The invoice agreed to the management agreement. One investor paid less and the others paid more.
Fund operations, service providers, valuation governance, data and controls at a growing private markets firm.
Julian R. Sterling
These are the companion files of The Private Markets COO by Julian R. Sterling.The book on Amazon →
The four workbooks that accompany the book, rechecked from scratch, corrected where they were wrong and given more controls. Around them: the same 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. No sign-up, no email address, nothing locked. Northbridge Private Capital is the fictional firm the book follows; blue cells are inputs, everything else is a formula.
The four workbooks
The book’s own files. Every figure in workbooks 2 to 4 was recomputed outside them in September 2026; the call, the fee and the capacity figures held, the scorecard average did not.
Workbook 1 · Appendices A to E
Operating System
Editable templates for the whole platform: entity map, RACI matrix, control library, operating calendar, close, cash, valuation, obligations, vendors, incidents, capacity and the COO dashboard. Thirteen tabs, 358 formulas. Revised: the sample row of the calendar, close, cash and capacity tabs now carries the formulas of the rows below it.
The Fund II call of 6.8 million allocated component by component, with an excuse right and the rounding shown; the ten business days’ notice counted against the funding date; the borrowing base with and without the investor whose transfer was pending, 7,077,000 available against 5,842,000; and the 24.6 million distribution with and without the 600,000 designated recallable. Rechecked: every figure holds; 25 checks, all OK, both facility figures among them.
A quarter’s management fee across a step-down that falls mid-quarter, with a side-letter rate and a transaction-fee offset, and one investor’s waiver applied at the fund level as well as on its own record. The invoice is 462,834.23 both ways. Only the check against the unmodified base finds the difference. Rechecked: the waiver investor underpays 1,636.38, its share of gross fee times its own waiver; 18 checks, all OK.
The fourteen scorecard fields on the book’s 1 to 5 scale, with the three critical fields (NAV adjustments, cash-processing errors, open incidents) kept out of the average, and the capacity model under its five scenarios: a team at 69 per cent of practical capacity across the year is 18 per cent over it in April. Revised: the average used to take all fourteen fields, whatever the book said; it now takes the eleven others (June, 4.55, still escalates). New column: the year on the peak basis, 73.3 per cent. 21 checks, all OK.
Eleven workbooks (the four of the book, their blank twins, the three cases and the question book), the printable
documents, the read-me and the start-here file. Workbooks 2 to 4 end on a Checks sheet: 64 checks, all OK.
No macros, no external links. Each group below can also be downloaded on its own. Last revised 24 September 2026.
Get an email if these files are corrected
Optional. When a workbook on this page is corrected or a new worked case goes up, readers on the list get one email, plus a short note when a new book comes out. The downloads do not need it.
Workbooks 2 to 4 with every blue input emptied, and workbook 1 with its sample rows cleared. The Checks sheets count what is still missing and test what holds for any inputs.
Chapters 5 and 9 · Appendices D and E
Your call, your fee, your administrator, your team
The same formulas, every input empty. Investors and activities fill row by row: an incomplete row stays empty and out of every total, so the models work for three investors as well as for eight. Rounding residuals go to the first largest holder, never to two. The holiday calendar, the scorecard fields and their critical flags, the timing profiles and the current-run-rate scenario stay: they are the structure, not the data.
The book’s inputs are listed in a text file inside the archive. Type them back in and its figures come back: 5,842,000 of facility against 6,260,000, an invoice of 462,834.23, April at 118 per cent.
Blank_Model_Set.zip · four 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 1 to 14 · Appendices A to G
Thirteen working documents
The mandate on one page, with its exclusions and decision levels. The entity record and the authoritative source by field. The control design card. The payment pack and the cash-control certificate. The capital call and its event certificate. The distribution, classified before it is calculated. The close gates and the open-item log. The valuation memorandum and minutes. The administrator’s operating schedule and scorecard. The economics certificate. The reporting release gate. The obligation record and the next-fund readiness review. The incident record and post-incident review.
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 the mandate, the map and controls, eight on cash and capital events, seven on the close, valuation and the administrator, six on fees and capital accounts, six from reporting to capacity, and six 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: that is your revision list.
Nothing is hidden. The marking sheet holds every answer, every tolerance, and the reason for each answer.
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 6 · Case one
Where the six days went
The close signed on day 18 with data three days late, questions two days without an owner and fourteen items at the final review, then on day 15. Built as a network of thirteen tasks (ADDED durations), the two middle paths tie on day 13: data on time alone gives day 18, owned questions alone day 18, the items moved to their gates day 17. Together, day 15. No team can fix the close on its own.
Chapter 8 · Case two
The cheaper administrator
A challenger 80,000 cheaper on the invoice, right first time 80 per cent of the time against 92 (ADDED). With rework, reissues, data transformation and audit support at 95 an hour, it is only 17,488 cheaper to run, the move costs 188,000 and takes 10.7 years to pay back; in three years only at 93.7 per cent right first time, better than the incumbent. And April goes from 118 to 132 per cent of capacity.
Chapter 13 · Case three
The fifth fund
By count, 25 per cent more work; weighted by the subscription line, two currencies, a European feeder, a waterfall and negotiated reporting (ADDED increments on workbook 4’s drivers), 45.8 per cent, the feeder first. The count says no hire and 630 hours of temporary help; the weighted view says one hire before first close and still 690 hours over 6 peak months. Workbook 4’s own scenario gives 34.9.
in fund currency; Northbridge Private Capital and every figure attached to it are fictional
Days
business days, counted on the holiday calendar the workbook names; the close counts days after quarter-end
Blue cells
the inputs; every other number is a formula
Checks sheet
the last word of every model: each control states its own verdict, and the file ends ALL OK
ADDED
a figure the book does not give, used in the cases and marked wherever it appears
What changed, and when
24 Sep 2026
Every figure in workbooks 2 to 4 recomputed independently. Corrected: the scorecard average, which took all fourteen fields although the book, the Read Me and this page said the critical ones stayed out, now takes the eleven others (no month changes status); workbook 1’s sample rows, which carried no formulas (352 formulas become 358). Added: the year’s utilisation on the peak basis (73.3 per cent beside the baseline 69); checks raised from 18 to 25, 14 to 18 and 15 to 21, all OK; 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.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
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.
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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