Your CFO didn’t join your firm to chase down vendor invoices or reconcile management company expenses. They came to drive financial strategy, support investment decisions, and help the firm grow.
But for many Investment Managers, from emerging managers launching their first fund to multi-billion-dollar, multi-strategy shops, the reality looks different.
The management company side of the business quietly absorbs more and more of the CFO’s time. Transactional accounting, billable expense tracking, partner reporting, and vendor management pile up until the people who should be focused on the investment side are buried in back-office work.
It’s a pattern that Consero’s CFO Survey captured clearly: CFOs say 53% of their time should be spent on strategic planning rather than day-to-day operations, yet the operational weight of the management company keeps pulling them in the opposite direction.
Rather than a failure of talent, this is a structural problem. And it’s one that Consero solves.
The Management Company Always Falls to the Bottom of the List
Investment management firms exist to generate returns. The fund side of the house is where the money is made. Naturally, that’s where internal resources get prioritized. Fund administration, shadow accounting, investor relations, and deal execution all demand attention from the CFO and their team.
The management company? It slides down the priority list.
“By fund II or III, it becomes really difficult to keep all the balls in the air without additional support. The investment side always takes priority, since that’s where returns are generated.. Meanwhile, the management company falls behind.” — Julee Nevarez, Practice Director, Investment Management, Consero Global
Consero regularly onboards Investment Manager clients whose management company books haven’t been closed in months, sometimes over a year. When management company accounting falls behind, billable expenses also slip through the cracks. We’ve helped firms discover six figures in billable expenses that were never billed back to the funds.
The pattern is predictable. A firm launches with a lean team. By fund II or III, the demands on that team outgrow what the team can realistically support. The CFO is stretched across the entire business, often stepping into IT, compliance, HR.
Something has to give, and it’s almost always the management company.
With 51% of finance leaders reporting their departments were understaffed last year, and 81% saying it takes at least four months to fill a senior finance role, hiring your way out of the problem is a slower and more costly solution.
Two Types of Firms, Two Paths to Getting Help
Consero’s Investment Manager practice, which spans nearly two decades of working with firms across private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, sovereign wealth, private credit, and wealth management, has identified two common profiles among firms seeking support:
1. Firms That Build Infrastructure From Day One
These are typically led by GPs or CFOs who’ve been through the operational strain of scaling before. They understand that the management company is the operating engine of the firm. Without a deliberate foundation, growth introduces friction: reporting lags, cash visibility erodes, and billing becomes reactive instead of controlled and process-driven.
As a result, they invest early in building a finance function that is fit for scale—establishing the right systems architecture, disciplined processes, and experienced external support from day one. This is about eliminating future rework and avoiding the operational debt that accumulates when infrastructure lags growth.
They bring Consero in at launch, which allows the firm to scale on top of a clean, controlled, thoughtful finance function. Instead of constantly catching up, leadership has real-time insight into the business, enabling better decision making, tighter execution, time freed to focus on the investment side, and ultimately a more institutional quality platform as they grow.
2. Firms That Reach a Breaking Point
Often, firms try to handle everything internally for as long as possible. By the time they’re managing two or three funds, the management company is behind on closes, billable expenses are disorganized, and the CFO is spending time on operational firefighting instead of focusing on financial strategy and firm leadership.
At that point, accumulated operational debt is a major issue. Processes have been built ad hoc (frequently without documentation), data is inconsistent, information the founders want as the business grows is increasingly difficult to provide quickly. Unwinding this scenario is time-consuming and expensive: historical cleanup, rework of prior periods, redefining reporting logic, and establishing controls. In many cases, the finance function is effectively being rebuilt while the business is still scaling.
These firms bring Consero in to clean up, catch up, and implement the structure to support growth.
Both paths ultimately lead to the same destination: a management company that runs smoothly and supports the business. The difference is whether you proactively build that foundation early,, or pay to unwind and implement it later – after inefficiencies and risk have already compounded.
What Consero Takes Off Your CFO’s Plate
Consero’s Investment Manager vertical has a niche focus on management company operations. We take on the day-to-day finance and accounting burden so your CFO and internal team can stay focused on investments, firm strategy, and LP relationships.
