How to create a plan?
Go to the Equity Plans > Pools & Plans page.
A pool (e.g. 1000 Common shares) should be created before plans (e.g. Options, Warrants) are added.
Click on the "Add plan" button in the top right corner, and a new window will appear.
Fill out the relevant fields, such as the "Plan name", the "Date" of creation of the plan, from which Pool it draws grants, and the "Grant type" (learn more about Grant types).
Optionally, click on Grant presets to define the Plan's preset parameters (learn more about Grant presets).
Click Save.
Customize the conversion ratio
Define with conversion ratio how equity plans behave in a stock split event. Within the plan settings, you have two options.
Custom conversion ratio to stock: Allows you to manually define a conversion ratio of equity to stock for this plan.
Adjust conversion ratio during stock split: If enabled, the granted amounts from this plan won’t change during a stock split. Instead, the number of shares after exercising will automatically be adjusted by the stock split factor.
Best practices when setting up conversion ratio
By turning on a custom conversion ratio, the number of granted equity and fully diluted shares will be different.
Grid columns related to grants (granted, outstanding, exercised, terminated, etc.) will reflect granted numbers, not those converted to shares.
"Diluted shares" will reflect the numbers converted to shares.
We recommend double-checking your document templates to ensure the correct variables are used
Set the default Withheld shares behaviour
When equity settling grants with the "Withhold to cover" settlement method, shares are withheld to cover taxes and costs. You can define at the plan level what happens to these withheld shares. This becomes the default for all equity settlements under this plan.
To configure this:
When creating or editing a plan, click the "Withheld shares" section to expand it.
Select a behaviour from the "Withheld shares behaviour" dropdown.
The available options are:
Return to treasury (default) — Withheld shares are issued to the company as treasury stock. The pool is not affected. This is the default behaviour if no selection is made.
Return to pool — Withheld shares are returned to the original pool and become available for future grants. No shares are issued to treasury.
Destroy — Withheld shares are permanently removed. The pool's total size shrinks by the withheld amount. No shares are issued and no capacity is restored.
Tip: This is a plan-level default. It can be overridden on individual equity settlements if a different behaviour is needed for a specific transaction. If no setting is selected at either the plan or settlement level, the system defaults to "Return to treasury".
Note: This setting is only available for grant types that can be equity settled, such as Options, Warrants, and RSUs/PSUs. It will not appear for Stock grant types.
FAQ
How do I differentiate between a pool and a plan?
I have EMI and non-EMI plans for UK employees, as well as a Phantom plan for German employees. They draw from the same authorized amount of shares.
Pool: Pools refer to the amount of shares allocated for employee plans, regardless of instruments used.
You can have one or many pools, with each set to a different underlying share class. Since your employee plans draw from the same authorized amount of shares, you can set up a single pool.Plans: Plans are linked to the instrument (i.e. Grant Type: EMI, Option, Phantom). You can create three plans linked to the same pool by designating the "From Pool" field. For each of the Plans, select the relevant Grant Type.