In this Getting Started Tutorial, you will learn how to create and preview a basic iPAR Report.
Before you start: the iPAR report builder automatically populates information. For this tutorial, we are assuming you have completed initial fund setup. If not, you should do that first and can get started here.
About the iPAR Report Builder:
An Efficient and Effective Approach Designed by Investors for Fund Managers
iPAR designed its reports based on research and collaboration with Advisors and Investors. They identified two universal challenges with the current state of impact reporting:
- Disaggregated Information: stand-alone unstandardized reports effectively "silo" information, hamper portfolio-level perspectives, and obfuscate performance-over-time analysis or simple "is it good?" comprehension
- Too Much Information: the quantity of incoming information creates a high "static to noise" effect whereby qualitative reporting can impede quantitative focus, clarity, and understanding
To counter these challenges, iPAR design reports with a "less is more" approach. First, create effective reports by focusing on the core quantitative performance data Investors want to be coupled with a visual design that presents clear, comprehensible data. Secondly, make publishing as efficient as possible for Fund Managers using a standardized format within a platform that aggregates data.
Create a New "Draft" Report
To create a new report, you can click on the "Reporting" menu header in the left-hand menu from any Fund Information page to get to the Reports page.
Click the "Start Blank Report" button in the upper right-hand corner to start a new report. If you have not created a report yet, you can also click anywhere inside the large blue "Create a New Report" box. A modal will pop up asking you to "Choose Report Quarter." iPAR Reports are designed to be quarterly, using the convention of Q1-Q4 followed by the year.
For this example, let's start a new report for Q4 2017.
Once you click Start, you will be taken to the Report Edit screen.
WARNING -- What is Published cannot be Un-Published: in this tutorial, we show you how to create a Draft iPAR Report, which is private and can be deleted anytime. However, do know that if you choose to publish a report, you cannot unpublish or delete once published.
Auto-Populated Information
All Fund Information and Metrics Data are used to populate the report automatically (see image below). Assuming everything is up-to-date, you are effectively ready to publish! Your basic report has been created for you.
There are other ways you can enhance a report, each of which is covered in separate articles. For example, in the image below the metrics might be missing data, which can be updated directly within the report builder itself. You may also choose to add commentary, charts, or any number of file attachments. Feel free to try them out now or browse additional articles.
Preview the Report
Want to see what your report will look like once published? At any time, you can click the "Preview" button to switch to a presentation mode displaying your report exactly as it would be seen by Advisors and Investors.
Your report contains two sections: the Quarterly Report section is the actual content of your report that you entered on the Report Edit screen, and the Fund Information section pulls in the information from your fund's profile. When you first come to the Report Preview screen, you will see the Commentary portion of the Quarterly Report section (if your report includes commentary). You can scroll down to see your Metrics (see example below).
When you are done, return to editing by clicking the "Edit" button.
An Example iPAR Report
If you would like to see an example report for a fictitious fund, just click the link below and enter the password on the following screen:
Example Olympic Ridge Fund Report
p: password
(Optional) Delete your Report
If you would like to delete your report, just click the "Delete" button located at the bottom right of the Editor page (you may need to click the "Edit" tab).
Next Steps: Advanced Report Editing
Learn how to manage your report content and update your Metrics data in the next article, click here.