The success of your equity management software solution relies as much on the implementation process as it does on the technology selection. Since equity compensation plays a critical role in your organization, it’s essential to avoid these five common mistakes to set your company up for efficiency and savings from the start.
Some equity management systems are built only to administer stock options and do not have cap table functionality. Others have stock option administration but are weak in accounting and tax functionality.
While it may take longer to implement, converting all of your history to a system serves two important purposes:
Spreadsheets are prone to errors. If you simply populate from spreadsheet to system without any checks and balances or logical reconciliation, you are doing yourself a disservice. Bad data in equals bad data out.
Your audit is an opportunity for your auditors to get comfortable with your data in a new system and potentially a new (cleaner) format. We recommend implementing a software solution prior to your audit and preparing any historical reconciliation for your auditors in addition to the current year.
This is even truer if your company will be going through its first audit.
Few equity management software systems on the market today are truly built to take you public. If your company has aspirations to go public, don’t get a system that is not robust enough to make the transition from private company to public company reporting.
Need some assistance reviewing your data, cleaning up and reconciling your history and selecting and implementing the right equity management solution? Find out how our Equity Management Consulting team can help you prepare for and implement flexible software tailored to your reporting needs and budget.
Reduce your stock option complexities with a free, 30-minute strategy session for your equity plan challenges.