Kymeta’s equity plan audit time drops from 2 weeks to 2 days with OptionTrax

KYMETA CORP is a fast-growing company that has received significant investment for their innovative and leading-edge satellite technology and services. Jeanne, the Corporate Secretary was managing an increasingly complicated equity compensation plan and cap table in Excel. The Corporate Controller at KYMETA was also wrestling with managing monthly stock compensation expense calculations on a variety of Excel sheets. Auditing multiple spreadsheets with different owners had become an expensive and tedious process. KYMETA found the solution with the OptionTrax® software and the expertise of our veteran support team.

KYMETA’S PAIN POINTS

Jeanne and her Controller came to us looking for a way to automate their equity plan tracking and financial reporting. Specifically, they wanted a system that would allow them to quickly respond to ad hoc questions from the Board and their investors.  With an increasingly sophisticated group of investors and more stringent audit requirements, it became critical to have key plan and equity data at their fingertips, and to eliminate the risk of error inherent in any manual tracking and calculation process.

As the company grew, tracking the equity compensation in Excel became unwieldy, particularly with monthly vesting schedules. The tracking of the IRS Incentive Stock Option limits, and expiration periods for terminated employees is complex and difficult within the limitations of an excel sheet, and Jeanne was concerned about her capacity to keep everything up to date, particularly given her wide range of responsibilities at KYMETA.<

The Corporate Controller also needed a way to improve the accuracy and reduce the time and effort required to calculate the stock compensation expense. Even as a private company, with new rounds of investment on the horizon, the need to calculate this data in a timely matter was becoming more urgent. Given that the company was issuing both time and performance-based awards, this meant that multiple expense methodologies under ASC718 were required.

Before OptionTrax, the auditors spent two weeks just reviewing the equity compensation plan spreadsheets and data. After we implemented OptionTrax, they spent just two days.  That reduction alone was worth more than the cost of the software!

Speaking of having key plan data at your fingertips, our experts wrote the book on how to handle questions from your board, executives and auditors more easily.  No, really.  It’s called 5 Equity Plan Numbers To Have At Your Fingertips and you can download it for free. Click here to download the e-book now.

The OptionTrax Solution

When Jeanne came to us, we were happy to help not only with the software, but with the support and expertise she needed to succeed with her Board and auditors. OptionTrax is a unique system with the flexibility to meet the needs of quickly growing companies (including the transition from private to public), and the ease-of-use to make it manageable for the busiest of administrators. Jeanne had to look no further. After implementation of the OptionTrax system, KYMETA had access to:

 

  • Automated calculation and tracking of vest dates
  • Tracking and automatic expiration of awards for terminated participants
  • Real-time reporting of plan balances and shares available to grant
  • Simple Black-Scholes award valuation
  • Detailed stock comp expense reporting
  • Roll forward/ 10K reports with audit drill-downs
  • Ad hoc reporting tools
  • Electronic grant agreement generation and acceptance
  • Certified Equity Professionals with the ability to provide best practice support and the latest updates on equity plan reporting requirements

 

This project increased the visibility and accuracy of Kymeta’s plan administration while significantly reducing the time Jeanne and her Corporate Controller spent working in spreadsheets and the risk of error inherent in a non-automated process. It also improved their flexibility and response time to answer questions from their diverse set of stakeholders. Jeanne is thrilled she’s not maintaining sets of spreadsheets for their equity awards, finance is happy their disclosure and financial reports are up to the minute, and audit is happy because everything is real-time, transparent and in one place.

I do not mind shouting my praise for the system – it truly has been a life and time saver for us. We could not be happier – honestly!

Jeanne Strand, Plan Administrator, KYMETA CORP.

My company has done its best to find creative ways to stump the software but has yet to do it. As a pre-public company, we have standard and non-standard option grants, ISOs & NQSOs, RSU’s and RSUs + Options with double triggers. The support level from the beginning of the relationship to this very day has never faltered, changed or wavered.  If I ask for help – it is quickly received, including a person-to-person phone call and screen share if needed.