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.

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.

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.

Starting today, we are launching a new feature to make it easier for companies to manage their stakeholders on Carta. Companies with an HRIS integration can terminate up to 25 stakeholders at a time. We are also making the process for performing terminations simpler by removing steps needed to complete this action. This feature is rolling out to select companies today and will be available to all company admins that have set up an HRIS integration on Carta by May 11, 2023.

Who is this for? 

Companies on Carta that have an HRIS integration. If your company does not currently have an HRIS integration set up, you can do so by navigating to your Settings -> Integrations. 

How does it work? 

Companies should take the following steps to terminate 1-25 stakeholders at once: 

• Navigate to Stakeholders -> Stakeholder Changes
• Navigate to the Terminations tab (2nd from the left)
• Select between 1 and 25 employees using the checkbox on the right
• Click Bulk Terminate Stakeholders. If the admin has terminated at least one employee, this button will take them to the Terminate Stakeholder page.
• Check to make sure all data for each employee is correct before selecting Terminate Stakeholder at the bottom.

How is this different from the current experience? 

The current experience allowed for single employee terminations only. Each termination required the company admin to access multiple pages and take multiple steps.  

I do not have an HRIS integration. How do I get access to this feature? 

The best way to access this feature is to add an HRIS integration to your account. Carta supports over 100 HRIS providers. Connecting Carta to your HRIS will help you reduce time spent manually inputting data and ensure data accuracy as your stakeholder information changes over time. You can read more about how to connect your HRIS here. 

I did a bulk termination incorrectly and I need to undo it. Can I reverse these terminations in bulk? 

Not at this time. You will need to reverse each termination individually. You can review the instructions in detail in this support article.

Where do I go to learn more? 

You can review detailed instructions in this support article or reach out to Carta support to learn more. 

Today we’re making design improvements to the RSU Modal to make it easier for holders to understand the value of their equity. 

What is changing? 

RSU holders now can see a summary view of their securities in the details tab, including an overview table with units breakdown. Also, double trigger RSUs are no longer stuck in a zeroed state, they can now see a breakdown of vesting information, including time-vested amounts.

Changes to the Details tab of the RSU Modal

RSU holders will see the following information on the RSU details page: 

1. Original quantity / Issued: Total amount of RSUs granted on the issue date
2. Released for settlement: The number of vested units that have been part of a settlement event
3. Delivered: The number of shares ultimately delivered to the holder as a result of converting the RSU, after any shares withheld by the issuer as payment for the holder's tax obligation
4. Withheld at settlement: The number of shares that have been withheld to cover taxes at settlement
5. Partially-vested amount: eligible for settlement when performance is hit, or the the total number of shares time vested, and available for settlement
6. Remainder: Resulting number of shares from original quantity, after subtracting settled and withhold amounts 

The bottom of the details tab will now include an employee education modal, which will be used to surface important education about their RSUs. 

Changes to the Vesting Schedules tab of the RSU Modal 

Now, holders can see the cumulative values for all vesting conditions applicable to their RSUs, which can be time or milestone based, with or without additional performance conditions.

We’ve updated the Vesting Schedules tab to account for the following scenarios (screenshots of each below):

1. Double trigger RSU (Based on time and an additional condition)
2. Double Trigger RSU (Based on milestones and an additional condition)
3. Single Trigger RSU (Based on time)
4. Single Trigger RSU (Based on milestones)
5. RSU has been terminated or expired

Double trigger RSU (Based on time and an additional condition) 

Double Trigger (Based on milestones and an additional condition) 

Single trigger (Based on time)

Single trigger (Based on milestones)

RSU has been terminated or expired

Visit the resource center for more details

Have additional questions? Check out support.carta.com to learn more.

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?

With Carta's new Deal pro forma tool you can generate an accurate deal-ready pro forma model with iterative calculations in just a few minutes. Users will be able to create a deal-ready pro forma that takes into account all the nuances of the model and handles the complicated conversion math for SAFEs and Notes. 

What's important or valuable about this?

Carta automates the process of building a pro forma so that it can be completed on the Carta platform within minutes. Carta Deal Proforma eliminates unnecessary iterative and redundant work. With the new tool you can increase the capacity for companies to be more versatile with their modeling as it’s easy to make incremental changes instead of starting from scratch. Starting today you can:

• Build a deal pro forma in a few minutes instead of hours and view results instantly
• Share or view on Carta or exported as an excel file.
• Use your latest cap table information for real-time changes to your pro forma.

What do I need to do?

Carta Deal Pro Forma will be available to all Carta customers in their Scenario Modeling tab.

How does it work?

Under Fundraising > Scenario Modeling > Pro forma tab,  you can see create a pro forma and generate a full view of your next round and export a deal-ready pro forma cap table. 

You can:

• Add new round terms
• Add new money investors for this round, including consideration for investors with pro rate. 
• Add convertibles converting in this new round or uncheck convertibles to be excluded from this pro forma.
• Define the share classes for the financing
• Include Investor Pro Rata Rights, including investors with convertible Pro Rata Rights
• Add advanced terms such as conversion methods, anticipated option pool increase, specification of authorized shares and common stock buffers
• View and share in app or export to excel

Have a question or feedback? Visit our support site.

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