What's new?

Companies now can decide how they want their shares to be reallocated within the vesting schedules when stock splits are performed. Two vesting strategies can be selected now:

Option 1: Reapply templates

When companies choose the reapply templates option, Carta will automatically reapply the template for all securities with template vesting schedules upon performing the split. This means that Carta will re-calculate the vesting schedules attached to securities, considering the new total quantity. This can change how the vesting is distributed among the tranches since it will be an entirely new vesting schedule.

For example, a 10 shares grant that time vests with tranches of 2 and 3 shares will, after a 1:10 split, have tranches of 25 shares each if the company chooses this option.

Option 2: Apply stock split ratio to all tranches 

When companies choose to apply the stock split ratio to all tranches, Carta will multiply the stock split ratio by each tranche. In case the shares remaining in a tranche are fractional, the platform will then round down to the nearest integer. This results in fewer differences in the schedule from the pre-split to the post-split security. If a security is tied to a template vesting schedule, Carta will need to update it to a custom schedule to make this change. Custom vesting schedules cannot be reapplied later, as they are not part of any templates.

If companies choose this option, a 10 shares grant that time vests with tranches of 2 and 3 shares, after a 1:10 split, will have tranches of 20 and 30 shares each if this option is chosen.

Why is this important?

Different companies need their post-split vesting schedules to be represented differently. With this change, Carta becomes more flexible to adjust to different vesting scenarios. Having more vesting accommodation strategies also means less time dedicated to manual adjustments after a stock split is performed.

How can I learn more about this?

You can find a detailed explanation of the new vesting strategies with vesting schedule examples in this support article.

What’s new?

Private companies on Carta can now run Dilution reports. The Dilution report will include: 

• Incremental Shares
• Weighted Average Shares Outstanding
• Average Trading Prices

All 3 of these values will help customers calculate Diluted Earnings Per Share for their income statement. 

What’s important or valuable about this change?

Private company Financial Reporting administrators will be able to run a Dilution Report that will provide them with major inputs into the Diluted Earnings Per Share formula. 

In this release, the following will be available:

• Shares outstanding

  • Simple average
  • Weighted average

• Trading prices

  • Simple average
  • Weighted average
• Incremental Shares
• Supporting tabs to help auditors tie out values

What do I need to do?

Log in to Carta and go to Compliance > Financial Reporting. Run a new report (must be 1 year or less reporting period). In the drop down menu to download other reports, such as SBC Expense and Min Disclosure, there will be an option for Dilution. 

Have questions? Contact 718@carta.com 

What’s new?

Soon, you will be able to access 8 new reporting templates under Capitalization > Reporting, which provide you with access to critical data points about your equity pool, company, securities, and stakeholders. You will be able to see exactly how your key option pool values are derived, view equity awards joined with Grant Reason and Employee ID, and even export a detailed list of stakeholders and their properties.

Why is this important?

We’ve been listening to every piece of feedback from you, and have heard the challenges that you face. The new reports address these challenges, providing visibility into how key pool values are derived, and giving you reporting access to over 60 key fields that were spread across multiple places, and in some cases, previously un-reportable.

Those 8 template reports are:

• Equity pool transaction ledger: A detailed view of shares available to issue from your equity pool. This new report includes a double-entry activity log for every transaction so you can see, line-by-line, exactly how available shares and other plan values  were derived.
• Common securities ledger: A ledger of all Common shares in Carta.
• Equity awards outstanding: A detailed view of all outstanding equity awards across all plans on Carta. 
• Equity plan granted: A ledger of all securities granted from the equity plan. 
• Options outstanding: A detailed view of all outstanding options across all plans on Carta. 
• Securities ledger: A ledger of all securities tracked on Carta. 
• Share registry:  Used by companies in many countries to create a share/equity register or register of holders.
• Stakeholder details: Full list of stakeholders and their properties.

What do I need to do?

You should be on the lookout for an email from your CSM letting you know that these reports are now available for you. Once you get that email, you can go to Capitalization > Reporting, and you will see the following view, where the newly added reports will have a ‘New’ bubble next to them:

From there, you just need to export the report as usual!

Where can I learn more?

