Equity Plan Management Software is the fastest and easiest way to manage the equity plans of your company. Employees need access to the information they need in order to make decisions about how their stock options should be exercised, but it can be difficult to gather this information together in one place. That’s where equity plan management software comes in. If you’re looking for a tool that will help you manage employee stock option plans, we can help.
In this post, we review the aspects of Equity Plan Management Software, employee stock option management software, cap table management software, and best cap table management software.
Equity Plan Management Software
You’ve built a business, and it’s time to start putting in place the systems that will help you grow. One of the most important ones is managing your equity plan. If done right, an equity plan can provide stability and motivation for employees while keeping everyone motivated toward the same goal – growing the business. But if done wrong, an equity plan can cause confusion and resentment among employees while doing little or nothing to motivate them. Here are some factors to consider when developing an equity program:
IAM WORKSTATION
IAM WORKSTATION is software for equity plan management, employee stock purchase plan and employee stock option plan. We are excited to announce the release of our new application which will help you manage your company’s equity plans more effectively. This new platform is available now on the web with mobile apps coming soon!
IAM WORKSTATION provides a complete suite of tools to help companies run their equity programs seamlessly:
- Create and administer equity plans in an easy-to-use interface
- Manage data across multiple locations and time periods using our powerful reporting capabilities
- Stay organized by keeping all documents related to your program in one place, including forms and agreements
DECISION-READY SOFTWARE
If you’re looking for software that makes it easy to get the right information to the right people at the right time, then you should consider equity plan management software.
It’s important that your employees feel like their voices are being heard. Equity plan management software will help make sure you understand how your business is doing and what needs to be done to make sure it stays healthy.
This kind of software also helps with employee recognition, which can help improve engagement and retention rates in your company.
WHAT KIND OF WORKFLOW DO YOU NEED?
Workflow is a series of steps that make up a process. For example, you could have a workflow for an incoming customer complaint that includes logging the complaint, assigning it to someone in customer service and following up with the customer.
Workflow software can help you automate your processes and make them more efficient by creating pre-determined steps for each task within a process. There are different types of workflow systems and each one serves different needs:
- Time management software is used to manage multiple projects at once while staying on schedule;
- Project management software helps teams collaborate on shared goals;
- Human resources (HR) systems help HR departments manage employee data, benefits and payrolls;
There are many other types of workflows depending on your industry or business model.
Software can help make your life easier.
Equity Plan Management software can help make your life easier. The program automates tasks, shares data and information from one system to another, provides decision support tools and functions, and allows you to work more effectively.
employee stock option management software
Check out and begin using Eqvista, which is the best stock option management software out there!
Offering employee compensation is a great tool for a company. It allows startups and cash strapped companies to offer an incentive for employees to work harder, or as a recruitment tool to hire highly qualified people to join the company. But offering equity as employee compensation comes with a lot of responsibilities and administrative work.
Let us dive into this and understand more about stock option administration.
Employee Stock Options
Employee stock options, also known as ESOs, are one of the main types of equity compensation offered to the employees in a company. Basically, this is a derivative financial instrument that allows the holders an option on the company stock. They offer the employees the right to purchase the stock of the company at a fixed price over a specific period of time. The terms of the ESOs are outlined in the employee stock options agreement given to employees by the company.
The biggest benefit of stock options comes into play only when the company stock price rises. And when the price of the shares increase, the options are exercised and the holder (who is the employee here) gets the stock of the company at a discounted price. The employee can then sell the stock in the open market for a profit or hold on to them for a longer period of time.
Stock options are usually offered to employees in startup companies, or in companies that want to go public. They are also offered as an incentive to employees in fast-growing companies or as an incentive for a skilled employee to stay with the company.
In case the employee decides to leave the company before getting all the stock options after they vest (vesting will be explained below), they get canceled. And just to be clear, the stock options do not offer any voting or dividend rights. The only benefit that the employees get is the profit earned by selling the shares after purchasing at a discount.
Here are some other benefits of ESOs that the employees can enjoy:
The stock options plan does not just offer benefits to the employees, but also to the employers, which include:
Types of Stock Options
There are two kinds of stock option plans:
Vesting
With the above clear, the next thing you need to know about is vesting. There are two parties in the deal made when offering ESOs – the grantor, who is the employer and the grantee, who is the employee. The employees are given compensation in the form of stock options, but with specific restrictions, out of which the most important one is the vesting period.
A vesting period is the length of time that the employee has to stay in the company before they can exercise (officially own) their ESOs. The reason behind having a vesting schedule is so that the employee performs well and stays with the company for a long time before they are rewarded. Companies do not want employees to benefit from a quick gain and leave the company thereafter. Vesting follows a predetermined schedule set by the company when the grant is offered.
