New capabilities include expanded tax reporting features, intelligent master/feeder linkages and tranche or deal-based private equity allocation options.

With Penny's already robust G/L, partnership and shareholder accounting features, the enhancements add increased depth and systematic checks-and-balances to improve back-office accounting and reporting accuracy. Over 500 funds, ranging from hedge funds to fund administrators to private equity partnerships to family office wealth managers are already on Penny - It Works.

Sophisticated Tax Reporting

As tax season approaches, Penny adds a wealth of new features to make the preparation of fund taxes simplified and automated. Penny's flexible and open architecture lets firms export figures and manage them via access to popular tax packages.

Penny's tax reporting, which previously generated K-1s and user-defined supplemental schedules, now lets firms manage complex tasks such as preparing for tax account reconciliation or detailing the components of a particular tax line. The software also simplifies the arduous task of making tax disclosures by letting the user create a standard set of disclosures, and then choose which ones to present to the investor; these choices can be conditional on the investor's actual tax results. Finally, the K-1 and all the related schedules can be collated by investor and output to a PDF, optionally including a system-generated index.

Boosted Master/Feeder Structure

Penny allows firms to automate the entire operational process for a master/feeder structure, greatly reducing problems associated with the principles of this approach. Traditionally, results of the master entity must first be determined and closed, and then flowed down to the feeder. Any revisions made to the master will result in the feeder being reopened and their proportionate share of those changes reflected in the feeder's results. This workflow can wreak havoc in a back-office, so Penny lets firms automate the feeder's share of the master's results directly to the feeder. Changing the master's results forces the feeder to reopen and their proportionate share of the changes are applied.

Private Equity Investor Grouping

With investors applying stringent due diligence before investing, private equity firms need thorough tracking and reporting capabilities that are available at a moment's notice. However, these firms are very diverse and pursue multiple investment strategies at once, making it increasingly difficult to manage and provide accurate investor data in a timely manner. Penny includes the ability to handle funds with multiple fee structures and side pockets, as well as investor groups, which allow for investor capital to be easily broken down by tranche or deal.

With Penny's extensive set of standard allocation methods, income can now be assigned to a particular group (capital tranche) or to the fund. In many agreements, there is a portion of capital set aside to pay for fees and other expenses. Using Penny, fees can be calculated for the entire fund but only charged to a particular group. This solves the back-office issue of accounting for a liquid class. Penny also allows private equity funds to track calls and distributions by deal; special situation funds can track capital by investment; reporting can be done at the minute contribution/tranche level or rolled up to a fund or even fund group level.

"Our enhancements to Penny are based on solving real problems today and helping firms plan for the future by letting them simplify and automate accounting activities in any economic market," said Ron Kashden, president of TKS Solutions. "Funds using Penny have a competitive advantage because we have created features that mirror their daily accounting needs, so it intuitively works as they do, offering greater efficiencies and proactive reporting for investors."