New York-based alternative investment manager Tiedemann Investment Group has launched TKS Solutions as an independent software firm delivering a comprehensive back-office accounting soluti
New York-based alternative investment manager Tiedemann Investment Group has launched TKS Solutions as an independent software firm delivering a comprehensive back-office accounting solution for investment advisors through its flagship product Penny, which integrates partnership, shareholder and tax accounting.
The challenge facing hedge funds in finding back-office solutions that effectively address their unique operations led Tiedemann to establish TKS Solutions and create Penny, which delivers general ledger, allocations, and accounts payable for management companies. Penny, which is now commercially available to all hedge funds, has been used by Tiedemann since January 2006.
‘Many systems claim to support our industry, but we could not find any package that actually worked,’ says Tiedemann chief operating officer Barbara Warga. ‘We are investment advisors first and foremost. We did not want to build another proprietary solution, but the lack of viable options drove us to establish TKS Solutions.
‘Penny software feeds from our portfolio accounting packages and calculates all investor returns and fees. It has been a great check against the administrator. Additionally, responding to our investor requests has never been easier.’
Penny offers four comprehensive modules to streamline partnership, shareholder and tax accounting. Penny Shareholder tracks stock par values and additional paid-in capital and handles the complexities of rounded NAVs and corporate income allocation, so all reports, from the shareholder register to the trial balance, are consistent.
Penny Partnerships simplifies partnership accounting by tracking investments by contribution, automatically allocating investment results by partner, monitoring subscriptions for anti-money laundering requirements, and calculating estimated returns and performance fees.
Penny Management handles everything from paying bills and recording organisational expenses to charging costs across companies and reporting to the principals, while Penny Tax simplifies and manages complex tax jobs including calculating layered realised gains, applying tax-specific investor allocations, and creating investor supporting schedules.
‘Through our work with more than 450 investment firms, we regularly see clients struggle with the complexity of effectively managing and unifying their accounting systems,’ says Mark Coriaty, director of strategic alliances at Eze Castle Integration. ‘TKS Solutions’ Penny software is a unique and proven solution for shareholder, partnership and tax accounting for funds. We expect Penny will ease the accounting complexities for numerous funds.’
Penny complements existing accounting systems and takes feeds from many vendors including Advent Geneva and MSPA. It also boasts an open architecture that enables automation with home-grown systems.
Says Ron Kashden, president of TKS Solutions: ‘We’ve gotten a very enthusiastic response from our demonstrations of Penny. People are excited that they can finally get rid of their spreadsheets. It just reinforces the need for field-tested back-office solutions that are easy to use and easy to install.’
