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 3 exciting updates now available in Carta Total Comp. You can now use: 

• Refreshed equity benchmarks
• Benchmarks for 4 new specializations 
• Benchmark version selector (Bands page)

View new job area specializations

Users will now be able to view and use new salary and equity benchmarks for the following specializations:

• Office Management (within Administration) 
• Recruiting (within HR) 
• Digital Marketing (within Marketing)
• Partnerships (within Strategy)

Note: Our sample size for new specializations  can be smaller than job area benchmarks, which could result in data volatility as we continue to update the data and grow our overall sample size. 

How do I see benchmarks for the additional specializations?

You can view benchmarks for the Digital Marketing specialization by:

1. Visiting the Bands page and selecting “Marketing” under Area. Once the marketing job area is selected, you can select the digital marketing specializations by selecting the Specialization dropdown.

1. This will allow you to view salary/equity bands for levels 1 - 7 for the Digital Marketing specialization.  
   
   
2. The above process can be followed for each of the new specializations.

How do benchmarks for the additional specializations affect the Employee Scorecard?

The compa-ratio is a quick way to compare an employee's compensation to your plan's target rate for a given job area, level, and location. The compa-ratios for an employee assigned to the Administrative (Office Management), HR (Recruiting), Marketing (Digital Marketing), Strategy (Partnerships) specializations will now be calculated using the target compensation for the specialization not the job area.

Use refreshed equity benchmarks version 2022-12-20

What changes can I expect from these benchmarks?

We have updated equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations. These benchmarks are a reflection of the current market, characterized by limited fundraising, a slowdown in hiring, and a potential decrease in some company valuations. As a result, these benchmarks show decreases in target equity compensation. This is due to having a higher concentration in earlier stage valuations and more junior level roles. Equity benchmarks across mid-to-late stage companies and more senior level roles are flat to slightly above our previous benchmarks. Looking forward to 2023, assuming the overall environment remains the same, we would anticipate continued volatility and potential decreases in equity benchmarks.

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

You can update your compensation plan to use the latest benchmark versions in one of two ways: 

1. Navigating to  the Plan page and clicking on the "Update available" link in the Active Plan window.

1. 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.

View the current market without affecting your Scorecard

Carta is focused on providing your business with the latest market compensation data. We understand that your plan is tied to a point-in-time, making your benchmark version an integral part of your compensation philosophy. We also understand that viewing future versions can help in understanding the current market, headcount planning, and more. Carta is excited to announce that you can now access the latest compensation benchmarks without updating your Plan. 

The Bands page will now default to Carta Total Compensation’s latest benchmarks. However, regardless of what is selected on the Bands page, the Scorecard will remain associated with your selected Plan’s benchmark. Users can easily toggle between the latest benchmarks and those associated with their compensation plan using the Benchmark version dropdown. How do I toggle the Bands page to display the benchmark associated with my Plan?

1. Visit the Bands page and click the Benchmark version dropdown. 
   
   
2. Select “Default Plan” to view the Bands page using the benchmark associated with your compensation plan. 
   
   

What’s next?

Carta Total Comp is working on international geo-adjustments.

What's new?

We are making updates to the equity reporting experience on January 9, 2023.

What's important about this change?

Next year, users will gain access to new reports on Carta. Some of these updates will include auditable equity plan balance and cap table reports. As part of these improvements, we will be limiting features like flexible columns and filters for Custom Reports starting January 9th.

What do I need to do?

We recommend that you download any reports that you may need to reference in the future. However, you can access the data you need using our extensive library of report templates after January 9th.

How do I learn more or get help?

Please reach out to our Support team using the In-App Help Center. Log in to Carta.

What's new?

Admins now have the ability to sort the interest type columns in cap table views.

What's important or valuable about this change?

You have one more option to customize the cap table view to your preferences. You can now sort the interest type columns in the cap table views to reflect how you want to view and export data.

What do I need to do?

On the cap table views page, click on Columns. You can show, hide, or rearrange the interest type columns by dragging and dropping them in the order you want. Within each interest type, you can also show or hide specific columns.

Any changes you make to the interest type columns in cap table views will also be reflected in the export.

How do I learn more or get help?

For more information, visit our support site.

What's new?

Admins can now download data rooms, update access permissions, and view a complete activity log to see who is viewing files stored in your data rooms.

What's important or valuable about this change?

• Download data rooms. You can now download each data room as a zip file and maintain the folder and file structure, allowing you to share these files with anyone who doesn’t have access to Carta.
• Update access permissions. Review and update who has access to a data room. You can easily remove access from anyone you previously invited to a data room with, whether they accepted the invite or not.
• View an activity log. See a history for each data room, folder, and file,  including views and downloads. This is especially useful if you have shared a data room for due diligence with potential investors because you can gauge their interest.