All these details of the plan are listed in the employee stock option agreement. You can negotiate the terms with the company, and key employees in the company may also request to have the shares vest faster or at a lower exercise price. The stock options vest in chunks over the time period on fixed dates as per the vesting schedule. For instance, if you get 2,000 options from the company and the vesting plan is for five years over a 15 year term, you will get 20% of the total shares after each year. This would be 400 shares per year, as shown in the table below.
The 15-year term means that starting from the day the plan commences, you would have 15 years to exercise all the options. If you miss this time, you will lose all shares. Also, if you decide to leave the company before the vesting period of 5 years, you will end up losing the remaining shares (unearned). In fact, this is why the vesting schedule is in place – so that you do not leave the company early.
Stock Options Management Software
Offering stock options means that you will also have to keep track and manage them well. That is where stock option plan administration software for startups comes in. They are created to help you track and manage all the stock options in the company.
The stock options management software comes with four main factors including accuracy, efficiency, security, and comprehensiveness. In addition to this, the software allows you to create vesting schedules and issue shares, while the application would handle all the complex calculations of how many shares are vested and when.
How employers and employees benefit from stock option management software?
There are a lot of benefits offered to both employees and employers with the help of the best stock option management software. These include:
Stock Option Management Software from Eqvista
One of the best stock options management software applications in the market is Eqvista. It is a sophisticated stock option plan administration software for startups that would help you track, manage, and make intelligent decisions about the equity of your company. The application takes care of all the shareholder activities. Unlike many other applications available, we also help in incorporating your company and then managing the equity from there.
Some of our key benefits include:
Creating an employee stock option plan
Let us help you understand how to create an employee stock option plan on Eqvista. But before you can do this, you will have to create an account on Eqvista and prepare your company profile.
Step 1: On the company dashboard, click on “Securities” from the left hand side menu. From this drop down menu, click on “Options”, and you will be redirected to the following page.
Here, click on “Create New Option Pool” to create a stock option plan on this equity management software.
Step 2: You will then reach the next page where you will have to select the “Underlying Security Class” from which the shares would be added in the option pool.
For this, click on the field to get the various equity class plans. Select the one that you want to use for this. In this case, we selected “ESOPs”.
Note: To learn how to create an equity class, click here!
Step 3: Once you do this, a drop-down window will appear. Add in the option details click on “Submit”.
Step 4: The option pool would then be created. You will also be redirected to the page where you can see the option pool details.
You can now begin issuing grants to your employees from this option pool by clicking on the “Issue” button on the top right side.
Creating a vesting schedule
The next important thing you need to know how to do when issuing stock options to employees using this great stock option management software is how to create a vesting schedule. Here is how to do it on Eqvista:
Step 1: From the dashboard or from whichever page you are on, click on the option “cap table” from the left side menu. A drop-down menu will appear. Click on the option, “vesting and plans” from here. You will reach the following page.
To create the plan, click on the button “New vesting plan” from the top right-hand side of the page.
Step 2: Once you do this, you will reach the next page which looks like this.
Here, you need to select the kind of vesting plan you want. There are three types of vesting plans:
To help you understand better, we selected the hybrid option.
Step 3: When you do this, a drop-down window will appear where you need to add the details as shared below.
Note: Ensure that the total percent of the plan is equal to 100%.
Once done, click on “Submit”, and the plan will be created and you can now use it while issuing the stock options to the employees using this equity management software.
cap table management software
We understand how important it is to have the right tools for your company as you begin fundraising, bringing on co-founders, or even offering stock options to employees. While cap tables aren’t all that’s needed, they are something that should not be overlooked or ignored. A small error on a cap table can cause massive problems down the road so it’s important it’s managed correctly from the start.
So to make things simple, we’ve gone ahead and ranked all of the best cap table management tools, starting with our favorites. Let’s dive in!
1) Gust Launch
Gust Launch is our favorite cap table management due to its ease of use and helpful customer service – they’ll even walk you through incorporating a startup that’s designed to raise capital (C-Corp). Gust Launch can be seen as one of the more expensive options on this list but it’s well worth it in our opinion. They also have different tiers that scale with you as your business grows. If you’d prefer to start for free, Gust also has a free service called Gust Equity Management made exclusively for cap table creation.
Pros
Cons
2) Carta
While Carta started out with solely cap table management, they have been slowly turning Carta into an ownership management empire. The company’s UI is a little dated, but you’re buying Carta’s software for the power of their tools, not the aesthetic. Carta counts over 8,000+ companies as customers and has valued over $200B in private assets. Carta is a great option if you’re a later stage startup.
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Cons
3) Eqvista
Eqvista’s cap table management software isn’t any more powerful than competitors but it is one of the most user-friendly. The company’s focus on making it easy to use will save your time in the long and short run. If you need help with 409A valuations, you can count on Eqvista to handle that as well.
