickBooks. This fragmentation makes reporting inherently manual. Consolidating onto integrated platforms eliminates the compilation step entirely.

Template-Based Generation

Pre-configured report templates mapped to ILPA standards enable one-click generation once data is current. Rather than building reports from scratch each quarter, automation applies templates to updated data. Customization still exists—different LP types may receive different detail levels—but the core generation is automated.

The template approach also ensures consistency. Manual report creation introduces variation—different formatting, different metric calculations, different presentation choices quarter to quarter. Templates enforce standardization that LPs appreciate and auditors require.

Investor Portal Delivery

Portal-based delivery replaces email distribution with secure, self-service access. LPs retrieve their reports from branded portals rather than receiving email attachments. This shift improves security (no sensitive data in email), reduces distribution effort (one upload serves all LPs), and creates audit trails (you can prove when reports were made available and accessed).

Portals also handle the follow-up inquiry burden. When LPs can access historical reports, performance charts, and supporting documentation on demand, they don't email your team with retrieval requests. Self-service capability reduces the administrative overhead that extends beyond initial report delivery.

Meeting the Weekly NAV Expectation

The shift toward more frequent reporting creates particular challenges. Thirty-seven percent of LPs now require weekly NAV updates—a cadence that's impossible to sustain with quarterly reporting processes run weekly. Meeting this expectation requires fundamentally different operational approaches.

Automated NAV calculation with system-maintained valuation models enables weekly updates without manual recalculation. When portfolio company metrics flow into valuation models automatically, weekly NAV generation becomes system output rather than analyst project. The human role shifts to exception review rather than calculation execution.

For managers unable to support weekly NAV, transparent communication about reporting capabilities helps manage LP expectations. Some LPs accept monthly updates if the data is reliable and timely. The key is aligning expectations during fundraising rather than disappointing LPs after commitment.

Key Takeaways

Sources

• ILPA (2025). Quarterly Reporting Standards Initiative - Updated Reporting Template
• Allvue Systems (2024). Guide to Investor Reporting - Manual reporting inefficiency data
• ACA Group (2025). ILPA's Revised Reporting Template for the Private Equity Industry
• Gen II (2025). ILPA Unveils Updated Reporting Templates - Template change summary
• Private Equity International (2024). LP Reporting Expectations Survey - Weekly NAV requirements