What’s new? 

This release improves the workflow for matching employees with stakeholders on Carta. Employees with the same name and email as the stakeholder will automatically match, saving their employee ID and thereby linking the stakeholder with the employee record. The improved workflow guides you through reviewing all other employee matches. 

How does it work? 

For the reviewed matches, you can now ignore, to be reminded next time, or to choose a different stakeholder. These decisions will be saved and will not need to be rematched when running the employee matching workflow. You can now review all matches and update the decisions later. 

What do I need to do? 

To get started, you will need to connect your external data to Carta either through connecting your HRIS system, uploading a spreadsheet, or pasting the information into Carta directly.

With your external data connected, Carta will attempt to automatically match your employees. From there you review suggested matches, deciding to approve the suggestion, ignore it, remind me later, or manually choosing a different person.

If there are any employees from external data that don’t match at all to Carta stakeholders, you can choose to ignore them or manually choose a person to match.

The workflow is then completed and all matches can be reviewed.

How do I learn more?

For more information on Employee Matching, please read our support article.

What’s new?

The Share Class Manager page will be updated this coming Monday, February 6th to make it easier to navigate, and provide a consistent experience when you are updating AOI terms.

We no longer display a "Link AOI" button at the top of the page. The new flow is designed to be simple and intuitive, with the "Manage Share Class" button giving you access to update existing share classes, add new share classes, and link Articles of Incorporation.

What do I need to do?

Navigate to Capitalization > Manage share classes. Under Manage share classes, there will be three options:

• Create new share class
• Edit existing share classes
• Add historical AOIs

Where can I learn more?

Visit the Share Class Manager support article or contact us via the In-App Help Center.

What’s New

When a user’s bank account does not have sufficient funds to pay for the exercise via ACH, Carta will warn the user when reviewing the exercise. The user will have the option to change the selected bank account, lower the amount of options to exercise, or proceed with the exercise.

Additional improvements to the review exercise page better highlight key details of the exercise, reducing the need for scrolling. The UI also now explicitly states that the total represents a cost to the user.

Users choosing to proceed are then given a final message that an underfunded exercise may be canceled.

Who this affects

This feature is available to employees who have set up their ACH bank account on Carta through Plaid. 

How it works

Carta is using Plaid Balance to confirm the available balance of the associated bank account prior to submitting the exercise request. No account balance information is stored on Carta. This feature does not block users from submitting exercise requests, rather warns them about the potential risk of a canceled exercise.

What happens if the selected bank account doesn’t have enough money for the exercise? 
We now warn users that their account doesn’t seem to have enough money to cover the exercise cost. We allow them to proceed anyway, as they could potentially add funds to the account before Carta attempts to pull the funds. If it turns out there are insufficient funds, we will cancel the exercise.

How does Carta know how much money is in my bank account?
By connecting a bank account through Plaid, we can use Plaid’s APIs to retrieve real-time balance information at the time of the exercise request. Checking the accounts available balance represents the predicted balance net of any pending transactions. This type of information is often used to protect against overdrafts and non-sufficient funds fees. For more information on Plaid Balance, see here.

What if I manually connected my bank account?
Users can always connect their bank accounts manually instead of using Plaid. For these users we cannot know their available balance and they will not receive any warnings about insufficient funds.

Timing

• 12/21/2022 - Released to 25% of users, with general availability by the end of January

How do I learn more or get help?

Visit Carta Support for more details on Exercising Using ACH and Setting Up Your Bank Account

What's new?

LPs can now manage their investments, all from their mobile device.

What’s important or valuable about this change?

Access your investments, now on the go.

LPs can manage their fund investments and personal investments from anywhere, at any time.

What do I need to do?

Download the Carta mobile application, suited for iOS and Android devices, from your app store. Then login using the same information used to login to your LP Portal on the web application. Once on the home screen, select the fund investment or personal investment you’d like to view: 

If a fund investment is selected, you’ll be able to view key investment details like called capital and net asset value. Plus, you can view, download, and send all fund investment documents like partner capital account statements (PCAPs) and  K-1s. 

If a personal investment is selected, you’ll be able to view key ownership information like share amount and issue date. 

For fund investments, once on Investment Details, scroll to access your fund documents. Select View all  to view, search, and filter all fund documents. Use the search bar at the top to search by document name. Or select Filter to filter by document type like PCAPs, capital calls, or tax. 