Price: $2.00 /shareholder /month
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Cons
4) Shareworks
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley will help you simplify your equity plan management so you can forget about those spreadsheets. It isn’t as intuitive or visually appealing as some on this list (LTSE Equity), but it might be the most powerful. If you’re a founder on the go, you’ll appreciate Shareworks’ app, as long as you don’t need any customer service.
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5) LTSE Equity
In terms of ease-of-use, LTSE Equity (formerly Captable.io) is like the LeadLoft of cap table software; that is to say, LTSE is incredibly easy to set up and use. The UI is clean and the visualizations are clear. Great for first time founders.
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5) Diligent Equity
Diligent Equity (formerly TruEquity) has a ton of features on top of cap table management that make it ideal for larger companies and venture capital firms. With their quality training, you can learn how to run waterfalls and scenario models to gain valuable insights into your company.
best cap table management software
Startup cap table management is a crucial function for every new business. Founders are in the dark without cap tables guiding their company’s equity distribution, a concept that comes into being right from the time two or more founders come together to form a company. However, managing cap tables becomes complex as the company grows. In such situations, cap table software helps manage these complexities with ease.
Cap Table Management Software
The technology of specialized cap table management software is a recent inclusion in the business world. The need and expertise required for cap table automation evolved only in the last decade. Though the journey began by exploring software dedicated to cap table management alone, this quest has now expanded into creating a full-range of equity management solutions. Let’s take a look at the function of cap table management first.
What is cap table management software?
Cap table management software is basically an automated cap table that enables complete equity management of a business. Unlike cap tables maintained manually on spreadsheets, cap table management software is hosted online on secure servers. These cannot be accessed without proper authorization. Besides, this software is designed to handle multiple cap table functions in real-time irrespective of the events that trigger equity distribution.
Why is cap table management important?
A Cap table or a capitalization table is a record of company ownership. Thus right from the incorporation of a company, startup cap table management is crucial to know the exact ownership structure involving various stakeholders primarily founders, investors, and employees. The most important role of cap table management is as follows:
Thus cap table management is an important function of startup business strategies. Owing to data sensitivity and the need for accuracy, it is best to automate this process. This can be done easily by using a cap table software like Eqvista. With state-of-the-art technologies like Eqvista, startup founders don’t have to worry about cumbersome paperwork or manual errors in data management. The entire process is automated, simple to use, and accessible with a few clicks.
Benefits of Using Cap Table Software
As we see, cap table management as an operation is quite intricate. Lapses in management of this process can land a company into legal trouble with investors and other stakeholders. Most often errors in cap table management attract heavy penalties as well. Here are some of the outstanding benefits of the best cap table management software in the market:
To truly appreciate the benefits of cap table management software, it is important to understand the disadvantages of the existing process on excel sheets. Let’s take a look:
Keeping these challenges in mind, let’s take a look at how cap table management software is beneficial in actual business scenarios like:
Common cap table mistakes
It is clear that cap tables offer a wide range of benefits. However, it is very easy to make mistakes in structuring a cap table. These strategic and pragmatic decisions regarding a cap table reside in the hands of a startup management team. If something goes wrong in planning, it sets in motion a series of catastrophes in equity management, like a domino effect. Here are some mistakes to avoid while designing a cap table for your company:
Strategic mistakes:
Pragmatic mistakes:
Eqvista – Leading Cap Table Management Software in the Market
Eqvista is sophisticated cap table software and the most preferred for startup cap table management. We will discuss more why Eqvista is the best compared to the existing products in the industry in the following section.
But first, we look into the defining features and benefits of Eqvista:
Features & Benefits of Eqvista
Comparing Eqvista with Other Cap Table Management Platforms
It is quite evident that Eqvista is one of the best cap table management software in the industry. However, the strengths of Eqvista can be best understood when compared to other existing products. Let’s explore.
Why choose Eqvista over Carta, Captable.io, Shareworks?
Carta, Captable.io, and Shareworks are some of the other cap table management software in the business. Each one of them fulfills all needs of comprehensive equity management software. However, they have certain drawbacks:
Thus we see that, though these three software offers a wide range of functionalities, each one has its own limitations. But in comparison to these three, Eqvista offers a wide spectrum of startup cap table management services that are one of a kind. Some unique features that set Eqvista apart are:
How to create a cap table using Eqvista
Cap table management is a complex task as it is. Startup founders should not find themselves burdened trying to understand how to manage a tool that will in turn manage a cap table! This is why Eqvista has designed a seamless experience. Take a look at how simple it is to create cap tables using Eqvista:
Eqvista – Trusted By Over 5,000+ Companies
Over the years, Eqvista has grown to become the most sought-after cap table management software. The comprehensive yet easy access nature of the platforms empowers startup founders and seasoned entrepreneurs alike to feel comfortable understanding and managing their company equity. Here is a snapshot of the full range of services offered by Eqvista. To know more, contact us today!