Creating and Managing Distributions (Full Guide)

Caruso's distribution management system allows fund managers to efficiently create, preview, confirm, and report on distributions.

If you prefer a faster overview, see our Creating and Managing Distributions (Short Version) article.

Managing Reinvestments

Reinvestments are automatically handled as part of the distribution process. For full guidance, see our Managing Reinvestments article.

Creating a Distribution

To create a new distribution:

Navigate to Funds and select the fund you wish to distribute from
Go to the Distribution tab
Select Create new distribution
Enter the required details in the distribution form

Note: Some fields are pre-filled and cannot be changed. These appear greyed out.

You can also duplicate a previous distribution to reuse previously configured components. When duplicating, the system pre-populates the form with the previous distribution's settings, automatically updates the name, and clears the dates for you to set new values.

Key Fields

Distribution Name: An internal reference name for the distribution.
Distribution Period: Use the date picker to set the "paid from" and "paid to" dates.
Payment Date: Select the date and time that cash is expected to be deposited in investors' accounts. This date is used for distribution transactions.

Note: You can select a future payment date to schedule a distribution. Emails, statements, and transactions will be published after the payment date and time. You can also select a past date to back-date distributions on Caruso.

Commentary: An optional free-text field to add internal notes or context to the distribution.

Distribution Components

You can create one or more components within a distribution. Each component defines how amounts are calculated, which unit classes they apply to, and how they are displayed on the distribution statement.

Select unit classes as either All Unit Classes or an individual class. To learn how to create unit classes, see Create and Manage Unit Classes.
Multiple components can be created within the same distribution to cater for different unit classes

Apportionment Methods

Choose how you want to distribute the funds:

Total Dollar Amount (daily pro-rata)

Enter a fixed dollar amount (up to 6 decimal places)
The system automatically distributes proportionally based on daily unit holdings
Accounts for any unit ownership changes during the period

Annual % (daily pro-rata)

Set an annual percentage rate (up to 6 decimal places)
Applied to daily holding balances
Automatically adjusts for calendar leap years

Annual CPU (daily pro-rata)

Set an annual cents per unit rate (up to 6 decimal places)
Applied to daily holding balances
Automatically adjusts for calendar leap years

Withholding Tax Options

None: No tax withheld (default)
WHT: Applies the RWT/WHT rate set on the investing entity
PIR: Applies the PIR rate set on the investing entity
WHT & NWHT (Selective): Applies a selected tax rate, either withholding or non-withholding tax. The rule that determines which rate is selected is:
- Investing Entity's Primary Tax Residency = Fund Country: apply the WHT rate
- Investing Entity's Primary Tax Residency ≠ Fund Country: apply the NWHT rate
- Investing Entity's Primary Tax Residency is not populated: assume they are in the Fund Country and apply the WHT rate

Distribution Type and Label

Type: Choose between Income and Capital
- Examples of income distributions include: Dividends, Rental Income, Operating Income, Foreign Income, Royalty Income, Interest Income, Income Rebate, Other Income
- Examples of capital distributions include: Return of Capital, Capital Gains, Capital Rebate, Other Capital Return
Label: Customise the description that appears on tax statements. This pre-populates with the selected type but can be overwritten.

Note: If income is selected, the sum of the gross unrounded distribution for these components is applied to the holding as Cash Distribution. If capital is selected, the sum is applied as Capital Returned.

Previewing Your Distribution

Before confirming, you can download draft reports and review alerts.

Download draft reports:

Calculation Summary Report
Audit Report
Reinvestment Report
Payment File

Review alerts:

Missing bank account information
Calculation timestamp warnings (indicating that inputs may have changed since the last calculation)

To incorporate any changes since the last calculation, click Recalculate to refresh the distribution.

Important Alerts

Missing Bank Accounts

If you see a "Missing Bank Accounts" alert, the distribution cannot be confirmed until all bank accounts are added.

To resolve this:

Download the Payment File
Filter the bank account column for empty values
Use the Investing Entity - URL column to navigate directly to the investing entity and update the missing bank information

The alert is triggered when:

An investing entity has no bank accounts
If the holding has an assigned bank account:
- The bank account is missing (only Caruso can delete these accounts)
- The bank account is not verified
If the holding does not have a bank account:
- There is no default bank account
- The default bank account is unverified
If the holding's bank account is missing key details that will fail at payment:
- All currencies: Missing bank account number
- AUD: Missing BSB code
- USD: Missing Routing number
- GBP: Missing Sort Code

Confirming the Distribution

Upon confirmation, you will be prompted to finalise:

Notification preferences, including a Publish Date for when statements and emails are sent to investors
Date of Issuance (if any holdings are set to reinvest distributions). This defaults to the payment date but can be updated.

Once confirmed, transactions, statements, and email notifications are processed. Statements and emails are sent at the publish date, referencing the relevant payment and issuance dates. Future-dated payments appear as pending until the date passes.

Note: If the publish date is in the past, all jobs will commence immediately upon confirmation.

Distribution Statements

Investors receive consolidated communications:

One statement showing all component breakdowns
One email with the net distribution amount
One transaction record for the net distribution

The statement contents are dynamic based on the way the distribution has been created.

Distribution Reports

Several reports are available. The full catalogue is available here.

Calculation Summary Report: A summary of the distribution inputs. Shows the total gross, tax withheld, and net for each component of a distribution.
Audit Report: A detailed breakdown of calculations within one distribution.
Payment File: A formatted payment file for processing payments.
Reinvestment Report: A detailed breakdown of reinvestments within one distribution.

Why doesn’t the Total Gross Distribution match the Component Gross Distribution, or sum of Components?

The discrepancy occurs because one amount is the sum of already-rounded calculations, while the other is an amount that does not get rounded, it is an input value to calculations. This can cause slight discrepancies.

The Total Gross Distribution is the sum of apportioned and rounded amounts. This is your total liability.
The Component Gross Distribution on the other hand simply represents what has been allocated to this component before being further divided across individual holdings.
- For a component that is paying a total dollar distribution, this will simply equal the Component Input Amount.
- For a component that is paying an annual %, this will represent the calculated gross dollar amount that can then be further divided across individual holdings.

Tip: You can review the granular calculations in the Audit Report:

Distribution - Period Gross Distribution (un-rounded) - These are the most granular, raw amounts. The sum of Distribution - Period Gross Distribution (un-rounded) will equal the input value Distribution - Component Gross Distribution
Distribution - Holding Gross Distribution (rounded) - To calculate a payable amount, the Distribution - Period Gross Distribution (un-rounded) is aggregated per holding and then rounded to 2dp to ensure accurate payments. The sum of Distribution - Holding Gross Distribution (rounded) per holding will equal the Total Gross Distribution

Common Use Cases

Private Credit with Multiple Unit Classes

Create one reusable distribution
Add components for each unit class
Set different interest rates per class
This allows you to process all unit classes in one distribution
Next time, the distribution can simply be duplicated and the interest rates updated

New Zealand PIE Funds

Set up two components:

"Taxable Distribution" with PIR tax
"Non-Taxable Distribution" with no tax

Limited Partnerships (No tax)

Create one simple single-component distribution that does not withhold any tax
Customise the label shown on the investor statement, for example "Dividend" or "Cash Distribution"