A Practitioner's Guide to Measuring, Benchmarking and Reporting Private Fund Returns
Julian R. Sterling
The five Excel workbooks that go with the book, corrected where the book was wrong: the complete measurement of
Chapter 19, the PME calculator, the practice cases, the measurement checklist and the cohort of twenty-four. Around them:
three of the models with the inputs emptied, thirteen working documents to print, forty questions that mark themselves,
and three cases the book names and never takes to a number. Every number is a live formula. Nothing is locked,
protected or watermarked.
Free to download. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to fill in.
Twelve workbooks, the printable documents and the read-me. Each group below can also be
downloaded on its own. Last revised 23 September 2026.
The five workbooks
These carry the book’s own figures, so that every number it prints can be traced to a live
formula. Each workbook with figures closes on a checks sheet, and every check passes.
Meridian Capital Partners IV — the complete measurement
Eight sheets, from the cash flow series to the reporting line: the multiples, both
internal rates of return, the subscription facility test, all four public market
equivalent methods, the gross-to-net bridge, the disclosure sentence assembled from the
cells above it, and a final sheet that puts every published figure next to what the file
computes. Long-Nickels comes out negative here, exactly as the chapter says it will
— which is the clearest demonstration available of why PME+ exists.
Revised: the subscription facility now follows the mechanism the book describes, the fund
paying the interest out of its distributions. That gives the printed TVPI of 1.788× exactly,
and a rate of 12.76%, 169 basis points above the actual rather than the 130 printed.
Sheet 8 now compares thirty-eight published figures, and all of them match.
The same model with the numbers taken out, for a fund of your own. Enter a cash flow
series and a total return index and it returns DPI, RVPI, TVPI, the realized share, the
since-inception rate, the rate excluding the residual value, Kaplan-Schoar, Long-Nickels,
PME+, Direct Alpha and the test against a policy hurdle. Annual, quarterly or monthly
rows — set the periods per year and the rate annualizes by compounding. It arrives
pre-filled with the Chapter 19 fund so every formula can be seen working before it is
trusted. A checks sheet tests five identities that hold for any fund you enter.
All three cases, each with a blue column for your answer beside the live solution.
Case 1 publishes its full cash flow series and is recomputed from first principles.
Case 2 states its pattern, Case 1 scaled, and is now computed from it: the three funds
earn 11.63%, 10.17% and 19.85%, and pool to 11.88% against a simple average of
13.88% (the book printed 11.52, 10.12, 19.51, 11.78 and 13.72, which do not follow from the
pattern it states). Case 3 publishes summaries without timing, so everything derivable is
derived and the rest is put through a coherence test. That test is worth a minute: inverting each manager's Direct Alpha in
Case 3 recovers the index rate they were measured against, 6.88% and 7.04%, within a
basis point of Chapter 19's 7.05%.
All 51 items across eleven sections — the cash flow series, residual value, the
rate, the multiples, distortions, the comparison, peer data, portfolio level, cost, risk
and reporting — with a status dropdown, a notes column and a progress sheet that
counts what is still open by section.
Chapter 19 says every number is shown and every number reproducible. Seven of its
eight steps deliver numbers; step 7, the peer comparison, delivers none, and
Chapter 11 prints the template with N, X and Y still in it. This workbook fills them
in and sizes what Chapter 12 says cannot be sized. Nine sheets: the cohort fund by
fund; the standard error of a quartile boundary at any cohort size, which is how the
“about twenty” threshold turns out to be sixty-three; the three conventions
for drawing a boundary, which agree on every fund if and only if the cohort size is a
multiple of four; the three biases sized in closed form at 380 basis points for buyout
and 563 for venture; and the probability — 0.82 is the threshold — that a
median fund can call itself top quartile somewhere. Seventy-four controls, all live:
change an input and the controls that depend on it fail, which is how you find out what
your change moved.
Three of the workbooks with every input emptied. The checks sheets count what is still missing and test what holds for any inputs.
Chapters 3, 5, 9 and 19 · Appendix F
Your fund, your index, your peer cohort
The complete measurement, the PME calculator and the cohort of twenty-four, with the same formulas and every input emptied: cash flows, residual value, index returns, premium, fee terms and facility assumptions; on the cohort, the funds of your provider’s cell and your own fund. Every sheet stays blank until its inputs are complete. The measurement checklist already arrives empty.