In practice, this means Consero owns the core financial operations:
- End-to-end transactional accounting for the management company
- Vendor management, including direct interaction and invoice processing
- The full billable expense cycle: paying expenses on behalf of funds and portfolio companies, then allocating and rebilling with precision and audit-ready support
- Coordination with your fund administrator to meet their specific AP and audit-support requirements
- Partner-level and internal reporting, giving leadership visibility into management company spend alongside fund-level activity
- Month-end close and ongoing financial operations, delivered in a structured and repeatable cadence
We don’t replace your internal team, we remove the operational load that pulls them away from higher-value work. In most cases, our solution is significantly more cost-effective than hiring a management company controller to build out an internal finance team.
A Strategic Partner, Not Just a Service Provider
Consero’s Vice President of Finance (VPF) layer sets us apart in this space. Every investment management client works with a VPF who is deeply experienced in the Investment Manager vertical.
They’re seasoned finance professionals who understand the nuances of management company accounting, fund structures, partner dynamics, and the confidentiality requirements that come with the territory.
“Our clients tend to have very lean teams – often without an internal thought partner to provide a second lens. That’s where our VPF collaboration really makes a difference. We act as an extension of your leadership team, bringing perspective and supporting you in real time. Our goal isn’t to be your vendor, but a true part of your team.” — Julee Nevarez, Practice Director, Investment Managers, Consero Global
Our VPFs serve as a sounding board, a second set of eyes, and a consultative partner on everything from 10-year growth projections to navigating the complexities of multi-partner reporting.
Built-In Checks and Balances That Investors Overlook
Something that doesn’t get talked about enough: while investors scrutinize fund-level due diligence, the management company side often gets a fraction of that attention.
Having Consero manage the management company’s finance and accounting creates an inherent layer of checks and balances. There’s oversight, segregation of duties, and accountability that simply doesn’t exist when one or two internal people handle everything.
At the same time, confidentiality is maintained: sensitive financial information stays secure, and access is carefully managed, giving both leadership and investors confidence.
It’s a governance advantage that sophisticated investors increasingly appreciate, and one that forward-thinking CFOs leverage as a selling point during fundraising.
Why Your Fund Administrator May Not Be Enough
It’s logical for firms to turn to their fund administrator for management company support. The relationship is already in place, the trust is established, and it feels like a natural extension of the work they’re already doing.
But fund administrators are built to serve the fund side. That’s their core business and where they invest their strongest talent. Management company accounting, when offered, tends to be lighter in scope: basic bookkeeping, limited reporting, and little to no consultative engagement.
The gap shows up in important areas:
- Custom, decision-useful reporting for CFOs and partners
- Proactive financial guidance and forward-looking visibility
- Hands-on partnership to manage day-to-day of operating the firm
That gap isn’t a knock on fund admins. Fund administrators are optimized for fund accounting, not for running the management company.
The risk is subtle but meaningful: firms assume the management company is covered, when in practice it’s under-resourced, reactive, and not positioned to scale.
Consero’s Investment Manager practice is purpose-built to fill that gap at a higher level. We bring the systems, processes, and specialized talent to run the management company with the same rigor as the fund side.
It’s the same reason our 2025 research found a majority of investor-backed finance leaders rely on finance and accounting partners for core functions like FP&A reporting, budgeting, and cash management — not as a stopgap, but as the engine that keeps the finance function running while the internal team focuses on growth.
Fast to Stand Up, Built to Scale
Most Investment Manager clients are fully onboarded within 30 days. Even for more complex engagements (firms with hybrid structures, extensive charts of accounts, or decades of history to distill) the timeline typically stays within 60 days.
Consero’s approach is strategy-agnostic. Whether the firm focuses on private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, or a multi-strategy combination, the same proven framework and methodology applies, adapted to the specifics of each firm’s structure and needs.
And as your firm grows — adding new funds every 18, 24, or 36 months — Consero scales right alongside you. No new hires, no system overhauls, no scrambling to catch up.
Let Your CFO Do What They Do Best
The investment side of your business will always take priority, as it should. But the management company accounting can’t be an afterthought without real costs to your partners, your operations, and your CFO’s ability to think strategically.
Consero gives Investment Managers a way to run the management company at a high level without pulling internal resources away from the work that drives returns.
It’s the same value, the same platform, and the same expertise that 150+ PE and VC firms already trust across their portfolios — applied to the unique needs of the management company.