What do I need to do?

To download a data room, navigate to the menu on the right side of the data room and click Download. 

To update access permissions, navigate to Manage data room > Manage sharing. You can see who the data room was previously shared with and can remove their access.

To view the activity log, navigate to the menu on the right side of the data room and click View activity. 

This can also be done at the folder or file level, showing a filtered list depending on where the activity log is accessed from.

How do I learn more or get help?

For more information, visit our support site.

What's new?

You can now enable estimated values for interests. Carta can automatically calculate and provide estimates for vested, unvested, and outstanding values as well as threshold gain or loss for profits interests, and MOIC.

What's important or valuable about this change?

You can demonstrate the value of equity to interest holders, including employees, investors, board members, and advisors. They can see estimated values for their interests in their Carta portfolio.

There are multiple values available for you to choose from and each value includes information on how it is being calculated, which improves transparency.

You have the flexibility to choose whether you want to calculate estimated values at all, make the values visible to Admins only or to Admins and interest holders.

What do I need to do?

Equity value estimates are based on the latest per-unit value. A per-unit value can come from a Carta 409A valuation or company Admins can manually input values obtained from other sources, such as a board determination or a recent fundraising round.

Add estimated value while creating a new Interest Type

Complete the flow until you reach the section Estimated value.

Click on the drop-down Visible To to select who should be able to view the estimates. Note that you have the ability to determine whether only company administrators will have access to the estimates or if holders will also be able to see them.

Add estimated value while editing an Interest Type

Under Interests and interest types, click on the interest type and on View interest type details.

Click on Edit on the right side of the Estimated values section.

Click on the drop-down Visible To to select who should be able to view the estimates.

Estimated values will be visible to interest holders in their Carta portfolio.

How do I learn more or get help?

For more information, visit our support site.

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

Variable Compensation Programs are now automatically reflected in an employee’s Total Rewards Statements for all Carta Total Compensation customers. 

Give employees complete visibility into their total compensation 

Show employees all the bonus programs that have been assigned to them in their Total Rewards Statement.  

1. Enable employees to see a complete picture of their compensation, including any variable programs that you’ve assigned to them 
2. Save time with variable compensation programs automatically attached to your employees’ Total Rewards statements, with no additional manual work on your end 

Get started 

How do I create a Variable Compensation Program and reflect it in my employees’ Total Rewards Statement?

You can get started with VCP in seconds. Here’s how to get started: 

1. Navigate to the Plan page.
   
   
2. Variable Compensation Programs can be found on the bottom half of the page.
3. Click “Create variable compensation program” to be guided through the process of creating your first variable compensation program.
   
   
4. Once you have created a variable compensation program(s) and assigned those to the correct employees, they will automatically be shown in an employee’s Total Rewards Statement. 

Learn more

Visit the Carta Total Rewards resource center for more details.

Have additional questions about Total Rewards Statements? Reach out to your Account Manager or contact our Support Team.

What's new?

Financial reporting can require flexibility. We’ve added new functionality to adapt to the reporting needs of your business with in-app custom assumption overrides.

What’s valuable about this change?

You won’t have to download a report from Carta and manipulate it in an external document. You can customize your reports right in the Carta web application, while remaining International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 2 compliant. Here’s what you can customize*:

1. Expected term
2. Volatility
3. Fair market value
4. Interest rate
5. Fair value

What do I need to do?

You can access Financial Reporting directly from your Carta account. Simply go to the Compliance tab and select Financial Reporting. You can apply custom assumption overrides after you’ve run a report within the Fair Values tab of Financial Reporting.

How do I learn more or get help?

Contact our financial reporting support team. 

* These customization options can be applied to tranches of an award. Users will be able to change the assumption on a tranche-level basis for a single award.

What's new?

You can now toggle between fund or firm view for your SOI.

The SOI review flow allows fund admins to send clients their SOIs either for the entire firm or at the fund level to review and approve at quarter and year-end. Some clients enjoy seeing their entire SOI in one view, while others need to review it by fund either due to preference, or the timing of when each fund SOI is wrapped up for the period. 

Because both options have been valuable, we have now added a toggle onto the SOI review screen that allows clients to see their SOI broken down by either investment or by fund. We've also included fund totals for cost and value, as we heard requests for this quick reference from clients as well.

What’s important or valuable about this change?

Depending on customer needs or preferences, the ease of this view change will make accessing either your fund- or firm-level SOIs super efficient. 

Previously, customers needed to go through their fund admin to prepare a new version of their SOI. Now they can do it quickly and efficiently without having to go through their fund admin.

What do I need to do?

Login to your Carta Platform and check it out today. You will be able to view your SOI by investment or fund by selecting the toggle option as seen below:

How do I learn more or get help?

Have additional questions about these views or SOI in general? Reach out to your fund admin or account manager today.