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Data Reconciliation

Black Diamond Performance Reporting™ takes the frustration and time-consuming duties out of the performance reporting process.  We retrieve and reconcile your investment accounting data on a daily basis.  Electronically, we acquire data from multiple accounting systems and platforms to allow you and your clients a comprehensive view of portfolio performance.  No manual data entry is necessary.  After receiving your data, we reconcile the data to ensure you receive accurate investment performance calculations.  No in-house reconciliation is necessary.

The following steps describe the data acquisition and reconciliation process in more detail.

1. Acquire Data
   We will acquire data electronically from your accounting system or platform.  This data will typically be transmitted via secure file transfer protocol.  If you are using multiple clearing firms, we will acquire the data from your accounting software or individually from each accounting system.
   
   
2. Verify Data Fields
   Your data files may have data fields that contain missing or “dirty” data.  This “dirty” data can lead to transactions and positions that are unable to be reconciled.  We will verify that the proper data exists according to data feed specification.  For example, if the number of units for an asset position contains an alphabetic character (A-Z), we will flag the “dirty” data and attempt to fix the issue.
   
   
3. Identify New Data Elements
   Your accounts and asset positions are the basis for all of Black Diamond’s performance calculations.   We will automatically identify all new asset positions and accounts, alleviating the need for you to manually keep track of the assets acquired or the accounts opened.  We can identify and associate assets by CUSIP, ISIN, or ticker.
   
   
4. Reconcile Transactions
   All reconciliation occurs at the asset position level.  Segments, classes, accounts and portfolios are all aggregates of daily asset performance data.  Reconciliation assures that the ending market value for the previous day and the transactions of the current day yield the ending market value for the current day.  Any transactions that do not reconcile properly will be marked for manual review and adjusted as necessary.  Examples of data that may not reconcile automatically include a missed stock split, an untimely dividend payout or a missing price that yields an inaccurate zero ending market value.  On certain occasions, client involvement is necessary to properly fix the reconciliation issue.
   
   
5. Calculate Performance
   We will calculate performance based on the reconciled data using the beginning market value, the ending market value and investment gain/loss for that day.  The segment, broad asset class and account performance will then be calculated using an aggregation of the asset position data according to your customized classification scheme.  These daily returns are then geometrically linked in the application and reports.  This daily linking creates performance returns over time without the need for time-weighted or dollar-weighted cash flow estimations.
   
   
6. Audit Returns
   All returns will be audited at the asset, segment, asset class and account level to ensure that the returns fall within acceptable ranges for each level.  If the automated calculation yields a return outside the acceptable range, Black Diamond will research the issue to ensure accurate performance of the asset.  For example, if a daily money market return exceeds 0.05%, it is most likely a result of missing accruals and a resulting large interest payment.  In this situation, we will revise the asset transactions and include the accruals for the appropriate days, yielding the true performance of the money market.
   
   

Data reconciliation is a vital aspect of generating meaningful performance reporting.  At Black Diamond, we make it our focus to ensure that it is done correctly and consistently.  For more information or to setup an in-depth presentation of our reconciliation process, contact us via e-mail or by calling us at (904) 241-2444.