100-day plan template for a PE portfolio company, with a records step

When to use this 100-day plan template

Use it from signing through the Day 100 board meeting. The template gives every initiative a named owner, a baselined KPI, proof of completion and a due day, and it adds a step most plans miss: a metadata-only inventory of systems and archives in Days 1-30, so integration work retires nothing before anyone has asked whether those records could be licensed.

The first 100 days now carry more of the return. McKinsey's Global Private Markets Report 2026 says multiple expansion and cheap leverage, which accounted for 59 percent of PE returns between 2010 and 2022, have faded, so operational value creation is now likely the primary source of returns. Bain's Global Private Equity Report 2026 puts a number on the pressure: a deal that needed 5% EBITDA growth a decade ago now needs about 12% to reach a 2.5x return over five years.

Draft the plan with the CEO rather than for the CEO. A plan that management did not help write tends to become a reporting exercise instead of an operating tool.

Plan header: what to fill in before close

Complete the header with the deal team before close and confirm it with the CEO in week one. It becomes page one of the PMO tracker and the first board pack.

Every initiative then gets one row in this format, and nothing enters the plan without all six fields:

Pre-close: Day 1 readiness and quick wins

Pre-close work is about not losing time, people or assets in the first month. Keep the list short and owned.

The last row is the cheapest insurance in the plan. Once a help desk, CRM or file share is cancelled without an export, years of operating history can disappear with it.

Days 1-30: diagnostic, with a metadata-only systems inventory

The diagnostic confirms the baseline for every KPI and tests the thesis against what management actually knows. Add the systems and archive inventory here, while integration planning is still on paper.

Metadata only means names, dates, counts and owners. Nobody opens tickets, mailboxes or files, and nothing leaves the company.

Illustrative, fully fictional: a 240-person IT services platform lists 14 systems in week three, including a help desk with tickets back to 2015, a project tool scheduled for retirement in month four and an email archive from an earlier add-on that nobody had mapped. The project tool's retirement date moves until a full export is confirmed.

The Days 1-30 records checklist:

• Ask IT for every system with an admin console, including tools brought in by past add-ons
• Record the first year of data and a rough volume for each system, without opening content
• Flag each system the integration plan intends to migrate, consolidate or retire
• Confirm an export route exists before any cancellation notice goes out
• Note client contracts that restrict how client-supplied material may be used
• Add one line to the integration charter: no system is retired until its history is exported or a decision is recorded

Days 31-60: decisions, owners and the licensing screen

Days 31-60 turn the diagnostic into decisions. Each decision has one owner and a date, and the board sees the list in the monthly pack.

The licensing screen fits in one meeting. To pass, the company must be a US business with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), years of documented operations, rights to license what it holds and a sponsor with authority to sign, such as the owner, CEO or CFO. The who qualifies page sets out the full baseline, and the talk track on what to tell a portfolio CEO about data licensing covers how to raise it.

Days 61-100: execution and the Day 100 readout

By Day 61 the plan is in execution: initiatives move from decision to measurable progress, and the PMO reports exceptions rather than activity. The Day 100 readout closes the plan and hands over to the longer value creation plan.

How to adapt the template to the deal

If a distressed situation ends in a receivership, the receivership asset inventory checklist lists records alongside the other assets a receiver tracks.

Common 100-day plan mistakes

Where a data license fits, and what stays out of the plan

If the Day 60 screen says go, the operating partner makes an introduction and steps back:

1. Register as a partner, then send the CEO your referral link or submit the company through the referral form.
2. SourceX checks size, history, data breadth and rights with the company's sponsor.
3. The company builds its data inventory, starting from the Days 1-30 list.
4. Price and terms are agreed with the company before any buyer sees the opportunity.
5. AI labs and data buyers review; the deal closes, data is delivered under the agreed redaction rules and the company is paid.

Keep three things out of the plan. First, no licensing payment goes into the EBITDA bridge before a signed agreement: nothing is binding until the company agrees price and terms and signs, and any payment is one-time. Second, no samples, exports or screenshots of records go into the board pack. Third, no expected partner reward is typed anywhere. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company, payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee. No reward is guaranteed, it never reduces what the company receives, and your firm's policy on fees connected to portfolio companies comes first.

For the note to the CEO, the introduction email builder drafts a version, and the operating partner introduction email templates give ready wording. If the investment committee memo already flagged data assets, the IC memo template with a data asset section shows how to carry that note into the plan.

Next step

Add the systems inventory and the Day 60 screen to your current plan this week. When a company passes, register as a partner and make the introduction, or have the CEO apply at sourcex.si/apply with your referral link. More plays for your role are on the operating partner page.