Once your document is selected, select the export button to markup, send, or download.

How do I learn more or get help?

Have additional questions about Carta’s LP mobile experience? Reach out to your account manager or request a demo today. 

What's new

Employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer now have access to on-demand educational content in their Carta portfolio. As an employee, you have the ability to re-watch your company’s recorded webinar, as well as view chapters of key concepts about your equity. The video chapters cover topics such as exercising your option, selling your options and other important topics.

Who this affects

This feature is available to employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer. Employees will be able to view their company's recorded webinar once it has been completed.

Where to find it

As an employee, navigate to the Learn section of the Tax Advice page in your Carta portfolio. If you have any additional questions, please schedule a session with an Equity Tax Advisor.

What’s New

We have made UI improvements to our Wire Instructions for online wire exercises. The new UI better highlights the amount, timeline, and considerations for completing the transfer. The updates include:

• User and exercise specific details such as grant, company, option holder, date, and amount.
• Clearer instructions for the bank on how to handle intermediary fees with specific SWIFT payment instructions. 
• Approval and reminder emails now show the last day for Carta to receive funds, so the exercise can be complete.

Who this affects

All international users who are exercising options via online wire. 

How it works

The updated Wire Instructions will be available in the same places as before (Tasks view, PDF, Exercise Progress view). You can see the new templates here:

Tasks view

PDF

Exercise Progress view

Email communication

Both Approval and Reminder emails show the date for Carta to receive funds.

Timing

• Available on all online wire exercises starting 11/30/2022

Additional Resources

Support Article: Exercising Via Online Wire

What's new

Employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer may now choose from up to four different tax advisory session types. This aims to provide transparency and flexibility so you can have the conversation that's right for you. 

Who this affects

US-based employees subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer

How it works

Scheduling a session

Log in to your  Carta employee account, navigate to the Tax advice tab.

From there, click on "Book a free session" to browse different session types. 

Once you're on the session type selection page, you'll see a brief outline on how to schedule and a selection of three to four different session types. 

Select the session type that's right for you and click "Schedule free session" to book a time with a tax advisor. 

If you're not quite sure where to start, we recommend starting with the "Understand equity basics" session type to learn about your equity and taxes at a high level.

Note: The "Discuss tender offer participation" session type only appears if your company is currently undergoing a tender offer. 

Preparing for a session

Session types: Discuss tender offer participation | Create tax scenarios

Once you've scheduled a time to speak with a tax advisor, you'll be prompted to upload a few documents. Tax advisors will create personalized tax scenarios using this information so you can have the most accurate tax picture. 

If you don't have these documents on hand now, you can skip this step for later. However, you must upload documents at least 24 hours before your session so advisors have enough time to prepare. 

You'll receive a calendar invite with a zoom link to attend your session at your scheduled time. You can also see this information in your tax advice tab in Carta, with the option to reschedule or cancel using the "View details" button. 

Session types: Ask a quick question | Understand equity basics

Once you've scheduled a time to speak with a tax advisor, there's nothing else you need to prepare ahead of your session.

You'll receive a calendar invite with a zoom link to attend your session at your scheduled time. You can also see this information in your tax advice tab in Carta, with the option to reschedule or cancel using the "View details" button. 

What’s new?

We have redesigned the way you review and accept your 409A valuation on Carta. This new design presents you first with a quick summary of the analysis along with a note from your analyst letting you know the next steps in finalizing your fair market value (FMV). Once you have reviewed the report, if you have any questions you can contact our team of valuation experts through the support module in the valuation review portal. Lastly, receive board approval from within or outside of Carta to finalize the current FMV on your account. 

How it Works

Once you receive an email notifying you that your valuation is ready for review, you can follow the link within that email to access the 409A ledger where you are able to review and download your valuation. Alternatively, you can navigate to the page within Carta at Compliance > 409A Valuation.

Review your valuation

From the 409A Ledger, once you select ‘Review 409A report’ you will be directed to the valuation review portal. Here you will find an overview of the analysis performed and the concluded FMV along with a note from your valuation analyst informing you of next steps and noting any details within the report that warrant extra attention. Once you have reviewed the analyst’s note and valuation summary, you can download the full report or access the support module from the valuation review portal to access support articles or get in touch with our team of valuation experts. 