The book’s inputs are listed in a text file inside the archive. Type them back in and the book’s figures come back: 11.07%, a Kaplan-Schoar of 1.239, Direct Alpha of 3.80%, a median of 10.40 and a boundary of 14.02.
Blank_Model_Set.zip · three XLSX files and the book’s inputs
The documents the chapters describe
Thirteen pages to print and use. A4, with margins wide enough for US Letter.
Chapters 2 to 18 · Appendices B, D and F
Thirteen working documents
The cash flow series, built once, with its seven contribution traps, four distribution traps and the quarterly reconciliation test. Reading someone else’s number: the six questions and the seven conventions. The multiples and the mark, with the exit-to-mark test. The subscription facility test. The public market equivalent worksheet. The peer comparison with N, X, Y, the precision of the boundary and the eight questions for a provider.
The portfolio page, the pacing page with its stress case, the gross-to-net bridge with all three layers, attribution, the risk page, the one-page board report with its four sentences, and the questions worth asking a manager.
A workbook that marks itself. Answer in the yellow cells; the marking fills in as you go.
All parts of the book
Forty questions on the book
Seven on rates and multiples, six on distortions and conventions, seven on public market equivalents, seven on peers, portfolios and Appendix F, six on cost, risk and reporting, and seven on the three cases below. Numbers are marked to a tolerance, multiple choice to the letter, and the score sheet counts your errors part by part. Where a question says revised, the answer is the corrected figure.
New material, not a restatement. Three situations the chapters name and never take to a number. Each case is one workbook: the note is the first sheet, the model is the rest, and a checks sheet closes it. Type your own figures in and every finding recomputes.
Chapter 15 · Case one
The layer the bridge leaves blank
The book’s gross 14.29% adds back fees and expenses only. With carried interest of 20% over an 8% preferred return and a full catch-up (ADDED), the fund pays 56.25 of carry, all at year 9, and the whole gap is 483 basis points: 319 of fees and expenses, 164 of carry. The manager takes 31.7% of the value created. The gap does widen on better funds, as chapter 15 says; the manager’s share does not.
Chapters 4, 8 and 14 · Case two
The return on the allocation
The same fund measured as the allocation that holds it, month by month. From the commitment with nothing earned meanwhile, chapter 8’s second convention, it returns 7.12%, 395 basis points below the fund. With the whole undrawn commitment in cash at 2% (ADDED), 7.58%. The book’s range of 100 to 300 basis points corresponds to holding between 8% and 67% of the undrawn commitment in cash: the gap is a liquidity policy.
Chapters 14 and 17 · Case three
Ten per cent, and a limit at twelve
The denominator effect on one board date. From a 10% allocation, a public fall of 18.5% breaches a 12% limit on the day. After a 25% fall, with calls continuing and distributions halved, the board sees 13.35%; the private marks catching up two quarters later do not bring it back, and the calls take it to 14.84% in two years. Exposure was already 16% before anything fell.
the last sheet of every workbook with figures: each control states its own verdict, and the file ends ALL OK
Amber fill
an input in the three cases and the blank set’s new sheets
ADDED
a figure the book does not give, used in the cases and marked wherever it appears
What the files correct in the book
Five published figures do not follow from the book’s own inputs. The workbooks show the first
edition’s figure beside the corrected one, and a check ties each to its cell.
Chapters 3, 5, 7, 19
A one-year facility deferral, interest paid out of distributions: 12.76% and 169 bp, not 12.37% and 130 bp. The multiple falls by 0.045, as printed.
Chapter 13, Appendix C
On the stated pattern the three funds pool to 11.88%; the simple average (13.88%) overstates by 200 bp, not 194.
Chapter 8
Multiplying a quarterly rate by four understates 11.07% by 43 bp, not “roughly one hundred”.
Chapter 2
Leaving fee calls of 14% of commitments out of paid-in overstates the fund by 330 bp and 0.34×, not “part of a percentage point” and 0.15.
Chapter 15
The 322 bp are fees and expenses only; distributions are already net of carried interest. Case one prices the missing layer.
The gross rate of 14.29% remains approximate, as the book says: an even spread of the expenses gives
14.25%, within five basis points.
