What’s new?

Customers can now download reports directly from the company Scorecard page to gain additional insights into their compensation programs. These CSV reports will help you:

• Identify which employees are paid below the minimum or target of their band, and what the cost would be to increase their salary
• Analyze the breakdown of salary spend by department as compared to benchmarks for your peer group
• Identify which employees might be ready for a refresh grant, and how many shares it would take to make those grants

What’s next?

These reports are currently in beta, so we’d love to hear your feedback as we continue to test and improve them.

After you download a report you can provide feedback directly in Carta Total Compensation. Your feedback will help us improve future versions of these and other reports on our roadmap.

We’ll be releasing other reports over the next couple of months. If there are specific reports that you’d like to see in Carta Total Compensation, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager..

What's new?

We’ve enhanced the Activity tab in our GP Portal so Carta fund managers can do even more from one place.

What’s important or valuable about this change?

We’ve expanded the requests fund managers can submit in their Activity tab to include the ability to make a new investment, add a subsequent close, and transfer holdings to a new LP.

Once submitted, they can track the status of that request and receive detailed notifications to update them of any status changes.

Additionally, fund managers can now message their fund admin directly from the Activity tab, consolidating and organizing all Carta communication outside of their inbox. 

What do I need to do?

Navigate to the Activity tab. 

You can now submit additional requests through the Quick Actions bar. If you do not see a request, please use the General Inquiry button to submit any request to your fund admin.

Once a request is in progress, we’ve added additional email and in-app notifications so you stay up-to-date on the progress of your fund’s tasks. These include missing information and action required so you know exactly what’s needed from you to complete a request.

We will be making further improvements to the Activity tab over the coming weeks including the ability to schedule a call with your fund admin.

How do I learn more or get help?

To learn more about our improved Activity Tab, check out this support article or reach out to your Account Manager for a demo today. 

We’ve made some improvements

Beginning in May 2023, we are launching a new navigation experience - making it easier than ever to navigate your cap table, create and issue new securities, and manage relations with your stakeholders.

We are testing this experience with a select list of companies. Companies in this test will now navigate Carta’s equity management platform from the left-hand side. We are using this test to iterate on any improvements that need to be made and hope to roll out to 100% of new and existing companies by Summer 2023.

The new menu can also be collapsed for an optimized viewing experience by clicking the menu icon to the right of the Filter text box once you’ve landed in the right spot.

Finding what you need just got easier

The new navigation will make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for and complete critical tasks, with menu categories that are more intuitive and organized according to the type of task that needs to be completed within Carta. 

Terminology that just makes sense

We have also updated some of the terminology that appears throughout the Carta platform to clarify specific tasks and workflows. The changes that we’ve made are outlined in the table below.

FAQs

Why is Carta making this change? 

Carta offers a wide range of products and services, and users sometimes get  lost as they look through menu items in an effort to find the workflow or platform page they need to access. We understand that time is money, and the less time you spend locating the resources you need frees up more time for you to spend growing and managing your company. The new left-side menu enables users to have an immediate comprehensive view of Carta’s functionality with clearer verbiage, menu filtering, and collapsible dropdowns. 

Can I revert back to the old navigation experience? 

No. Our research has shown that our new navigation menu is not only more intuitive for users, but also faster. Beginning in May 2023, Carta is fully migrating away from the top navigation menu. We plan to be rolled out to 100% of companies by July 2023.

How do I use the new navigation experience to find what I’m looking for? 

The new navigation experience includes a filter to assist you in finding what you’re looking for. The menu will responsively pare down as characters are entered in the text box.

Additionally, left-side navigation enables you to expand and collapse multiple dropdowns at the same time, allowing for a more comprehensive overview of Carta’s functionality at a glance.

Did Carta remove any features? 

No. While the new menu may look more compact than in our current experience, all of the features that you have come to rely on are included in the new navigation. The goal of this initiative is not to change the functionality of Carta’s cap table, but rather, to make that functionality easier for you to find.

May 25, 2023 Benchmarks

What’s new?

• Updated salary, total cash, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations
• Updated US geographic differentials for all metro areas
• New total cash compensation benchmarks for all roles (total cash compensation benchmarks are reflective of employees who receive both base salary and some form of variable compensation)
• 90th percentile data for all roles and elements of compensation. Users can now set their target market position and view 90th percentile data on the Bands page.

Market Trends

Salary and total cash compensation benchmarks have fallen slightly (approximately 1% overall) since last quarter, reflecting a continued down market for startup talent. We’re observing that new hire salaries across many roles are closer to or below our previous benchmarks, causing many salary benchmarks to decrease. On a role-by-role basis, we’re seeing a bit more volatility in this quarter’s data as compared to the last six months. As in previous updates, specialization-level data continues to be more volatile than the broader sample, as sample sizes for these roles are smaller than job area level data.

