Asset managers’ need for a robust and reliable portfolio accounting system has increased substantially over the years to help meet investor and regulator demands for more comprehensive reporting. As the backbone of the middle and back office, these systems must be able to perform key functions such as record trades from the OMS, load prices daily and monthly, and feed the reconciliation system or data warehouse with final accounting data.

Although there are a number of portfolio accounting systems available in the market that meet these requirements, it is imperative that managers choose one that can handle complex asset types and integrate seamlessly with existing systems – leading many to turn to ADVENT Geneva. With this, we have curated a guide that managers can follow prior to proceeding with Geneva’s implementation to help ensure a seamless and successful setup.

  • Historical Data – Identify reasons that require you to keep the entire history of your trades and positions in Geneva. Most firms set up Geneva with an “as of” date (i.e. a cut-off date), which requires all open positions and tax lots to be loaded into the system from a set point in time. If you trade loans, be vigilant about how you set up the initial loan positions as it often requires you to load the entire history of a loan trade (credit activities) to achieve the same positions and other balance sheet numbers.
  • Cash Balance – As part of the initial positions setup, you will also need to input your cash balances in the Geneva system. Take extra precaution when establishing your trade and settle date cash balances as these will play an important role when you start performing cash reconciliations and settle trades later.
  • Granularity – Geneva comes equipped with an extensive chart of accounts where the majority of firms’ accounting and reporting needs are fulfilled, however, it’s not uncommon to extend these to service specific requirements. Be sure to perform a careful evaluation of accounts, their mapping with the summary account and how they are reported on various statements.
  • Integration – Geneva can be integrated with upstream or downstream third-party systems. Because of this, you should analyze and identify the integration points that are required for your setup. While performing system mappings, try to use common components as much as possible as this will allow for consistency of data across the platform.
  • Closing Tax Lots – Geneva supports multiple lot closing methods (i.e., LIFO, FIFO, HighCostBook, etc.). These methods can be set up on the portfolio and can be overridden on the closing transaction.
  • Extended Reporting – Oftentimes, it’s better to generate reports directly out of Geneva, however, the drawback to this is the need to maintain more data in the form of UDFs (user defined fields). Prior to implementation, you should evaluate your precise reporting needs.
  • Downstream Reporting – For downstream systems, such as the reconciliation or data warehouse system, you may need to build custom reports (RSLs) to generate extracts from Geneva. With this, try to rely on common components since, ideally, you should not have more than 4-5 custom RSLs for reporting. Remember, you always have the option to run these reports with given parameters to generate different outputs.
  • Strategy – Geneva lets you query and report on your portfolio holdings using the strategy view to reflect the internal structure of your firm’s operations. You can set up strategies and book trades to them as well as run reports to display data about your portfolio holdings by strategy.

Due to the fact that a seamless and successful Geneva implementation is crucial for a firm’s ongoing operations, it is recommended that you partner with a trusted advisor to help further guide you along your journey.

IVP Geneva Consulting services, include Geneva implementation, upgrades, and project management. The team is comprised of Geneva subject matter experts such as accountants, operations analysts, business analysts, RSL consultants and project managers. Leveraging IVP’s proprietary and proven model that utilizes in-house developed tools and processes, Geneva clients can expect certainty throughout the implementation process and beyond.

Learn more about the IVP Geneva Consulting right now or contact us at sales@ivp.in