Options – Setup and Modify

Note: Options are usually given to the employees in the company. But they can also be given to other shareholders based on your deal with them.

Here is a step by step guide on how to setup and modify options on Eqvista.

Step 1: Log into your Eqvista account and select the company profile to issue the options from. From the dashboard, click on “Securities” on the left-hand side of the dashboard to get a drop-down menu. Here, click on “Options” and you will reach the page where you can see all the option pools in the company.

On this page, if you haven’t yet created any option pool, you will see the option that will allow you to create one. And if you have created some, you will see them there too. Here too, you will see the option to create a new option pool. Here, click on the button that says “Create New Class” in both cases.

Step 2: Once you do this, you will be on the next page where you can begin the process of setting up the option pool. You begin by giving it a name and reserving shares in the pool.

Note: If you already have an option pool, you can just click on it and then click on “Issue grant” to then issue the options to the shareholder from the option pool you already have. You can jump to step 3 from here where you need to search for a shareholder, if you are following this part.

In this case, we are creating a new pool and would issue from it.

Once you have filled in the details, select the option “Submit”.

Step 3: By clicking on “Submit”, you will be directed to the next part where you can now issue the options from this option pool to a shareholder.

Note: You need to have the shareholder profile already created. If you do not have it created, you can choose the option of “Add shareholder” here too. Check out the support article here to add a shareholder.

In this case, we already have the shareholder added. So, we are using the search option where you need to fill in the name of the shareholder in the field. The full name of the shareholder would appear on the right side with a “Select” button. Click on this button.

Step 4: You will reach the next page where you issue the options from this option pool to the shareholder.

Fill in the details like the number of options, exercise price, date of issuance, option type, expiration period, and the option certificate name. You can select if there is a vesting schedule or not as well.

To know how to add a vesting schedule, check out the support article here.

When you are done filling in all these details, click on “Submit” to finalize the issuance and reach the following page.

Step 5: Now, let us assume that you want to edit the option pool. For doing this, click on the option pool that you want to edit, and then click on “Actions” on the right hand side as shown below to get the mini drop-down menu.

Here, you will see that there are three options – edit option pool, edit notes, and delete security. Edit notes is for adding notes that you want to, and the delete option will delete the option pool.

To edit, click on “Edit option pool”.

Step 6: By doing this, a new panel will appear where you can change the name of the option pool and the number of shares reserved in it as shown below.

Once done, click on “Save changes” and the option pool would be updated accordingly. And just like this, you can create option pools, modify them and issue from them.

When you like to edit the option grant of the shareholders, just click on “Actions” and then “Edit Grant”.

Now you can edit the option grant details such as Options amount, exercise price, grant name, option type (ISO, NSO, EMI), issue date, expiration period.

Once you done click “Save”.

If you want to know more or understand any other process, check out the other support articles here or contact us today!