I’ve already issued paper certificates. Can I still issue electronic shares?

Yes, you can use Eqvista to issue the electronic shares if you have already issued the paper certificates. Eqvista has made it easy for you to do so.

Here are the steps on how you can do it on Eqvista.

Step 1: You first need to create your account on Eqvista along with the company. Then, Log into your Eqvista account and select your company account.

Once you have created your company profile, you will reach the main dashboard of the company. Here, click on “Securities” and then on “Equity”.

Step 2: If you have already created the company, then you would have already added the founders to the company. So, when you reach this page, you will see that the founder equity class is already there.

Let us assume that the shareholder you have already issued the paper certificate is a Series B shareholder. In this case, you will have to issue shares by first adding them and then issuing shares to them.

On this page, click on “Create New Class” to create an equity class and if you have created one, you can issue shares and implement a vesting schedule. 

Step 3: Once you do this, you will be redirected to the following page to select the kind of shares that the class. By doing this, another option will appear where you need to give a name to the equity class. In this case, we named it “Series B” since the shareholder is a Series B shareholder.

After you add in the information, click on “Submit”.

Step 4: With this, you will go to the next step where you will issue the shares to the shareholder now.

Here, you need to select the class name. Choose the name you have just created. In this case, we selected “Series B”. Once you do this, a new option will appear below:

Here, click on “Add New Grant”.

Step 5: Once you do this, you will be redirected to the next page. Here, you have the option to search for a shareholder or to add a shareholder from here directly.

Note: You need to have the shareholder profile already created. Check out the support article to add a shareholder. To search for the shareholder, you will need to type the name in the field below and if the name is already there, you can click” Select”. In case you have not added the shareholder profile, you can simply click on “Add New Shareholder”.

In this case, we are adding a new shareholder. When you click on “Add New Shareholder”, a new panel appears as shown below.

First, select the kind of shareholder you are adding. The shareholder can be a company or just an individual. In this case, we selected an individual. With this, add in the details of the shareholder including the person’s name and their role. 

Then, click on “Submit New Shareholder”.

Step 6: This would take you to the next step where you need to add in the share details.

In the above form, you can easily fill in the details as it is on the paper certificate. In short, you can add the date of issuance as it is, the number of shares issued, the price per share of when it was issued, the share name (certificate number), and the vesting schedule details, if any. Do not forget to put the right certificate number. Ensure that all the details are the same as it is on the paper certificate.

Note: You can add a vesting schedule while issuing shares, options, and warrants. In addition to this, you can create your vesting plan or choose from six default plans. To know more about vesting plans, check out the support article here!

Once you have added all the details, click on “Submit”.

Step 7: You will reach the page where you can now see the shareholder has been added and that the shares have been electronically issued to this shareholder based on your paper certificate.

If you want to see the details of the shareholder and the share certificate details, click on the share certificate name, which is “SB-001” here.

Step 8: Once you click on this, you will be redirected to the page where you can now see all the details of the share issuance as per the paper certificate you already gave out.

Note: In case any of the details you entered are wrong, you can edit the grant details. For this, you just need to click on the “Actions” button and then on “Edit grant”. Edit the details and save them. To understand how to edit a grant in detail, check out the support article here!

If you have any doubts or want to know more, check out the other support articles here or contact us!