White Paper
Private Company Equity Plan Blueprint
A guide to help you launch a stock option plan or ensure your equity plan is audit ready.
Armanino's Equity Management Solutions team brings much-needed discipline and accounting rigor to stock option plans for startups, privately funded companies and those preparing for IPOs.
Who We are
Armanino is proud to be a trusted partner to clients large and small, public and private. When you’re in the office on a Saturday, working to meet a filing deadline, we’re right there with you. When you have questions about your capitalization table or nonqualified stock options, we pick up the phone―right away―to answer them.
You think critically about your business operations, and so do we. We don’t just take your data at face value. Our equity management experts listen to you and pay attention to your specific details, so we uncover and fix the mistakes others miss. These may be minor errors, like granting an incentive stock option to a non-employee, or a major one. Or they may be granting awards with the wrong vesting schedule. Either way, we understand the value of getting stock option accounting and administration right for your organization and your participants.
We take a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to stock option accounting and administration. Our experienced Equity Management Solutions team includes CPAs, Certified Equity Professionals (CEPs), valuation experts and software specialists who can seamlessly handle every part of your equity program.
Services
We take the time to really learn about our clients, and we’re honored to help them achieve their goals through equity compensation. Whether you’re putting in long days―and nights―laying the groundwork for your IPO or just need an ASC 718 spreadsheet calculation, we’re ready to serve you.
Your stock option accounting needs only get more complex, and the stakes only get higher, as you grow. Our experts streamline your equity management process and provide technical accounting along with hands-on software expertise. We offer customized equity consulting and employee stock option administration services for year-end, quarter-end, and monthly reporting, as well as transactions such as financings, IPOs, mergers and modifications.
Employee stock options are complicated. Those who manage this function wear many hats and have multiple responsibilities within your organization, so it’s easy for mistakes to be made or items to fall through the cracks. We know that managing your equity plan can’t be your top priority. We’ve seen every kind of error, and our team will leave no stone unturned when it comes to uncovering problems and scrubbing your data.
Your understanding of the system and equity processes is important to us. Our Equity Management Solutions experts work with you to review your documents, data and capitalization table, and clean up and reconcile your history. Then we implement a flexible software solution tailored to your reporting needs and budget. From setup to one-on-one training, our software specialists provide hands-on guidance. If you have any questions, they’re right there to provide answers.
We also take the time to educate you about how to avoid future pitfalls. For example, we’ll make sure your accounting team knows that they need to withhold taxes when they process non-qualified stock option exercises.
Whether you have five employees or five hundred, your equity program is unique to you. We listen to what you’re saying and scale our services to meet your needs. If you want us to take the entire process off of your hands or just need equity accounting support every quarter, we’ll become part of your team. We can provide a valuation, if needed, and help you walk your board through the stock option pricing process.
We offer a complete range of customizable equity services that cut your reporting burden, operational errors and administration costs. Your data stays audit- and due diligence-ready, and accessible anytime.
You’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into building your company. Now you need to ensure that your IPO, merger or other event isn’t derailed by discrepancies in your employee equity incentive program.
Equity accounting is one of the most highly scrutinized areas for growing companies, and our seasoned professionals will have your back every step of the way―before and after the transaction. Our specialists have had the privilege of guiding dozens of companies through the S-1 and M&A processes. We’ll work hand-in-hand with your team, and directly with your auditors, to make sure your data is flawless, and your reporting is accurate and on schedule.
You need to make sure your equity management infrastructure is sound and can support your company’s growth. We can quickly and efficiently examine your software configuration, setup, data, documented procedures and internal resources. Our system experts will pinpoint the weak spots in your software and processes, and identify the smartest fixes―all with minimal disruption to you and your staff.
We work with the leading equity management solutions.
We’ve helped private and public clients optimize and manage their employee stock plans. Whether you’re a biotech startup looking to understand the tax ramifications of a new equity program or a public software company facing the stress of quarterly reporting, we’ll be right there with you to carry the burden.
Our experts can help you educate your employees about their stock options and maintain your capitalization table correctly from day one. As you grow and add performance awards and other complexity to your plan, we’ll be there to make sure every detail of your equity accounting satisfies investor and regulatory scrutiny, through your IPO and beyond. Throughout, we’ll keep asking the right questions and listening to what you’re saying, so you can reach your next milestone.
Our team has extensive stock option accounting experience helping clients in:
To attract and keep talent in a competitive marketplace, professional services firms have gotten more and more creative with their compensation structures, offering everything from traditional stock option plans to internal stock markets to cash-settled awards. In many cases, however, these compensation plans have been managed via inefficient spreadsheets that don’t allow for easy participant or company reporting or effective accounting.
We’ve helped numerous clients in banking, insurance, engineering and asset management streamline their unique equity compensation programs. Our experienced team can help you get rid of the spreadsheets. So, you can manage your program with more efficiency and less risk.
We know your needs don’t end with your employee equity. To support your company as it grows, we offer specialized expertise across a comprehensive range of services.
If you have any questions or just want to reach out to one of our experts, use the form and we'll get back to you promptly.