Equity benchmarks have decreased approximately 9%, less than last quarter’s 15%. Lower benchmarks cut across most roles and levels, though executive equity grants dropped slightly less, and even increased in some cases. 

Looking across updated geographic differential data, most metro areas that moved closer to San Francisco pay levels have maintained their differentials compared to last year. This year, we see more cities outside of traditional tech hubs also moving closer to San Francisco pay levels (in particular metro areas across North Carolina and Florida)

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Sales, Research, and Strategy roles saw the largest increases, approximately 1-5% versus last quarter. Marketing, Administration, and Project Management roles saw the largest decreases ranging from 5-6%. The decreases for Marketing and Administration are driven by corrections that we have made for how certain roles are being categorized within these job areas. Information Technology also saw a larger decrease, largely due to the small sample size for this job area.

Equity - Support, Human Resources, and Strategy roles saw the largest decreases. Decreases in Product, Finance, and Operations were less pronounced than the overall sample

How do I update my plan to use the new benchmarks version?

You can update your compensation plan to use the latest benchmark versions either by:

Visiting the Plan page and clicking on the "Update available" link in the Active Plan window.

Navigating to the Bands page and clicking on the "Update" bubble in the top left.

You will have the opportunity to preview the new plan with the updated benchmarks version and assess their impact on your Scorecard before accepting the new plan.

What’s next?

Carta Total Compensation is developing benchmarks for new specializations.

What’s new?

Stakeholders that have sold through Carta Inc.’s tender offer feature or Carta Inc.’s public markets product can now view the delivery status of their 1099-B tax document. This new feature allows sellers to determine that their 1099-B for a particular selling year:

• has already been delivered
• will be delivered
• is not applicable for the year and won’t be delivered

How does this improve the stakeholder’s experience?

1099-B forms capture the capital gains reported to the IRS for sales done on Carta. Sellers use the information on their form 1099-Bs to file their taxes.

Not all sales done on Carta Inc.’s tender offer tool or Carta Inc.’s public markets product are reported on 1099-Bs. Prior to the release of this product, stakeholders have reported challenges in determining why they did not receive a 1099-B for a calendar year. This tool allows stakeholders to determine the status of their 1099-B quickly and clearly.

1099-Bs might not be provided for several reasons:

• The stakeholder is not subject to IRS reporting (is under a W-8BEN)
• All sales done are cashless sales and the issuer is using Carta’s Rev Proc 2002-50 functionality
• The stakeholder did not sell anything for the tax year where they were paid proceeds through Carta Inc.’s tender offer tool or Carta Inc.’s public markets product 
• All transactions excluded from filing (a common reason is treating the dispositions as option cancellations rather than cashless sales)

How does it work?

The stakeholder navigates to account:tax documents where all 1099-B documents are stored, and clicks on the “Missing a Form 1099-B” link:

From here, the participant can select the tax year and check the status on that year’s 1099-B:

The tool will indicate that either the 1099-B has already been distributed, or will give the reason that the stakeholder has not received a 1099-B for that year.

What's new?

Carta now supports automated preferred return waterfalls. 

What’s valuable about this change?

If you have a preferred return hurdle, your Fund Admin team will automate and review waterfalls directly in the Carta app. These improvements enable us to process more complex calculations in real-time, resulting in faster book closures, more secure data entry and the ability to view fund metrics in the app as they happen.

What do I need to do?

No action is needed. Your teams will start to calculate this performance hurdle online immediately.  

How do I learn more or get help?

Reach out to your account manager or talk to one of our representatives today. 

What's new?

You can now send a confirmation request to your LPs directly from Carta, allowing them to easily add or confirm their wire instructions prior to a distribution.

What’s important about this change?

We’ve made it easier to confirm the accuracy of LPs' wire instructions.

Prior to a distribution, you can now send a request to an individual LP, a group of LPs, or all LPs in the distribution to update or confirm their wire instructions.

Once the request is sent, your LP will receive an email from Carta prompting them to update or confirm their wire instructions in their LP Portal.

Once updated or confirmed, you will see a new status of Confirmed next to the LP’s name in the Wire Instructions Status column in your Partners tab as well as a complete Audit Trail of who added and confirmed the LPs wire instructions. 

What do I need to do?

After submitting a distribution request in Carta, click Request Wire Instructions. You can also initiate this request at any time by using the Request Wire Instructions button on the Partners page.

Select the individual investors or group of investors you’d like to send a request to. Set a deadline and optionally customize the email message your LPs will receive. Review the contacts that will receive the notification and then click Send.  

Your investors will receive an email asking them to add or confirm their wire instructions are current. After clicking Review wire instructions, they’ll be directed to their LP Portal where they can easily add or update in a few clicks.