For more information on exporting reports, visit our support site. We will be adding additional information to the support site as reports are updated and improved.

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?

Carta now helps private company administrators coordinate the settlement of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). The end-to-end offering allows an Issuer to:

• configure and schedule a RSU Settlement;
• provide RSU holders with an election period to identify how they want to pay the tax withholding obligation associated with the upcoming settlement;
• collect any cash payments from RSU holders; and
• automatically update the cap table at settlement.

During the election period, RSU holders are invited to access a workflow to view their vested RSUs along with the tax withholding amounts due at settlement. They have the flexibility to meet their tax obligation by electing to net-settle, pay the full amount in cash, or use a combination of surrendered shares and cash. 

This offering helps facilitate the RSU settlement process from setup to share delivery for private Issuers that award RSUs under their equity compensation plans.

How does it work?

Issuers

Private company administrators can go through a four-step process to configure an upcoming RSU Settlement with Carta Liquidity. Issuers can:

• set the parameters of the settlement (e.g., FMV, election timing, settlement date); 
• view and confirm the RSUs that will be included based on the vesting end date (i.e., record date); and 
• view and confirm tax withholding amounts associated with the settlement. 

Issuers can set rates to use when calculating tax withholdings owed based on each RSU holder’s tax jurisdiction(s). Carta Liquidity’s integration with Carta’s equity management platform and tax engine eliminates the need for the administrator to pull and sort cap table information manually or calculate tax withholdings for each RSU holder. Alternatively, Issuer’s can provide tax withholding amounts calculated by their HRIS provider for use in the settlement.

RSU holders

When the administrators invite RSU holders to submit their elections, RSU holders will be able to view which of their RSUs will be settled and the tax withholding amount due per security. In addition, individuals will identify how they would like to satisfy the tax withholding amount owed through a self-service election workflow. 

The three tax withholding payment options include:  

• Share withholding (i.e., net settlement) - The entire tax withholding amount is paid by surrendering a portion of shares from the vested RSUs released for settlement. The net amount of shares after withholding will be delivered to a RSU holder at settlement. This is the default option.
• Cash payment - The entire tax withholding amount is paid by a RSU holder in cash (only USD is accepted). RSU holders are required to fund their brokerage account in order to make this election.
• Share and cash payment - Each RSU holder identifies the mix of cash and shares that will be used to pay the taxes due at settlement, providing them more flexibility. RSU holders are required to fund their brokerage account in order to make this election.

For any cash elections, RSU holders are instructed to transfer the necessary cash to their Carta Liquidity brokerage account*. RSU holders are able to modify their election until the end of the election period. 

At settlement, Carta Liquidity’s integration with Carta’s equity management platform automatically updates an Issuer’s cap table to reflect the shares of stock delivered to RSU holders, and any cash payments received to cover applicable tax obligations will be transferred automatically to the Issuer’s brokerage account. RSU holders will then receive their resulting equity from the Issuer in their Carta accounts. In addition, Carta Liquidity will provide a record of the RSU settlement to both the Issuer and RSU holders. 

Run regular RSU settlement processes with automatic cap table updates and tax withholding calculations, saving your team time and resources 

The RSU Settlement offering will:

• Reduce the manual administrative work required to set up a regular cadence of RSU settlement through equity management and tax engine integrations
• Provide RSU holders flexibility to choose how they would like to meet their tax withholding obligations through a self-service election workflow
• Provide optionality to RSU holders to pay out of pocket for the amount they feel comfortable paying.

Start managing RSU Settlements on Carta!

Reach out to company_coverage@cartacapitalmarkets.com to speak with your relationship manager to turn on this feature. 

*Note: Brokerage accounts and other brokerage services are offered through Carta Capital Markets, LLC (Member: FINRA/SIPC)

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

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

The Payment Status Updates on the Exercising workflow provides users a more accurate reflection of the status of their exercise during the money movement step of the exercise. Error messaging will now provide a single failure message clarifying what caused their exercise to become stuck during the money movement step of the exercise including errors around cancelation requests, bank account removal, and insufficient funds in the bank account.

Who this affects

All users exercising for private companies on Carta.

