Adopting the ILPA Reporting Template v2.0: 5 steps from ledger to delivery

Before you start

ILPA released the Reporting Template v2.0 on January 22, 2025, the first update since 2016. It came out of the Quarterly Reporting Standards Initiative, a year-long project involving hundreds of LPs, GPs and service providers. The SEC's proposed Private Fund Adviser's Rule, which would have required similar fee and expense disclosure, was vacated by the Fifth Circuit in June 2024. ILPA continued the work as an industry-driven standard.

The template applies to two groups: funds still in their investment period during Q1 2026, and funds that commence on or after January 1, 2026. Funds already past their investment period as of Q1 2026 may keep using the 2016 version. Whether the template binds your fund depends on the LPA and any side letters that reference ILPA reporting. Check before you build.

The quarterly LP report guide covers what goes into the full package. This guide covers the five steps between downloading the template and delivering it to LPs.

Step 1: Check obligations in the LPA and side letters

The template is not a regulation. It binds a fund only when a governing document requires it. Three places to look:

Read the LPA's reporting section. Some LPAs name ILPA's templates explicitly. Others require "reporting consistent with ILPA standards" or "customary institutional reporting", which counsel and LPs will read as including the template.

Read every side letter. Institutional LPs negotiate reporting requirements in side letters. A clause that requires "ILPA-format fee and expense reporting" or "the then-current ILPA template" means v2.0 once Q1 2026 arrives. One LP's side letter obligation applies only to that LP, but producing two versions of the template is more work than producing one, so most funds adopt it for all LPs once any LP requires it.

Check the administrator's readiness. If you use an outside fund administrator, confirm that their system can populate v2.0. The template is hard-coded: no fields may be deleted, merged or reordered. Administrators who endorsed the template (the endorser list is on the ILPA templates hub) have committed to producing it.

Step 2: Map your chart of accounts to the template categories

Version 2.0 requires a more granular expense breakdown than the 2016 template. The categories must align with your general ledger.

Management fees. The template shows a gross-to-net reconciliation. That means the gross fee calculated under the LPA, then every offset (monitoring fees, transaction fees, director's fees rebated to the fund) as a separate line, then the net fee charged. If your ledger books only the net fee, you need to add the gross and offset accounts.

Partnership expenses. Version 2.0 splits expenses into two blocks. Internal chargebacks are expenses allocated to or paid to the GP or a related person: shared office space, headcount, technology. External expenses are everything else: audit, legal, tax, custody, fund administration, organisational expenses, placement agent fees, valuation, subscription line interest and fees. Each has its own row. If your ledger carries a single "fund expenses" line, break it out.

Carried interest. The 2016 template had a separate section. Version 2.0 consolidates carry into the capital account statement with accrued, earned and paid columns. The ledger must track all three states.

Write the mapping on paper first: one column for the template row, one for the general ledger account. Every row should resolve to exactly one account or one formula across accounts. Rows that do not apply to the fund stay at zero.

Step 3: Restructure the general ledger

With the mapping done, update the chart of accounts. This is the step that takes the most time and the one where mistakes become expensive at audit.

Add accounts for management fee offsets if they do not exist. Add the internal chargeback accounts. Split external partnership expenses into the template's categories. Add the accrued, earned and paid carry accounts if the ledger does not already distinguish them.

Then reclassify historical entries for the current fiscal year. The template covers quarter to date, year to date and inception to date. The year-to-date and inception-to-date columns need the reclassified history, not just the go-forward entries.

If you use an outside administrator, send them the mapping and agree on the account structure. The administrator's general ledger is the source; your internal records must match. A mismatch between what the administrator books and what the template shows is the single most common reason LPs call after receiving the report.

Step 4: Run a dry run on the prior quarter

Take the last completed quarter's data and populate the template. This is the test.

Check that every row foots. The sum of internal chargebacks and external partnership expenses must equal total expenses in the capital account. The gross management fee less offsets must equal the net fee. The carry accrued, earned and paid must reconcile to the capital account's carry line.

Check that the per-LP columns add up to the fund total. The template shows each LP's share. The sum across all LPs must equal the fund-level figures.

Check the inception-to-date columns against the audited financials. If the fund has been audited, the inception-to-date totals for fees, expenses and carry must reconcile to the auditor's schedules.

Send the dry run to the administrator and to counsel for review. The administrator confirms the numbers match their records. Counsel confirms that the disclosure is consistent with the LPA. Fix every difference before the live delivery.

Step 5: Deliver the live template alongside the quarterly report

The first live delivery is the Q1 2026 quarterly report. For direct funds, ILPA's framework is 60 days after quarter end. For fund-of-funds, 120 days. For fund-of-fund-of-funds, 180 days. Your LPA or side letters may set a tighter deadline.

Deliver the template in Excel through the LP portal. ILPA recommends against PDF. LPs ingest the data into their own portfolio management systems, and a PDF breaks that workflow. The quarterly narrative letter can be a PDF. The template cannot.

Include a short cover note the first time you deliver v2.0. Name what changed: the expense breakdown is more granular, management fees now show gross-to-net, carried interest is consolidated into the capital account. LPs who received the 2016 template will notice the new layout. A sentence explaining it saves a round of queries.

What goes wrong

• Mapping done after the quarter closes. The restructuring takes time. Starting it in the last week of the quarter means the first template is late or the numbers are wrong. Start during the preparation window, not after Q1 2026 ends.
• Gross fee not tracked. The template requires the gross management fee before offsets. A ledger that books only the net fee has no data for the gross-to-net reconciliation. Add the gross and offset accounts before the first live quarter.
• Internal chargebacks lumped with external expenses. The template separates them. If the ledger does not, the LP sees a zero in the internal chargeback section and a suspiciously large external expense total. LPs will ask.
• Excel modified. The template is hard-coded. Deleting a column, merging cells or reordering rows means the LP's system cannot parse it. Populate only what applies and leave the rest at zero.
• Inception-to-date columns missing. A fund that adopted v2.0 mid-life needs the reclassified history. Leaving inception-to-date blank or showing it only from the adoption date defeats the purpose of the column.
• Template sent as PDF. LPs need machine-readable data. A PDF of the template is not a substitute. Deliver in Excel; if the portal does not support Excel, fix the portal.