Accounting, NAV, Capital Calls, Valuation, Investor Reporting
Julian R. Sterling
These are the five Excel workbooks that go with the book. Every number in them is a live formula,
and every figure the book publishes is reproduced exactly. The fifth computes the figures the book
defines and never publishes. Nothing is locked, protected or watermarked.
Free to download. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to fill in.
Everything described below is inside it, with the read-me.
The five workbooks
Chapter 30
Waterfall model
The whole-of-fund waterfall on $160m of proceeds against $100m of contributed capital, through all
four tiers, landing at $148m to the LP interests and $12m to carry. All fifteen published figures
reproduce exactly. The catch-up is the part worth opening the file for: the chapter solves
C ÷ ($10m + C) = 20% by hand and gets $2.5m, and the cell
contains that solution rather than the answer — change the carry rate to 25 percent and the
catch-up moves to $3.3m on its own. A separate sheet prices what the chapter says but does not
model: on the pre-filled profile an 8 percent preferred accrues $37.2m against a flat
$10m.
Waterfall_Model.xlsx · XLSX · 17 KB
Chapter 31
Quarter-end close
It is 30 September, the administrator's draft trial balance has arrived, and five things are wrong
with it. The file finds each one, carries its journal entry, and bridges from a draft partner
capital of $125m to a corrected NAV of $128.5m — cross-checked against the balance sheet,
which agrees. Both routes are computed independently and the sheet states out loud whether they
agree. Every correction is an input you can zero out.
Quarter_End_Close.xlsx · XLSX · 16 KB
Chapters 5 and 10
Capital calls, distributions and capital accounts
Enter the investor register once. The file allocates a call on participation percentages, tracks
unfunded commitments, allocates a distribution with its recallable treatment, and rolls every
investor capital account. Three reconciliations run automatically and each says so out loud when
it fails — including the tie of the investor subledger to net asset value, which is the one
that stops a bad quarter becoming a restatement.
Capital_Calls_and_Accounts.xlsx · XLSX · 20 KB
Appendix B
Operational checklists
All ten checklists and their 125 items: capital calls, distributions, management fee, expense
review, investment closing, valuation, NAV review, quarter-end close, audit readiness and the
first ninety days. Status dropdown, notes column, and a progress sheet that counts what is still
open by section.
Operational_Checklists.xlsx · XLSX · 15 KB
Chapters 5, 12, 14, 27, 28 and 29
The performance the book defines
Chapter 14 defines IRR, DPI, RVPI, TVPI and MOIC. Chapter 29, step 7, tells the controller to
update all of them at the exit. The book prints no value for any of them, anywhere — and
chapters 27 to 29 are one continuous case with every input needed. This file joins them up.
Atlas returns 1.833 times, 22.4 percent a year; the fund that owns it ends the
case at a TVPI of 0.892 and an IRR of −5.6 percent,
because 2 percent of $500m charges $32.5m of fee against a single $42m investment. Atlas's whole
gain pays for 10.1 of the thirteen quarters the case runs, and the fund would have had to be
$389.5m, not $500m, to leave investors whole.
Then the part worth opening the file for. The book says three times — twice in chapter 14
and again in answer C9 — that a subscription facility increases investor-level IRR. Its own
case does the opposite, and sheet 6 separates the two reasons: timing alone costs half a
point, and the $5.48m of interest costs 4.21 more. The condition the book omits is a threshold
— the facility helps only above a $96.68m sale, and the book sells at
$78.0m. Thirty-two live controls, twenty-five of which reproduce a figure the book prints.
Why the close file has two routes to the same number
Two routes to the same NAV is not redundancy; it is the control. A close that agrees with itself only
one way has not been checked. None of the five findings in Chapter 31 was a modelling error
— every one came from a control that did not exist, and every one was found by connecting two
records that should have agreed and did not.
The entries and allocations are simplified illustrations, exactly as in the text. Account names,
treatment and waterfall mechanics vary by accounting framework, legal structure and governing
document. These files model the arithmetic; they do not model your documents.
Opening the files
The workbooks open in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets and Numbers. They use
no macros and no add-ins, so nothing needs to be enabled or trusted. If your spreadsheet asks
to update links on opening, decline — there are none.
Articles on this book
Two of the calculations in these workbooks, worked out in full.
All articles.
Closing the DealTwo defensible bridges 20.70 million apart, a peg worth 7.00 million, and the six choices that remove 6.60 of a 12.00 earn-out.
CMBS and CRE CLOsWhere the loss actually lands, from appraisal reduction to realised severity, and what the B-piece is really being paid for.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Credit AgreementWhere the default actually comes from, the cure that costs 5.5 times the other, and the capacity nobody adds up.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Private Equity Real EstateBoth worked waterfalls to the dollar, the two capital stacks, and the arithmetic of the promote made changeable.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
Raising a Real Estate FundThe chapter 17 funnel run on a calendar — when the first close actually lands, and why more travel does not help.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Real Estate Financial ModelingProperty, development and fund models built line by line, and the modelling test worked end to end.
Real Estate Fund ManagementThe waterfall of 6.11, the build-to-core of 8.7 and the proceeds gap, reproduced as live formulas rather than asserted.
REIT Analysis and ValuationFFO of 532.0, AFFO of 381.0, net asset value and dividend safety — every figure a formula you can change.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
The Growth Equity InvestorWhat a pro rata cheque really costs, and the band where defending your ownership loses money.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Venture Capital AssociateWhat defending a position costs, and how many companies a reserve pool actually defends.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Credit AnalysisFour defensible EBITDAs on one borrower give leverage from 3.19x to 6.47x — and the add-back argument is fifty times the covenant headroom.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Treasury ManagementFive cash balances for one company, all correct and 145,600,000 apart — and the revolver that is two-thirds of the liquidity leaves at a revenue fall of 8.4127 per cent.
Financial Planning and AnalysisRevenue 3.0190 per cent above budget and operating profit 16.3209 per cent below it, in the same quarter, with every figure correctly stated.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
Construction Cost ControlA contract sum of 26,301,102 became a final account of 29,153,363 on the building that was drawn — and 85.8 per cent of what was lost was knowable on the day it was signed.
Pricing StrategyA list price of 148.00, a pocket price of 112.51, and the nine deductions in between — with what one point of price is actually worth.
Also by Julian R. Sterling
The other books with companion files. The full list of titles is on the
author page.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
The CBAM Compliance HandbookWhat 2027 really costs, how big the buffer should be, and the term the surrender formula counts twice.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Distressed Debt InvestorWhere the fulcrum security actually breaks, and what an 80-cent recovery is worth once composition and time are priced.
The Real Estate Debt InvestorThe margin against the return on capital, the floor priced, and what prepayment protection buys.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Credit AnalysisFour defensible EBITDAs on one borrower give leverage from 3.19x to 6.47x — and the add-back argument is fifty times the covenant headroom.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Treasury ManagementFive cash balances for one company, all correct and 145,600,000 apart — and the revolver that is two-thirds of the liquidity leaves at a revenue fall of 8.4127 per cent.
Financial Planning and AnalysisRevenue 3.0190 per cent above budget and operating profit 16.3209 per cent below it, in the same quarter, with every figure correctly stated.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
These files accompany The Private Equity Fund Controller Playbook. The book is on Amazon.
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