Speed, accuracy and insight: Building a tech-forward path to Day One Financials

The technology investment imperative

When Alpha assesses fund administrators on behalf of clients, we examine not just the current technology capabilities of a fund administrator, but the trajectory of innovation investment – it’s important that a fund administrator’s technology strategy aligns with our clients’ specific needs.

In evaluating Carta’s approach against our framework, we see strong alignment with what our clients demand.

Carta’s proprietary platform approach offers advantages for firms seeking end-to-end integration and real-time reporting capabilities. Carta’s commitment stands out here: over $100 million invested in developing proprietary fund administration technology specifically for CFOs at private investment funds, rather than licensing legacy systems. This level of investment signals a fundamentally different approach to the market, and reflects a broader recognition across the industry that effective fund administration increasingly requires a purpose-built platform paired with experienced teams.

“The Carta Fund Administration team is setting a new industry standard by combining an intuitive, modern platform with the deep expertise of our dedicated professionals. Automation across the platform drives accuracy and efficiency while enabling delivery tailored to each client’s needs. The results speak for themselves, with a 4.8 CSAT score this year and record-high Net Promoter Scores.” – Jason St. Laurent, Head of Delivery.

For a firm like Carta that administers assets across more than 8,800 fund entities and SPVs, the platform allows for greater efficiency and accuracy in reporting due to several mechanisms that our clients value:

• Embedded auditability across business processes, including investments, valuations, capital calls, and financial reporting. Carta’s system maintains a complete audit trail, linking each transaction back to its originating journal entry, event, and supporting documentation.
• A real-time bank feed integration that pulls in transactions and enables daily cash reconciliation rather than monthly catch-ups, eliminating the need for follow-up inquiries that consume valuable client time.
• Automated money movement that allows for more consistent and reliable processing, offering complete visibility into the status of payments directly from Carta.
• Instant capital call reconciliation, with the platform tracking progress and flagging exceptions for immediate attention.
• Digitized waterfall calculations performed according to LPA provisions, with all allocation rules digitized and validated through multiple review levels. Complex scenarios that would require days of Excel modeling are computed automatically.

From back office to firm-wide strategy

Alpha’s evaluation framework emphasizes that true data access means more than periodic reports. It requires what we call “living data” that updates continuously and remains accessible to relevant stakeholders when they need it.

Through Alpha’s lens, this level of transparency requires appropriate infrastructure investment and governance controls. Carta’s maintenance of their SOC 2 certification, 99.9% service availability targets, and documented incident response procedures indicate institutional-grade operations.

What’s more, Carta’s Fund Administration platform is multi-tenant, allowing fund managers to easily share specific segments of their data with additional service providers. This offers a single source of truth for auditors, lawyers, and compliance partners.

“Clients today want access to their data, and that’s changing the way we evaluate fund administrators. Stronger oversight starts with transparency. Some of our clients want every granular detail at their fingertips, while others prefer a high-level dashboard view. The right platform offers both: customizable access based on preference and governance needs. What’s equally important is control. Some clients are comfortable with their fund administrator holding their accounting data, while others feel they don’t truly ‘own’ their data without direct access to it. The best platforms recognize this distinction and offer oversight models that preserve clients’ sense of ownership while maintaining operational efficiency.” – Amanda Halfeld, Director at Alpha Alternatives.

The human-capital equation

While technology enables transformation, Alpha’s research consistently shows that experienced teams remain essential for complex fund administration. Carta’s over 400- person fund administration team, including over 150 fund accountants averaging over 10 years of experience, represents the kind of bench strength we look for when evaluating providers. More importantly, their model of dedicated teams for strategic clients, typically including a controller, assistant controller, and support staff based on complexity, aligns with best practices we’ve observed across successful implementations.

The retention question, always sensitive in our due diligence processes, becomes less critical when technology properly supports the team. By digitizing fund properties and memorializing institutional knowledge by maintaining a single source of truth in the platform, Carta reduces key person risk while enabling their teams to focus on value-added activities rather than manual data entry.

The path forward: Making Day One a reality

The industry’s traditional lack of transparency and its outdated, manual systems manifest in many ways – one of which is quarterly reporting that lags weeks or even months after the end of the quarter. The concept of Day One reporting that Carta has achieved for select clients represents where we believe the industry must go. By working with GPs throughout the quarter to maintain current cash positions, expenses, and investment schedules, the quarter-end process becomes simply incorporating final valuations. This continuous close approach transforms fund administration from a retrospective exercise into a real-time business intelligence function.

For CFOs evaluating fund administration strategies, whether considering initial outsourcing or transitioning from co-sourcing models, the critical task is identifying which platform architecture and service model aligns with their specific operational needs and growth trajectory. Through Alpha’s evaluation framework, we assess providers across multiple dimensions: technology investment philosophy, team depth and stability, proven scale, and strategic vision.

Carta’s Day One reporting capability represents one approach to addressing the industry’s demand for faster, more accurate financial intelligence. Different firms will find their optimal solution in different models. Some will benefit from proprietary platforms like Carta’s, others from established third-party systems, and still others from hybrid approaches that combine multiple best-of-breed solutions. The key is matching the administrator’s strengths to the firm’s specific requirements, complexity, and strategic priorities.

What remains universal is that real-time data access and integrated reporting are becoming table stakes. The question isn’t whether to prioritize these capabilities, but rather which provider and approach will best deliver them for your unique situation.

Why partner with Alpha Alternatives

Selecting a fund administrator is no longer just about price or efficiency. It’s about transparency, oversight, and building a scalable technology foundation. Alpha Alternatives brings deep experience in evaluating administrators, conducting operational due diligence, and aligning each client with a platform that supports their data strategy and long-term growth.

To learn if Carta’s technology is the right approach for your team, and how it compares to other leading administrators, contact our team for an independent, data-driven perspective on fund administrator selection, technology evaluation, and implementation oversight.