By Unmesh Sheth, Founder and CEO, Sopact. All fund, company and numerical examples are fictional.
The portfolio manager and investee develop the theory of change together during the onboarding call. They discuss the change the company intends to create, how its work could produce that change, the assumptions involved and what it can realistically report. Due diligence documents provide background and questions for the conversation; they do not establish the agreed model.
Follow Turn the onboarding call into a reporting agreement for the conversation and transcript-to-draft method. This lesson applies that method to a continuing portfolio reporting cycle. Invite the investee's operational or data owner so the agreement reflects information the company can actually supply.
For RouteWorks, the pitch deck promises better employment opportunities. Nina's onboarding call establishes a more specific pathway: skills sessions and employer introductions may help participants enter paid work. RouteWorks can report service participation now. It needs more time to establish a reliable follow-up process for sustained employment.
Develop the model together, then draft from the call
Before the call, review the investment memo, pitch deck and any existing company theory of change. Prepare a short background brief and questions. During the call, let the investee explain its goals and pathway, then discuss which portfolio metrics fit and what sources can support them. Record with consent or use jointly reviewed meeting notes.
Use that conversation as the primary basis for the draft theory of change and reporting agreement. Link each proposed element to the relevant transcript passage or confirmed note. Identify any supporting document separately, and keep a document claim that was not confirmed in the conversation as an open question. A pitch-deck target does not become an agreed commitment automatically.
A lean model for RouteWorks has five useful parts: who is served, what is delivered, the immediate result, the longer-term change and the assumptions connecting them. Do not make the model longer merely because AI can populate more boxes.
| Part | RouteWorks draft | What needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Adults using the specified employment-support service | Eligibility and service-area boundaries |
| Activity | Skills sessions and employer introductions | Which activities are currently delivered |
| Immediate result | Participants complete a qualifying service interaction | The minimum interaction that counts |
| Outcome | Participants begin paid work | Start-date evidence and treatment of temporary work |
| Longer-term change | Participants remain in work at a later checkpoint | Follow-up timing, coverage and feasible verification |
AI can organize a draft during or after the call from the discussion so far. The portfolio manager and investee review it together, settle the definitions and confirm the reporting obligations. Neither a transcript nor an AI draft is proof of joint agreement.
Automate preparation and documentation around the conversation
A theory of change explains why the company's activities are expected to produce the intended outcomes and which assumptions must hold. A lean logic model summarizes that pathway. Use both to select a small set of core metrics that answer the reporting questions without turning every ambition into a quarterly data request.
Before the call, prepare a company brief, the investee's existing model if available, the fund's core metric requirements and an agenda. These are discussion inputs. During the call, agree how the company's pathway and reporting capacity relate to those requirements. Then draft the model and reporting agreement from the conversation. If the investee already has a theory of change or dictionary, review it together and record what both sides retain or change.
| Step | What the configured workflow prepares | What a person confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Gather evidence | CRM context, retrieved documents and a list of missing sources | Correct company, permitted files and current versions |
| Hold the onboarding call | Consented transcript or confirmed notes capturing the discussion | Company goals, intended pathway, assumptions and feasible reporting |
| Draft from the conversation | Theory of change and reporting agreement with references to the call | Which items were agreed, proposed or left unresolved |
| Document core metrics | Measures discussed on the call, their definitions, sources and timing | Both sides confirm usefulness, feasibility and reporting requirements |
| Resolve gaps | A short agenda containing unresolved definitions and contradictions | Answers with the company and relationship owner |
| Approve onboarding | Versioned model, dictionary, responsibility list and collection schedule | Approval before requests or reports use the definitions |
For RouteWorks, service reach is available quarterly from its operating register. Job starts require an agreed verification source. Sustained employment is collected at its appropriate follow-up checkpoint, not demanded from every participant every quarter. An annual LP requirement can therefore use a different cadence from a quarterly donor update while drawing on the same approved definitions.
Map each core metric to a real report requirement or operating decision. Record the source already available, the new information requested and the reason for requesting it. A proposed measure with no use, no feasible source or no owner stays out of the first collection cycle.
Use the IRIS+ dictionary article and video when an audience requires a framework code. Agree what the company's measure means first, then validate the mapping. A framework label should not make a company collect information unrelated to its work.
Define the measures before building the survey
Work through How to build a data dictionary with the core metrics selected during onboarding. Bring back approved entries for one reach measure, one outcome and any financial field required by the report. The guide provides the detailed field structure; the exercise here connects those definitions to a company and reporting obligation.
A metric needs a stable code as well as a label. Two companies can both use “people served” and mean different things. Keep the company ID and metric ID in the data model; a display name alone is not a reliable key.
For every measure record the definition, population, unit, period, calculation, source, reporter, reviewer, first due period and missing-value rules. Add the target only where it has been agreed. Give each version an effective date and a reason for changes.
RouteWorks dictionary example: RouteWorks quarterly reach, version 1 counts distinct eligible people completing at least one qualifying service interaction during the quarter. Count each person once within the company and quarter. Exclude registrations without service. Source: the service register. Reporter: the company program lead. Reviewer: Nina. A blank is missing; a confirmed zero means no qualifying people. Cross-company uniqueness is not established by this company-level rule.
The company-specific job-start measure remains separate. A job offer is not a start. A later employment checkpoint is not evidence of continuous employment between checkpoints. Keep those distinctions in the question and the explanation shown to the company.
Track whether the agreement is ready
Nina needs to see which companies are ready to report. A tracker can use Not started, Conversation planned, In progress, Approved and On hold. Each row also needs a target completion date, next action, open question, owner and priority.
Completion should mean that the required review happened. If the system updates status from completed tasks, test that it does not mark a dictionary approved merely because a draft exists.
The portfolio manager and RouteWorks's authorized representative approve the reach and job-start definitions for the first cycle. Its longer-term employment measure is marked Planned, not yet required. MarketLink still uses a legacy survey. That difference stays visible in the tracker and later coverage calculations.
Revise a definition without rewriting history
Suppose RouteWorks later revises its reach definition. A clarification that preserves meaning can use a new version. A change to the population, unit, time window or calculation may create a different measure and needs a new metric ID. Retain the earlier definition and record when the change takes effect. Review whether earlier source data can support restatement. If it cannot, show a break in comparability.
A change is not just a text edit. It can affect the next survey, validation rules, trend charts, rollup mappings and report explanations. Assign an owner to assess those consequences before release.
A useful drafting instruction
Use the consented onboarding-call transcript or jointly confirmed meeting notes as the primary source. Draft the theory of change and a reporting agreement covering each metric, definition, source, cadence and owner. Cite the relevant call passage for every proposed element. Distinguish agreed items, proposals and unresolved questions; do not infer agreement from a passing remark. Use company documents only as labeled background and flag anything not confirmed on the call. Preserve the investee's existing model where both parties agreed to retain it. Do not invent targets or requirements. End with the decisions the portfolio manager and investee must confirm before approval.
Build this part of your plan
Write RouteWorks's reach and job-start entries. Add a planned follow-up measure and one unresolved question. Record the approval owner and version. Then describe a future definition change and which downstream outputs need review.
Check your reasoning: a future measure is not treated as missing performance this quarter. A draft model is not an approved agreement. Every current survey question has a definition that company staff and the reviewer can apply consistently.
Test a tool: upload a transcript with one explicitly unsettled measure. The draft should preserve that uncertainty. Have the impact owner edit a definition, record the rationale and inspect the effect on the next collection while an earlier report retains its original basis.
Next: Run quarterly collection.