Case study · Fund finance
The quarterly roll forward, reviewed in hours.
At a private equity firm in New York, the fund finance team now reviews and explains what moved in its quarterly performance file in hours, not days. The team’s own analyst built the roll and the tie-out on Claude during our AI adoption retainer, from a written account of how the file was really produced. The first run was checked against the file the team had made by hand, and it matched.
By Fatjon (Tony) Kalemaj, COO & Head of Applied AI · Published
The problem
Why was the quarterly performance file rebuilt by hand?
Every quarter the performance file was rebuilt by hand: the same schedules, the new quarter’s figures, and a tie-out to the prior quarter that had to be right before anything left the building.
In the team’s own account, the figures were cut and spliced by hand out of two separate reports, then every line was checked against the quarter before. The judgment in the file, explaining what had moved and why, could only start once that assembly was finished.
The build
Who built the roll forward?
The analyst who owns the file built it. The work started in a workshop, where the team brought the file itself rather than a sample, and carried on under the AI adoption retainer, whose workflow design is for the processes where AI earns its place, and only those.
Our part was the means to write the process down and then to build it, and time with the team while they did.
Write down the process
Claude interviewed the analyst about how the file is really produced, which is rarely how it is written down, and the answers became a written specification.Give it the skills
We supplied a package of Claude skills for the spreadsheet work, and coached the analyst through using them.Build the roll and tie-out
The analyst built the roll and the tie-out to the prior quarter in Claude, against that specification.The team reviews
The team checks what moved and explains it. The file is theirs to run and change.
The results
How was the result checked?
Before the team relied on it, the roll was run on a quarter they had already closed by hand, and its output was compared with the file they had made. The two matched.
The figure we can state is the team’s own: they review and explain what moved in hours, not days. The client measured the time saved per file more precisely than that, and we will print the number once they agree to it.
| Rebuilt by hand | With the roll forward | |
|---|---|---|
| How the figures arrive | Cut and spliced by hand from two reports | Carried forward by the roll the analyst built |
| The tie-out to the prior quarter | Checked line by line by hand | Built into the roll, then reviewed |
| Where the team’s time goes | Preparing the file | Reviewing and explaining what moved |
| Reviewing what moved | Days | Hours |
What changed
What does the fund finance team do differently now?
Their part of the quarter has moved from preparing the file to reviewing it. The roll carries the schedules forward and ties them out; the team spends its time on the lines that moved and on explaining them.
A model does not mark positions. A valuation is a signed judgment, and it stays with the person who signs it. What changed is the assembly in front of that judgment.
Because the analyst built it, nothing about the quarter depends on us.
Questions on the quarterly roll forward
Did a model mark any positions?
No. A valuation is a signed judgment and it stays with the person who signs it. The roll forward assembles the schedules and ties them to the prior quarter; the team reviews the result and explains what moved.
Did this need a forward deployed engineer?
No. The fund finance team’s own analyst built it during the AI adoption retainer, with a written specification, a package of Claude skills and our coaching. A forward deployed engineer is embedded when a firm wants an engineer at the desk for one process with real volume.
How was the roll forward checked before the team relied on it?
It was run on a quarter the team had already closed by hand, and its output was compared with the file they had made. The two matched.
Sources
- By The People Technologies, the fund finance engagement under the AI adoption retainer: the team’s first-quarter check and its own account of the review (2026).
Rebuild a file every quarter?
Tell us which one and who owns it. We will tell you whether it is a process your own people can build, and how we would help them.