Get waterfall guidance

What this produces

This guide walks through the illustrative waterfall guidance feature described in Fees and waterfalls. It is worth repeating the boundary before you start: the output is guidance, not a final carry calculation. Nothing it produces can be promoted to a journal entry, an LP statement, or a distribution notice.

Steps

1. Confirm terms are extracted and approved.The fund’s LPA and any side letters must already have gone through extraction and human review, so the preferred return rate, GP catch-up, carry split, deal-by-deal or whole-fund treatment, clawback provisions, escrow holdback, and any per-LP carry exceptions are recorded as structured, approved terms.
2. Enter a distribution amount. Use either a hypothetical figure or a planned real distribution you have not yet issued.
3. Read the tier-by-tier allocation. Each tier cites the governing-document clause it is applying, so you can trace every dollar back to the language that justifies it.
4. Review the supporting figures. Preferred-return shortfall or surplus, cumulative carry earned to date (realized and unrealized), clawback exposure at current NAV, and — if you supply performance assumptions — a forward look at when carry is expected to begin.

Using the output

Treat guidance output as a working document for GP, finance-team, and LPAC conversations — exactly what it is labeled as. When a real distribution is ready to go out, follow Issue a distribution; the actual carry split on that distribution is confirmed by your fund accountant or administrator, not read off the guidance screen.