Starting today, we are launching a new feature that will reduce the ACH transaction processing time for money movements on Carta by 33%. Previously, most ACH transfers took 6-7 business days to complete. We have made a few infrastructure changes to reduce transfer times by up to 2 business days. 

Who is this for? 

This change will impact all private and public corporations who move money directly on Carta, as well as holders of securities from these firms. LLCs will not be impacted by this change. 

How long will my transfers take? 

There is a slight variation in how long ACH transfers will take depending on what type of transaction the company or holder is making. The estimated processing times for the following transactions are below:

• SAFE Financings transactions: 4-5 business days (previously 6-7 business days)
• Private company exercises: 4-5 business days (previously 6-7 business days)
• Private company ACH repurchases: 3-4 business days (previously 5-6 business days)
• Public market trade settlements: 1 business day (previously 2 business days)
• Public markets options exercise: 4-5 business days (previously 6-7 business days)
• CINC tender offers: 1 business day (previously 2 business days)

I am a company administrator. How do I approve exercise requests in Carta?

Company administrators with the Option exercise approver role are able to individually review the submitted online option exercise requests and historical option exercises from the Transactions > Exercises page on Carta. For detailed instructions, you can check out this support article. 

I am a company administrator. How do I track early exercise requests and 83(b) elections?

Use the Filter function to select Yes for Early exercise to track 83(b) elections from the option holders. The ledger will display a filing status that depends on when the option holder originally submitted the early exercise request and whether or not the option holder explicitly chose to file an 83(b) election. Learn more about the 83(b) election. 

I hold options in a company that uses Carta to manage its equity. How do I exercise options on Carta via ACH? 

Exercising options into shares on Carta via ACH is available to US-based option holders of US private companies exercising ISOs, NSOs, or ISO/NSO split option grants. You can review detailed instructions in this support article. 

We are making it easier for companies to keep employees, investors, and other stakeholders informed about their holdings and company changes. 

What are we launching? 

With our new Cap Table Access page, company administrators can designate what type of information they want to share with their different stakeholders and set rules based on these preferences. By setting permissions by rules instead of a stakeholder-by-stakeholder process, we make it easier for company administrators to get the right stakeholders the appropriate information and reflect their information-sharing philosophy.

Who is this available for?

We are making this available to all companies on Carta as of April 2023. 

Why are we launching this? 

Companies have historically been able to grant viewing permissions to their stakeholders via our Cap Table Sharing page and features. This experience, however, was burdensome for many company administrators who found themselves having to change sharing settings as new stakeholders were added to their cap table or existing stakeholders changed their relationship to the company, such as an employee leaving the company or an investor exiting their position.

Where do I find my Cap Table Access Settings?

To update your Cap Table Access settings, navigate to Stakeholders > Cap Table Access.

How does it work?

With our new Cap Table Access page, company administrators can designate what type of information they want to share with their different stakeholders and set rules based on these preferences. By setting permissions by rules instead of a stakeholder-by-stakeholder process, we make it easier for company administrators to get the right stakeholders the appropriate information and reflect their information-sharing philosophy.

Companies can choose to enable a group of stakeholders with a specific level of access based on their relationship with the company. For example, companies can choose what information founders, investors, employees, former employees, and other stakeholders access on Carta. We’ve renamed, updated, and simplified our access levels to Restricted, Basic, Advanced, and Full Details. We include a “Recommended” level for different relationships (e.g. Investors = Advanced) to help guide founders and other company administrators on setting up their Cap Table Access settings based on user feedback. 

We’ve also added a new rule where former stakeholders--those who no longer have an active investment or holding in the company--will be downgraded to Restricted automatically. This means that as stakeholders enter and exit the cap table, their respective levels of cap table access will update automatically.

New Cap Table Access page: Group levels

We know that sometimes it’s important for company administrators to create experiences specific to a single stakeholder or user. The new Cap Table Access feature allows companies to set overrides for specific stakeholders in the “Individual levels” tab. We also provide information on that stakeholder’s relationship and holdings information.

New Cap Table Access page: Individual levels

Edit an Individual's Cap Table Access Settings

To help ensure company administrators set access levels that best fit the needs of their stakeholders, our access level guide is clickable from either the Group Level or Individual Level views of the new Cap Table Access page.

View the Access level guide

We appreciate our users’ feedback on how to make this page clearer and easier to use. We hope these improvements save company administrators valuable time and help them mirror their company information-sharing philosophy in our software.

What’s new?

Employees will now see videos from our 'Learn' library in their Session recap. The videos shown are recommended by their Carta Equity Tax Advisor, based on the conversation in their 1-1 session. 

What do I need to do?

You can access the new feature by navigating to your Session recap either through email or directly on the 'Tax Advice' page in your portfolio.

Have questions? Contact product@carta.com.