Reducing the operational burden on a lean investment team

A small investment firm relied on external providers for most of its back-office functions. However, responsibility for reviewing and approving the providers’ work remained with a small internal team that also carried other management duties.

Each month, the team reviewed financial reports, reconciled figures against custodian records, and approved information for client reporting. As the firm grew, the workload increased, creating an operational bottleneck.

100xPartners proposed an AI-assisted workflow to automate routine financial checks while preserving human oversight, starting with the monthly review process.

The challenge: Outsourcing did not eliminate internal review work

Despite relying on external providers, the firm remained responsible for verifying financial information before approving client reports.

Every month, providers delivered account-level reports and fee calculations. The internal team then checked the calculations, compared figures against custodian statements, and investigated discrepancies.

This created three problems: manual reviews grew with the business, approvals depended on the availability of a few people, and repetitive verification consumed time needed for other management responsibilities.

The firm also wanted to introduce AI into its operations, but developing disconnected workflows risked creating systems that were difficult to maintain and adapt.

Our proposed solution: Automated verification with human approval

100xPartners proposed a reusable AI-assisted operating framework, beginning with monthly financial reviews.

The workflow would:

• Consolidate account-level financial reports and custodian records into a standardized workpaper.
• Automate recurring fee calculations and reconciliation checks.
• Flag discrepancies and unusual figures for investigation.
• Link results to their source documents for verification.
• Present exceptions to the responsible reviewer for final approval.

The solution would also establish a shared foundation for future back-office automation, allowing additional workflows to reuse existing integrations and controls rather than being developed independently.

Expected outcomes: Less manual work, consistent oversight

Once implemented, the reviewer could work from a consolidated set of exceptions rather than manually checking every account file.

Routine verification would become more consistent, while supporting evidence and final approval would remain under the firm’s control.

The shared framework would also make it easier to automate additional recurring processes without creating disconnected systems or increasing maintenance complexity.

The intended outcome is a more scalable back-office operation, where routine checks are automated, human attention is directed toward exceptions, and the firm retains control over critical financial decisions.