Get board approval

Now that you have reviewed the valuation, the next step is to send it to your board for review. You can do so using the board consent feature within your Carta account to easily track acceptance from each board member within the Carta platform. Once all board members have submitted their board approval through the platform, your valuation will automatically be accepted on Carta. If you got approval outside of Carta, that’s great too, simply select ‘My board has approved’ to accept the valuation to finalize the current FMV in your account. Once finalized, the new FMV will be visible to your option holders on Carta.

What's new

New hire onboarding allows new hires to access their Carta account before they receive and accept their equity grant. By creating a stakeholder record for the employee, employees receive an email to register for a Carta account. This grants them access to Carta Tax Advisory.

If you do not add new hires they will need to wait to accept their equity grant in order to access Carta resources, which can take several months to approve and issue. 

New employees often have questions about their equity as soon as they join a company, Carta Tax Advisory gives them access to dedicated 1:1 support from equity tax experts from day 1 to help them understand their equity packages. 

Who does this affect?

Companies subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory

US-based employees (new hires) at companies subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory

How can I give new hires access to their Carta account?

Important notes before starting: 

1. The new hire onboarding process only applies to companies subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory. 
2. Tax advisory sessions are only available to US citizens or residents
3. Adding an employee into Carta as a stakeholder provides them access to Carta services like Carta Tax Advisory. Ensure you only add employees you intend to issue equity to.

The Stakeholder ledger allows users with Company editor or Legal administrator permissions to view and modify information for a person that holds multiple securities across the company 

Navigate to Stakeholders > All Stakeholders

Under the Manage Stakeholders drop-down, admins can add stakeholders individually or in bulk

Individually add stakeholders

Select “Add stakeholder” in the Manage stakeholders dropdown list

A modal will appear requesting information about the stakeholder

Required fields:

• First name
• Last name
• Relationship (i.e. employee)
• Relationship effective date

• Add and save an address 

  • Country (3 digit) 
  • State (2 digit)

Tax ID, Employee ID, Payroll ID, and other address fields can be input as available, but are not required before equity grant issuance

Bulk add stakeholders

Select Bulk add stakeholders from the Manage stakeholders dropdown

Download the template spreadsheet to import stakeholders’ information, save, and upload the modified file. Carta will run a check on the data entered before saving the changes

Note: Admins should not add new columns or move columns in this sheet. They must use the template as is

Required columns: 

• First name
• Last name
• Relationship (i.e. employee)
• Relationship effective date (MM/DD/YYYY)
• Country (3 digit) 
• State (2 digit)

After the updated xslx sheet is uploaded, click “Submit changes” and a confirmation modal will appear

Confirm to complete stakeholder creation

What’s new?

We have redesigned the 409A Ledger Page where you come to request and review the 409A Valuations of your company and enter the Fair Market Value (FMV) of your company’s options. The goal of this refresh is to help you navigate the valuation process with ease and access resources quickly whenever you need assistance. 

With this updated design you will quickly and easily identify where you are in the valuation process and what to expect next. Carta is here to help you along the way with curated support articles and a variety of options to get in touch with us if you have questions not covered within the articles.

How it Works

Under Compliance > 409A you will find a number of new features designed to help you navigate the Carta Valuation process with confidence.

Valuation Status Tracker

The Valuation Status Tracker at the top of the page clearly indicates where your company is in the valuation request process. Whether you are in the middle of completing your request, if your draft is ready for review or if you are anywhere in between, the tracker will let you know what your next step is as soon as you land on the 409A Ledger page. Also included are tools and support articles to help answer common questions that you may have based on where you are in the valuation process.

Review and accept your valuation

Once you have received your valuation, you can download it for review directly from the Valuation Tracker on the 409A Ledger page. After you have had a chance to review the report and are ready to accept, you will be directed to the final step in The Valuation Tracker, the acceptance workflow. 

Get in touch with our team

Have a question? Navigate to our Support Module on the page and select the contact method that works best for you, our team of experts will follow up with a response typically within 1 business day.

Viewing your 409A Valuations

Now that you have completed the valuation process, your most recent valuation will be displayed at the top of the table at the bottom of the page along with any previous valuations saved to your Carta account. If you have any questions for our Valuation team in between valuations, simply navigate to the new 409A Ledger Page to access our Support model to get in touch with our team of Valuation Experts.