Reader list
Optional. One email when a companion file is corrected or a new worked case goes up, and a short note when a new book comes out. Nothing on this page needs it.
The workbooks open in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets and Numbers; the PDF
prints on A4 or US Letter. They use no macros and no add-ins, so nothing needs to be enabled or trusted. If your spreadsheet asks
to update links on opening, decline — there are none.
What changed, and when
23 Sep 2026
The five workbooks corrected and given checks sheets. The subscription facility follows the book’s own mechanism: 12.76% and 169 bp, not 12.37% and 130. Case 2 computed from the pattern it states: pooled 11.88%, simple average 13.88%, an overstatement of 200 bp, not 11.78, 13.72 and 194. Chapter 8’s annualization error is 43 bp at 11.07%, and chapter 2’s fee exclusion 330 bp and 0.34×. Added: a blank set, thirteen working documents, forty questions that mark themselves, and three cases.
Closing the DealTwo defensible bridges 20.70 million apart, a peg worth 7.00 million, and the six choices that remove 6.60 of a 12.00 earn-out.
CMBS and CRE CLOsWhere the loss actually lands, from appraisal reduction to realised severity, and what the B-piece is really being paid for.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Credit AgreementWhere the default actually comes from, the cure that costs 5.5 times the other, and the capacity nobody adds up.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Private Equity Real EstateBoth worked waterfalls to the dollar, the two capital stacks, and the arithmetic of the promote made changeable.
Raising a Real Estate FundThe chapter 17 funnel run on a calendar — when the first close actually lands, and why more travel does not help.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Real Estate Financial ModelingProperty, development and fund models built line by line, and the modelling test worked end to end.
Real Estate Fund ManagementThe waterfall of 6.11, the build-to-core of 8.7 and the proceeds gap, reproduced as live formulas rather than asserted.
REIT Analysis and ValuationFFO of 532.0, AFFO of 381.0, net asset value and dividend safety — every figure a formula you can change.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
The Growth Equity InvestorWhat a pro rata cheque really costs, and the band where defending your ownership loses money.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Private Equity Fund Controller PlaybookThe book defines IRR, DPI, RVPI and TVPI, tells you to update them at the exit, and prints not one value. Computed: a 1.833× deal inside a fund at 0.892 TVPI.
The Venture Capital AssociateWhat defending a position costs, and how many companies a reserve pool actually defends.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Credit AnalysisFour defensible EBITDAs on one borrower give leverage from 3.19x to 6.47x — and the add-back argument is fifty times the covenant headroom.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Treasury ManagementFive cash balances for one company, all correct and 145,600,000 apart — and the revolver that is two-thirds of the liquidity leaves at a revenue fall of 8.4127 per cent.
Financial Planning and AnalysisRevenue 3.0190 per cent above budget and operating profit 16.3209 per cent below it, in the same quarter, with every figure correctly stated.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
Construction Cost ControlA contract sum of 26,301,102 became a final account of 29,153,363 on the building that was drawn — and 85.8 per cent of what was lost was knowable on the day it was signed.
Trade FinanceSix routes to payment on one 4,200,000 export order cost between 178,040 and 223,268, a spread worth 14.8 per cent of the margin, and a day of buyer credit costs 1,031.76.
Cost AccountingOne factory costed twice on the same 13,440,000 of overhead, and 4,053,091 moves between four product families.
Pricing StrategyA list price of 148.00, a pocket price of 112.51, and the nine deductions in between — with what one point of price is actually worth.
Contract ManagementA bid 5.50 a unit cheaper, signed on paper worth 9.81 a unit more — and 94.68 per cent of it was knowable on the day of signature.
Capital MarketsFour defensible readings of one bond, the cost of an issue under each convention, and the placement discount computed at a constant discount.
Financial RegulationThree ratios pass and the fourth is in breach by 1,956.0 million: the output floor, the liquidity buffer after encumbrance, and the loan split.
Bank ManagementFour defensible readings of one balance sheet, the deposit beta measured two ways, and the liquidity that lasts 3.9 days.
The Real Estate WorkoutFour ways out of one broken loan, discounted to today, and the 58.7 cents at which a payoff beats enforcement.
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Also available as a standalone free template: PME calculator.