Fund Data Room Index: A Folder Template for LP Due Diligence

A fund data room index is the table of contents for the virtual data room a general partner opens to prospective limited partners: a fixed, numbered list of folders and subfolders that holds the offering documents, the due diligence questionnaire, the track record and its support, firm policies, service provider details and the closing papers. A good index answers one question for the LP before it is asked: where is the file I need?

Below is a full template you can copy, the reasoning behind its order, the access rules most GPs use and the naming habits that keep a room readable across a ten-month raise.

What does a fund data room index look like?

Most institutional fund rooms settle on ten to twelve top-level folders. Fewer than that and the DDQ folder turns into a dumping ground; many more and investors start scrolling instead of reading. The template below uses eleven, with folder 00 reserved for orientation.

The order is not arbitrary. Institutional due diligence questionnaires, including the one published by the Institutional Limited Partners Association, start with the firm and its people, move to strategy and returns, then cover process, risk and operations, and end with legal and terms. When your folders follow the same path, an analyst working down their own template finds each answer in the next folder along.

The full template, with subfolders

Use two-level numbering. Top folders take two digits; subfolders add a dot and two more. The numbers stay fixed even if a subfolder is empty for now, so an LP who saved a link to 04.02 in month two still lands in the right place in month eight.

The fundraising DDQ use case covers the questionnaire itself in more depth; this guide is about where it and its support files sit.

How many documents does a fund room hold?

A fund room holds more than a company round room, and the extra weight sits in policies and operations. The bars count the documents our raise checklist lists for a fund raise, per folder of the checklist. The checklist uses a ten-folder layout shared by every raise type; the template above splits it finer for funds.

Counts alone undersell the gap. A single fund-level track record file may need twenty deal-level cash flow schedules behind it, and a mature manager’s policies folder can run to several hundred pages. Plan storage and upload time with that in mind; a 15 GB room is normal for a manager on its third fund.

What goes in each folder, and what do LPs check?

00 Read me first

This folder exists to save your IR team from answering “where is” emails. Put a one-page index with every folder and subfolder name and a short note, a contact sheet with names, roles and response times, and a version log. The version log is the part GPs skip and LPs value most: one line per change, with the date, the file, what changed and why. When an allocator’s investment committee asks whether the track record moved between the first and second meeting, the log answers it.

01 Fund overview

The private placement memorandum, the investor presentation and a short summary of terms. Keep exactly one current PPM here and move superseded versions to an archive subfolder that only your team can see. If your counsel issues a supplement, upload it as a separate file with a matching number (01.01a) rather than replacing the original, so investors who read the first version can see what was added.

02 Firm and team

Allocators back people first. Upload a chart of who owns the GP and the management company, with percentages, partner bios that list prior employers and dates, an org chart with headcount by function, and a plain list of departures with reasons. A missing departure that an LP later hears about from a reference is far more damaging than the departure itself.

04 Track record

This is where diligence slows down. LPs and their consultants rebuild your numbers from cash flows, so give them the cash flows. A sound track record folder holds:

If you market to investors in the United States as a registered adviser, the SEC’s Marketing Rule governs performance in advertisements: net performance must appear alongside gross with equal prominence, and extracted or hypothetical performance carries extra conditions. Have counsel review the track record folder once, before the first LP gets access, rather than file by file. The IRR and MOIC calculator is useful for checking that gross and net figures in different files tie to each other.

06 DDQ and policies

Most allocators send their own questionnaire or ask for the ILPA template. Answer the full DDQ once, upload it as both PDF and an editable file, and make each answer that cites a policy point to the policy’s subfolder number. That cross-referencing is what turns a 60-page questionnaire into something an analyst can verify in an afternoon. Hedge fund managers usually answer the AIMA questionnaire instead; the folder works the same way.

07 Legal and regulatory

Form ADV Parts 1 and 2A (or a note on why the adviser relies on an exemption), the memo on which Investment Company Act exemption the fund uses, usually section 3(c)(1) or 3(c)(7), the compliance manual and code of ethics, and a frank history of litigation and regulatory exams. The glossary entry on 3(c)(1) and 3(c)(7) sets out the difference in two paragraphs if a junior team member is building this folder.

08 Operations and providers

Operational due diligence teams often work separately from the investment team and sometimes decline a fund that the investment team liked. They look for an independent administrator, a recognized audit firm, segregation of duties over cash, a written cyber and business continuity plan and insurance cover. Upload engagement letters, any SOC 1 or SOC 2 report your administrator shares with clients, and a one-page cash controls description showing who can approve a wire.

10 Fund terms and closing

Keep this folder hidden from prospects until they request the documents. It holds the LPA draft with a dated change log, the side letter template and the description of how most favored nation elections will work, the subscription booklet and the closing schedule. Our subscription booklet checklist walks through each page of the booklet.

Which LPs should see which folders?

Fund rooms rarely give everyone the same view. Three or four investor groups are enough for most raises. The matrix below is a common starting point; adjust it when a cornerstone LP negotiates broader access.

Two practical notes. First, consultants and gatekeepers often need to download, because they build their own reports for several clients, so give them watermarked copies rather than blocking them. Second, the LP’s outside counsel usually needs full access to folder 10 to mark up the LPA, so add counsel as named users of that LP’s group rather than sharing one login.

How should files and folders be named?

A naming rule written down on day one saves hours of rework. The convention below sorts correctly in every room and makes the version obvious without opening the file.

Keep file names under about 80 characters. Some rooms truncate long names in the index view and some LP download tools drop characters on export.

How does the index change by fund strategy?

The eleven folders hold for most closed-end funds, but the weight inside them shifts with the strategy. The table lists what tends to be added or expanded.

Emerging managers carry an extra burden in folder 04, because the track record often sits at a previous firm. The first-time fund and LP fundraising use case pages cover attribution letters and how LPs weigh a short record.

How do you build a fund data room index, step by step?

The raise timeline planner puts preparation for a fund at about eight weeks before the first LP meeting, and building the room is most of that. The companion guide on how long it takes to raise a fund sets the room inside the full timeline from first meeting to final close.

What should a fund data room platform handle?

Any platform can hold folders. For a fund raise, four functions matter more than the rest: a Q&A module so LP questions stay attached to files, a per-investor activity log so IR knows who is reading, view-only files for pipeline and memos, and watermarks for anything that gets downloaded. Of the 16 rooms we rank, 16 list an investor activity log, 14 list view-only files and 13 list a Q&A module.

The full list, with scores for investor tracking and permission control, is on the fundraising data room ranking. Among the quote-only platforms, the reviews of Datasite and iDeals describe how each one handles large LP groups.

What does the room cost over a fund raise?

A fund raise keeps a room open far longer than a company round, often ten months or more from first LP to final close, and the cost per LP is the fairer way to compare plans. The calculator below starts with a ten-month raise and eighty LPs reading the room; change the monthly price to a quote you hold.

Quote-only platforms price by data volume, users and months, so ask each vendor for a figure that covers the full raise plus a few months of read-only access after final close. Indicative planning bands for each type of room are on the fundraising data room pricing guide.