Accelerating a Vesting Schedule

Add Customized Separation Rule

Qapita provides robust tools to manage your equity plans efficiently. The Customized Separation Rule feature allows you to define additional separation reasons beyond the pre-existing system defaults, providing greater flexibility in managing stakeholder exits.

The pre-existing separation rules include: Resignation, Involuntary Termination, Termination with Cause, Retirement, Death, and Disability.

How to Add a Custom Separation Reason?

Follow these simple steps to configure your own custom separation reasons:

Click on Settings on the Left Side Menu

Navigate to the 'Settings' option located on the left-hand navigation bar of your Qapita dashboard. This is your gateway to various administrative configurations.

Choose Issuer Settings - Master Configurations and select Separation Reason

Within the Settings menu, locate 'Issuer Settings'. From the sub-menu that appears, select 'Master Configurations' and then click on 'Separation Reason' to access the custom rule management interface.

Click on Add

On the Separation Reason page, you will find an 'Add' button. Click this button to initiate the process of creating a new custom separation reason.

Once you click 'Add', a configuration form will appear:

In the Separation Reason Name field, you can specify or name the reason for the employee's separation.

Enter a clear and descriptive name for your custom separation reason (e.g., "Mutual Agreement," "Contract Expiry," etc.).

Below the name field, you will find options to define how this custom reason affects unvested and vested awards:

• Selecting Yes: You can apply the same Unvested and Vested Awards rule for all existing plan(s) or grant(s) uniformly. This streamlines the process if the policy is consistent across all your equity plans.
• Selecting No: You gain granular control. You can then select the Unvested and Vested Awards rule for all existing plan(s) and their associated grant(s) individually. This is useful for more complex or varied equity policies.

Do you want to enable tenure-based separation policy?

• No (default): This is the default setting, meaning separation policies are not based on the employee's length of service.
• By enabling this feature: You can define different separation policies based on the employee's length of service or tenure. This allows for more nuanced and fair treatment of awards depending on how long a stakeholder has been with the company.

Important Note for 'No Plan' Grants: Here, the selection of Unvested and Vested Awards rule applied for 'No Plan' will reflect for all the grants that have been created without associating any specific Plan. This ensures consistent application of rules even for standalone grants.

Once added successfully, the created Custom Separation Reason will be reflected accordingly based on your selection for all existing and newly created plan(s) and grant(s).

Edit Custom Separation Reason

Qapita provides the flexibility to modify your custom separation reasons:

Clicking on Edit Icon

Locate the custom separation reason you wish to modify in the list. Clicking on the 'Edit Icon' (typically represented by a pencil symbol) next to it will open the editing interface.

You will have the ability to edit the name of the Custom Separation Reason selected. Any changes made here will reflect accordingly for all existing and newly created plan(s) and grant(s) where this reason is applied.

Delete Custom Separation Reason

You can also remove custom separation reasons that are no longer needed:

Clicking on Delete

To delete a custom separation reason, click on the 'Delete' icon (typically represented by a trash can symbol) next to the desired reason in the list. A confirmation prompt will appear.

You will have the ability to delete the selected Custom Separation Reason.

Note: A Custom Separation Reason cannot be deleted if it is currently being used to separate a stakeholder. To delete such a reason, you must first ensure it is not applied to any stakeholder's separation record.

This guide should help you effectively manage custom separation rules within your Qapita account, ensuring accurate and flexible handling of stakeholder separations.