Resources·for PE-backed companies & PE firms
KPI frameworks for PE-backed SMEs
The six reporting segments PE funds expect from their portfolio companies, what belongs in each one, and how often to report it. Written for finance teams at PE-backed companies who need to get this right from day one.
When a PE fund invests in your company, one thing changes immediately: reporting expectations. You are now accountable to a GP who monitors your financial performance alongside nine other portfolio companies, prepares quarterly LP reports, and tracks covenants with lenders on your behalf. The data you send them, including its completeness, consistency, and timing, directly affects how your fund perceives your management quality.
Most PE funds organise portfolio reporting around six segments. Understanding what belongs in each, and at what cadence, is the starting point for building a reporting framework your fund will trust.
One rule applies across all segments: report absolute numbers. Revenue in euros, headcount as a count, cash as a balance. Ratios, such as margins, multiples, and growth rates, are derived by the fund. Sending percentages instead of underlying figures makes the GP's job harder and prevents them from reconciling your numbers with their model.
1. Financial performance
The core P&L. Your fund needs this monthly to track trading performance, compare against the budget they approved, and build LTM figures for valuation work.
| KPI | What to include | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Total net revenue; split by product, segment, or geography if applicable | Monthly |
| Gross profit | Revenue minus COGS: absolute amount, not margin % | Monthly |
| EBITDA | Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortisation | Monthly |
| Operating expenses | Broken down: payroll, rent, marketing, G&A | Monthly |
| Net profit / (loss) | Bottom-line result after all items | Monthly |
| Revenue vs budget | Variance in absolute €/£ vs approved annual budget | Monthly |
| EBITDA vs budget | Same: variance to plan | Monthly |
| LTM revenue | Last twelve months rolling: baseline for valuation work | Quarterly |
| Audited P&L | Full statutory accounts | Annual |
2. Cash & working capital
Cash is the most time-sensitive segment. Your GP needs weekly visibility on balances during stress periods, and monthly working capital data to assess liquidity risk and forecast covenant headroom.
| KPI | What to include | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Cash balance | Closing cash and cash equivalents on hand | Weekly |
| Net cash from operations | Cash generated by the business before financing | Monthly |
| Free cash flow | Operating cash flow minus capex | Monthly |
| Accounts receivable | Total outstanding AR, aged 0–30 / 31–60 / 60+ days | Monthly |
| Accounts payable | Total outstanding AP, with aging buckets | Monthly |
| Inventory value | If applicable, raw materials, WIP, finished goods at cost | Monthly |
| Cash runway | Months of cash remaining at current burn, no new revenue assumed | Monthly |
| Working capital | Current assets minus current liabilities: absolute amount | Quarterly |
3. Revenue & customer metrics
PE firms look at revenue quality, not just volume. A flat revenue line that is all expansion from a handful of customers looks very different to one driven by consistent new logo growth. Report the components separately.
| KPI | What to include | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| New revenue | New contracts / new customers signed this period | Monthly |
| Churned revenue | Lost contracts / customers cancelled this period | Monthly |
| Expansion revenue | Upsells and cross-sells from existing customers | Monthly |
| Total active customers | Count of paying customers at period end | Monthly |
| Average revenue per customer | Total revenue ÷ active customer count | Monthly |
| Backlog / order book | Signed but not yet recognised revenue | Monthly |
| Sales pipeline value | Weighted or unweighted, broken down by stage | Monthly |
| New logos won | Number of new customer contracts closed | Monthly |
| Win rate | Deals won ÷ total deals closed (won + lost) | Quarterly |
4. Operational metrics
These vary by business model but the principle is consistent: report the core volume metric for your business alongside utilisation, capex, and quality indicators. Funds use these to stress-test the P&L assumptions in the investment model.
| KPI | What to include | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Units produced / delivered | Core volume metric for your business model | Monthly |
| Capacity utilisation | Actual output vs maximum capacity: absolute numbers | Monthly |
| Capex spend | Year-to-date capital expenditure vs budget | Monthly |
| Project milestones | Binary hit/miss count for any major projects tracked in the plan | Monthly |
| On-time delivery rate | Orders or deliveries on time ÷ total, for product companies | Monthly |
| Quality / defect count | Returns, defects, or complaints: absolute volume | Monthly |
5. Debt & covenant compliance
PE-backed companies are almost always leveraged. Covenant compliance is not optional reporting. It is a contractual obligation with your lender and often with your fund. Missing a quarterly covenant certificate, or submitting one late, is a covenant event in many facility agreements. Treat this segment with the same rigour as your statutory accounts.
| KPI | What to include | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Total drawn debt | Outstanding balance by facility: term loan, RCF, etc. | Monthly |
| RCF headroom | Undrawn revolving credit facility balance available to draw | Monthly |
| Interest expense | Cash interest paid / accrued in the period | Monthly |
| Leverage (gross debt / EBITDA) | Required by virtually all PE-backed debt agreements | Quarterly |
| Interest cover (EBITDA / interest) | Minimum ratio is a standard covenant condition | Quarterly |
| Covenant certificate | Formal compliance certificate signed by CFO or auditor | Quarterly |
| Capex covenant usage | Capex spend vs contractual annual limit | Quarterly |
6. People & headcount
Payroll is typically the largest cost line in a PE-backed SME. Funds track headcount and payroll closely against budget, both as a cost control indicator and as an early signal of execution risk. Over-hiring relative to revenue growth is a common precursor to cash pressure.
| KPI | What to include | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Total headcount | FTE and part-time count at period end, by department | Monthly |
| Headcount vs budget | Variance to approved headcount plan | Monthly |
| New hires | Count of people who joined in the period | Monthly |
| Voluntary attrition | Count of people who left voluntarily in the period | Monthly |
| Payroll cost | Total gross payroll including employer costs | Monthly |
| Payroll vs budget | Variance to plan, often the largest cost line | Monthly |
| Recruitment costs | Agency fees, job boards, signing bonuses | Quarterly |
Reporting cadence at a glance
AHQ Financials prepares all of this automatically
Upload your monthly financials and AHQ calculates every segment above, covering budget vs actuals, covenant compliance, cash runway, and revenue bridge, and makes the same data available to your fund in AHQ Insights without a separate export.