Portfolio Company Monitoring Dashboard
Track portfolio company performance against plan with automated KPI extraction, variance analysis, and covenant compliance monitoring.
When you have 15 portfolio companies each sending monthly financials in different formats, synthesizing performance against plan and catching covenant risks before your lenders do is a time sink that compounds every month.
Who it's for: PE portfolio operations, operating partners, deal team leads, CFOs, board members
Example
"Review AcmeCo's monthly financial package against plan" → Executive summary with green/yellow/red KPI flags, actual vs. budget variance table, covenant compliance status, trend charts, and questions for management
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# Portfolio Monitoring
description: Track and analyze portfolio company performance against plan. Ingests monthly/quarterly financial packages (Excel, PDF), extracts KPIs, flags variances to budget, and produces summary dashboards. Use when reviewing portfolio company financials, preparing board materials, or monitoring covenant compliance. Triggers on "review portfolio company", "monthly financials", "how is [company] performing", "covenant check", or "portfolio update".
## Workflow
### Step 1: Ingest Financial Package
- Accept the user's portfolio company financial package (Excel workbook, PDF, or CSV)
- Extract key financials: Revenue, EBITDA, cash balance, debt outstanding, capex, working capital
- Identify the reporting period and compare to prior period and budget/plan
### Step 2: KPI Extraction & Variance Analysis
Key metrics to track (adapt to the company's sector):
**Financial KPIs:**
- Revenue vs. budget ($ and %)
- EBITDA and EBITDA margin vs. budget
- Cash balance and net debt
- Leverage ratio (Net Debt / LTM EBITDA)
- Interest coverage ratio
- Capex vs. budget
- Free cash flow
**Operational KPIs** (ask user or infer from data):
- Customer count / revenue per customer
- Employee headcount / revenue per employee
- Backlog / pipeline
- Churn / retention rates
### Step 3: Flag & Summarize
- **Green**: Within 5% of plan
- **Yellow**: 5-15% below plan — flag for discussion
- **Red**: >15% below plan or covenant breach risk — immediate attention
Output a concise summary:
1. One-paragraph executive summary ("Company X is tracking [ahead/behind/on] plan...")
2. KPI table with actual vs. budget vs. prior period
3. Red/yellow flags with context
4. Covenant compliance status (if applicable)
5. Questions for management
### Step 4: Trend Analysis
If multiple periods are provided:
- Chart key metrics over time (revenue, EBITDA, cash)
- Identify trends — accelerating, decelerating, or stable
- Compare vs. underwriting case
## Important Notes
- Always ask for the budget/plan to compare against if not provided
- Don't assume sector-specific KPIs — ask what matters for this company
- If covenant levels aren't known, ask the user for the credit agreement terms
- Output should be board-ready — concise, factual, no fluff
What This Does
Ingests monthly or quarterly financial packages (Excel, PDF, or CSV), extracts KPIs, flags variances to budget, checks covenant compliance, and produces a concise board-ready summary. Supports trend analysis across multiple reporting periods.
Quick Start
Step 1: Create a Project Folder
Create a folder for your portfolio monitoring and place the downloaded template inside as CLAUDE.md. Add the company's financial package to the same folder.
Step 2: Download the Template
Click Download above, then move the file into your project folder as CLAUDE.md.
Step 3: Start Working
"Review this monthly financial package against plan"
"How is AcmeCo performing vs. budget this quarter?"
"Check covenant compliance — here are the financials and credit agreement"
KPIs Tracked
Financial:
- Revenue vs. budget ($ and %)
- EBITDA and EBITDA margin vs. budget
- Cash balance and net debt
- Leverage ratio (Net Debt / LTM EBITDA)
- Interest coverage ratio
- Capex vs. budget
- Free cash flow
Operational (sector-dependent):
- Customer count / revenue per customer
- Employee headcount / revenue per employee
- Backlog / pipeline
- Churn / retention rates
Flagging System
| Status | Criteria |
|---|---|
| Green | Within 5% of plan |
| Yellow | 5-15% below plan — flag for discussion |
| Red | >15% below plan or covenant breach risk — immediate attention |
Tips & Best Practices
- Always ask for the budget/plan to compare against if not provided
- Do not assume sector-specific KPIs — ask what matters for this company
- If covenant levels are not known, ask for the credit agreement terms
- Output should be board-ready — concise, factual, no fluff
- When multiple periods are provided, trend analysis shows whether performance is accelerating, decelerating, or stable