Overview
What is Carta?
Carta (formerly eShares) is cloud software that allows private companies to manage and interact with their share- and optionholders. Accoding to the vendor, companies can easily issue stock certificates individually or in bulk, and shareholders can receive and view their…
Carta - I Can't Believe I Used to Do Stock Admin Without It!
Carta with bugs
Carta - A fantastic product
Carta - Happy user at 2 companies, including my current one!
Carta -- the best central location to manage your equity
Carta brings us an exciting peace of mind that no other tool can~
Carta!
Carta Does It All
Product Details
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- Competitors
- Tech Details
What is Carta?
Carta Competitors
Carta Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
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Mobile Application | No |
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(45)Community Insights
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Easy Navigation and User-Friendly Interface: Many users have praised Carta for its extremely easy-to-navigate platform and user-friendly interface. They have found the clean layout of the app/tool to be intuitive, making it effortless to track and manage shares/benefits. This has not only made the process exciting but also helped upper management remain transparent and honest about promised rewards.
Helpful Documentation and Support: Several reviewers have highlighted the value of Carta's Help Center, which they describe as seriously well done. Users appreciate that Carta has a vast database of articles and help documentation, covering a wide range of topics. This comprehensive resource provides guidance on various aspects related to equity management, ensuring that users can easily find answers to their questions.
Streamlined Equity Management: A significant number of users have commended Carta for streamlining equity management processes. The platform handles all stock certificates for investors, simplifying stock option maintenance, cap table maintenance, and scenario modeling across multiple companies. Additionally, from issuance to approval and exercising, the entire stock option life cycle is seamlessly managed within Carta
Lack of Integration with Accounting/HR Platforms: Some users have expressed frustration with the lack of integration between the software and accounting or HR/payroll platforms, which results in manual input and potential errors. They suggest integrating the software into these platforms to reduce the need for manual input.
Issues with Stock Calculations: Several reviewers have encountered issues with the auto-generated Excel file for stock calculations, requiring assistance from technical support to correct these errors. This has caused inconvenience and delays for users who rely on accurate stock calculations.
Inadequate Customer Support: A number of users have expressed dissatisfaction with the customer service provided. They mention slow response times from the live chat team and a lack of acknowledgement or resolution for reported software bugs. Improving response times and addressing reported bugs promptly would greatly enhance user experience.
Based on user reviews, the most common recommendations for Carta are as follows:
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Seek alternatives or consider hiring someone to manage Carta. Some users have found Carta to be buggy and difficult to use. As a result, they suggest exploring other options or outsourcing stock management tasks to professionals.
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Utilize support and have all necessary information available for quick setup. Users recommend taking advantage of the support provided by Carta to effectively navigate the platform. They also advise having all relevant information readily available during the setup process for a smoother experience.
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Understand cap tables and communication tools. To fully utilize Carta's features, users recommend investing time in understanding cap tables and familiarizing themselves with the platform's communication tools. This will enable them to make the most out of the software's capabilities.
Overall, while some users highlight issues with bugs and complexity, others emphasize Carta's value as a tool for stock management, producing investor documents, and keeping employees informed about vested options. It is recommended to carefully evaluate these factors in relation to individual business needs before implementing the software.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-2 of 2)Carta - A fantastic product
We also utilize the expense reporting features to record our stock option expense each month.
- Expense Reporting - GAAP compliant and easy to manage, a report is run monthly and provides all the details needed to book the expense.
- Equity Manageent - All stock certificates for our investors are held in Carta making Equity easy to manage.
- Stock Option Issuance - Options are issued in Carta and the entire option life cycle from issuance, approval, and exercising is handled in Carta.
- User Interface is very easy to follow.
- Support is very responsive and helpful.
- Numerous education articles available to all users.
- The Board room feature is somewhat lacking. We investigated incorporating this into our Board meetings but it didn't have enough features for us.
Since everything is electronic, Carta eliminates the burden of maintaining paperwork and requesting physical signatures on different items. Exercises are handled via ACH also reducing the administrative burden on the finance team.
- Stock Option Expense Calculations are GAAP compliant reducing potental for misstatements during audit.
- Our CEO and CFO are easily able to view the current status of our equity pool whenever they need information for a fundraising.
- ROI is significant as everything is incredibly efficient and doesn't require any administrative paperwork.
Carta - Happy user at 2 companies, including my current one!
Carta allows for us to have one central source of truth for all things equity, which is a necessity for any startup. It also allows the accounting team to automate the recording of all stock compensation expense required for US GAAP purposes, and it generates the support for all required footnote disclosures. To calculate all of this manually would be nearly impossible.
- Streamlined and efficient UI.
- Automatic calculation of all necessary accounting computations and footnote disclosures, properly support for external audit purposes.
- A central source of truth for both internal (like accounting and legal) and external (outside counsel) stakeholders in the equity process.
- Still some issues with the auto-generated Excel file for stock calculations that required correction by technical support.
- Could offer integration into accounting platforms or HR/payroll platforms to further cut down on manual input.
- It should allow for custom user creation to allow for varying levels of access based on role in the company; currently, all security roles in the platform are out of the box without any modification allowed.
Where it may be less appropriate to implement is a later-stage company right before an IPO. Such companies, whose equity structures are about to get a lot more complicated, may need a more robust platform.
- Carta has allowed us to focus our time away from the manual calculation of complex transactions and more toward other business objectives.
- In addition, the manual tracking of granting, exercising, and forfeiting/expiration of stock options is done much more accurately with the use of Carta. This makes us that much more ready for another round of fundraising or exit.
On the other side of the spectrum, Solium Shareworks seemed like a solution much more suitable for a public company. It was more complex and robust, but less user-friendly. It was also much more expensive.
Whenever I have had to contact support, which is not too often, they have been helpful and knowledgeable as well.