With the growth of the Internet and the increasing popularity of cloud computing, there has been a consequent surge in the number of asset and portfolio management software from various web-service providers. As the number of providers increase, so have claims to functionalities and features that, in reality, create more confusion than clarity for many customers. What does your portfolio manager need to look for in a portfolio management software?
Here, we identify the features that are essential to any portfolio manager.
Trade processing. First and foremost, the software should be able to aid your portfolio manager in processing trades. This includes trades in any currency, with multi-currency cash balances for each of your portfolios. On top of this, the software should afford the ability to monitor all transactions, whether they are based on trades made, contracted settlements, records of settlements, and relevant dates. The software should be able to communicate through confirmations that are flexible and customizable. Finally, trade processing should be fast, especially for money market trades.
Securities and valuation. The software should be flexible enough to accommodate user-defined security types and have a facility to maintain several price points for each security. Provisions should also be provided for sinking funds and extendable, retractable, and maturity schedule. Finally, it is imperative to have private placement and obscure bond issues that are manually or matrix priced, along with built-in standard industry calculations.
Accounting. No portfolio manager software is complete without accounting features. Commissions for the dealer and the broker of each trade should be carefully tracked. There is also online processing of future trades, on top of accounting records and audit trails for historical activities. Calculations for accrued interest, realized, and unrealized gains and losses are also incorporated in the accounting function.
Reporting. The final inexpendable feature of portfolio manager software is the ability to generate reports that provide the user with all relevant information. Report templates can be made customizable, with the software offering templates and automated report writing. Aside from report templates, query tools are made available to easily navigate through a myriad of data that reside in an integrated database designed to optimize portfolio management.
Truly, a state-of-the-art portfolio management software is indispensable for firms that aim to effectively facilitate, monitor, control, and manage any investor’s growing and evolving portfolio. Such a technology is available through some of today’s top asset servicing firms – the ideal partners for growth of asset managers.
