A private equity firm should write one definition for each key performance indicator in ILPA's draft Portfolio Company Template, and have every portfolio company report those figures from its own accounts, before it builds AI reporting across the portfolio.
ILPA, the Institutional Limited Partners Association, is a membership body for limited partners that offers membership, education and events. Its LP Sentiment Survey release on paths to liquidity drew on responses gathered in the fourth quarter of 2025 from 99 heads of private equity at its member organizations. Of the 98 who answered a question on the information they most seek, 77% of LPs called out Portfolio Company Data as an area needing further transparency, which ILPA ties to their wish to understand the difficulties GPs face in the current exit environment before any continuation vehicle process kicks off. These are investors in funds, so the figure describes what LPs want from the firms they back.
On July 22, 2026 ILPA posted a draft updated Portfolio Company Template for public comment until October 2, with the final version due in January 2027. Its key performance indicators include EBITDA, revenue, net debt and enterprise value, each defined in the workbook; revenue, for instance, is sales net of discounts and returns. ILPA is still testing whether to keep others, among them capital expenditure and cash. Two lines of guidance bear on a portfolio. GPs should refrain from adjusting values at entry, for example on a pro forma basis for acquisitions or divestitures after the investment date, or for combination benefits expected after closing, though a post-closing purchase price revision is allowed with a footnote, while current values may be computed on an adjusted or proforma basis, when applicable. The draft also tests GICS, the Global Industry Classification Standard, as the preferred sector hierarchy in place of the 2019 template's NAICS, and accepts another framework if its name is entered.
The firm's standard should settle what those lines leave to the firm: whether current EBITDA is adjusted at each company, which adjustments count, and how each company's chart of accounts maps to each figure. Every figure should reach the AI reporting with its definition and that adjustment choice attached, so a summary comparing two companies compares like with like. The operating partner owns the standard and the firm's CFO writes it, while each portfolio company's controller maps the ledger and delivers the figures in finance time the company already pays for.
Ninety days covers the first pass. In month one the firm's CFO writes the definitions from the draft, and a firm reading this in September can still send ILPA feedback on a definition before October 2. In month two each controller maps the general ledger and delivers the twelve months to the last closed quarter straight from it. In month three the firm's finance team checks each delivered figure against that company's board pack; a difference goes back to the definition or the mapping, and the AI reporting is built on the checked set after that.
The standard stops at the template's figures. A measure only one company tracks, such as a software company's recurring revenue, stays in that company's own reporting, and the definitions are revisited when ILPA releases the final template. ILPA's draft guidance sets implementation by the first quarter of 2028, for every fund still in its investment period, or newer, at that date.
