Just Released - Capital Calls

At Caruso, we understand that capital calling is a fundamental process in fund management. Some funds require investors to pay 100% of their commitment upfront, while others call capital in stages as investments are deployed. Managing these workflows often means maintaining parallel spreadsheets and sending piecemeal communications, creating unnecessary administrative burden.

Our new capital calling engine addresses this challenge directly, enabling fund managers to run fully funded raises or staged capital calls within a single, coherent workflow.

Flexible Payment Structures for Every Fund

Every capital raise in Caruso now includes a Payment Structure setting that determines how the platform handles payment notices. Fund managers choose between two approaches based on their fund's requirements.

For fully funded raises, 100% of capital is paid at allocation confirmation. When an application is confirmed, the system automatically sends a payment notice with complete deposit instructions. Investors receive clear communication about their payment obligations, and the finance team can proceed with reconciliation as deposits arrive.

For staged capital calls, fund managers can approve applications without requesting payment. This decouples the approval decision from the payment request. Investors receive confirmation that their application has been approved, and subsequent capital calls are issued separately as capital is needed.

Bulk Capital Calls Across All Investors

For staged capital call raises, fund managers can create capital calls in bulk from a dedicated Capital Calls view. The workflow is similar to how distributions are processed: select all confirmed subscriptions in a raise, set consistent payment deadlines and commentary, then confirm and publish when ready.

The bulk workflow provides high-level raise metrics alongside investor-level detail. Fund managers can work in draft mode, reviewing the total capital committed, capital called in this notice, and capital remaining to be called before sending anything to investors. Once confirmed, emails and portal notices are released in a single controlled step rather than piecemeal.

This coordinated approach means all investors in a capital call receive their notices simultaneously, with consistent deadlines and messaging.

Calculation Methods That Match Real-World Scenarios

Capital calls rarely follow a single pattern. Some fund managers need to request a specific percentage of each investor's commitment. Others need to equalise investors who joined the fund at different times. Caruso supports both approaches with two calculation methods.

The Call Up To % method requests a specific percentage of each investor's capital committed. If a fund manager enters 30%, an investor with $100,000 committed will receive a call for $30,000. The system automatically handles situations where an investor's current capital called already exceeds the target percentage.

The Catch-up Call method automatically equalises all investors to match the highest capital called percentage. This is particularly useful when new investors join after initial calls have been made. If most investors have 75% called and a new investor joins with 0% called, the catch-up call brings the new investor to 75% while existing investors at that level receive nothing. No unnecessary notices are generated.

Built-in Equalisation for Fairness

Some funds issue units immediately based on commitment, meaning investors hold units that may appreciate before capital is called. When those investors finally pay, they are paying the original price for units now worth more.

The equalisation feature addresses this scenario. Fund managers can adjust equalisation amounts per investor to compensate for gains they did not fund, ensuring fairness without changing committed or contributed capital in the ledger. This adjustment increases the amount payable for that capital call but does not affect the investor's underlying capital contribution calculations.

Flexible Payment Instructions Across Funds

Managing deposit methods has traditionally been fragmented, with different bank accounts and payment options scattered across funds and documents. Caruso now supports configuring deposit methods at the manager level, including bank accounts, BPAY, and cheques.

When a capital call is published, investors see clear payment options in both the email and the capital call notice stored on their portal.

Controlled Publication and Notification

Fund managers retain full control over when and how investors are notified. Capital calls can be scheduled for a future date, and notification preferences determine whether investors receive emails and whether notices are published to the portal.

An audit report is available for download during the draft stage, providing detailed verification and calculation data for each investor in the call. This supports internal review processes and provides documentation for compliance purposes.

Once confirmed, capital calls become point-in-time records that cannot be modified. If circumstances change after a call is created but before it is confirmed, fund managers can recalculate to incorporate newly approved allocations or other changes.

Other Improvements & Refinements

Streamlined reinvestment process – Investors can now set their reinvestment preference upfront within their application, which then flows automatically through to their holding. This reduces manual work and errors for operations teams. When a reinvestment is processed, investors receive a single, clearer payment notice that shows whether their distribution was paid out or reinvested, without a separate unit issuance email.

Direct emails from account records – Admin users can now send one-off emails directly from an account record in Caruso, without navigating to the communications module. Selecting "Send email" opens a pre-filled email batch with the correct account already selected, enabling teams to quickly craft and send investor communications.

Holding-level bank account assignment – Fund managers can now assign different verified bank accounts for distributions and redemptions at the holding level. These choices automatically populate the relevant payment files, providing greater flexibility for investors with specific banking requirements.

If you would like to explore the capital calling feature, email [email protected] to arrange a product demonstration. For existing customers, detailed documentation is available in our help centre.