How it works

Today, users can view the status of their exercises in progress on the Holdings page and with the new Payment Status Update feature, these exercises will now display an ‘Error’ bubble beside the active step when the exercise gets stuck. Clicking the ‘View details’ button will navigate the user to the Exercise tab on the Option grant modal with user instructions to help resolve their stuck exercise. 

On the Exercise tab, error messaging will provide user action to contact their company admin through the Option grant modal’s Report Issue tab, to contact Carta Support through the chat, or update their bank account information on the Payment Information page. 

What’s New

Users that choose to early-exercise will now be able to submit an 83(b) form automatically to the IRS while exercising. Furthermore, users can now update their SSN, digitally sign the 83(b) form, and review personal information during the exercise request. In addition, users now have an improved UI to access the PDF and tracking number of their 83(b) form on the 83(b) Elections tab  on the Option Grant modal.

Who this affects

Any US-based users with early exercisable option grants, and ACH eligible who choose to early-exercise through Carta. 

How it works

83(b) Automated Submission Option During Exercise Request

The 83(b) Automated Submission option will be available during an exercise submission. Users will be able to choose between performing an Automated 83(b) Submission or a Manual 83(b) submission (if the user selects to submit their 83(b) form manually, they still have the option to utilize the automated submission feature through the Option grant modal as long as the current date has not exceeded 25 days from the exercise date).  

	Figure 1: On the Review Tax page, users now are given the option to automatically submit an 83(b) form or manually submit the form; If the user chooses to submit the automated 83(b) form, they can add/update their SSN directly
	Figure 2: Updated Sign and Submit modal which includes an Automated 83(b) Submission Agreement section signed via digital signature.
	Figure 3: Updated Congratulations page stating that the 83(b) form is being sent to the IRS.
	Figure 4: 83(b) elections tab on the Option Grant modal to view the USPS tracking number and the submitted 83(b) form.

Included Personal Information

To submit an automated 83(b) submission, a Social Security Number (SSN) is required by the IRS to properly verify the identity of the user. If the user’s SSN isn’t filled in the Account settings, users have the ability to add and confirm their SSN when selecting their submission method. Otherwise, when users navigate to the Review Exercise page, the automated submission will pull the user’s Name, SSN, and Address directly from the Account settings.

Digital Signature

On the Sign and Submit modal (Figure 2), users agree to automatically submit the 83(b) form by signing the agreement via digital signature. The digital signature is added directly into the PDF of the 83(b) form.

Status of submission 

The 83(b) form PDF and Tracking number will be provided and displayed in the Option grant modal on the 83(b) Elections tab. The user will be able to track and check the status of their 83(b) Automated Submission.

83(b) Manual Submissions

Manual 83(b) Submissions UI has been improved on the 83(b) Elections tab providing users with an 83(b) form to print and sign which is to be mailed manually by the user. To complete their manual submission, users will be required to upload their signed copy of the form in addition to the date that the 83(b) form was sent to the IRS on Carta. Further, users may choose to submit an automated submission on the 83(b) Elections tab.

FAQ

1. Can I still use the previous workflow for 83(b) Submission?

Yes! If you would prefer to file your 83(b) form manually, you still have the ability to do so! During the exercise workflow, you may select “Submit an 83(b) form later” as your submission method, and you’ll have the option to download and print an 83(b) form from the 83(b) Elections tab on the Option grant modal.

2. What happens if my exercise gets stuck or canceled?

If you select automated submission of your 83(b) election, it will be initiated immediately after you finish submitting your exercise.  If your exercise gets canceled, you should consult with your legal and tax advisors on what to do with your filed 83(b) election form.

3. How will I know that the IRS has received my automated submission? Will I be able to closely follow the progress of the 83(b) submission?

You can navigate to the 83(b) elections tab on the Option grant modal to verify the status of the 83(b) form using the tracking number provided by USPS to follow the progression of your 83(b) submission. Status updates are available as soon as the package is delivered to the USPS.

We highly recommend printing and storing the online USPS confirmation as this information is only available for a limited amount of time. 

Additional Resources

• Support Article: 83(b) Form for Early Exercised Option Grants
• Blog: What is Early Exercising?
• Arcade: 83(b) Automated Submission Walkthrough