Equity management software – 8 key features

For companies that offer their employees equity compensation, leveraging equity management software to help streamline the processes of award granting, tracking tasks, stock transactions, reporting, compliance, employee communications, and everything in between, can help save them time and money, cut back on administration and get employees engaged with their awards.

For companies who are considering switching providers or looking to upgrade a manual solution here are 8 features they should look out for in an equity management platform to more effectively simplify a stock plan admin’s work.

☑ Capability to support a wide range of equity awards and plans

It’s not uncommon for companies to offer different types of equity compensation, especially where they have employees operating across multiple jurisdictions. That’s why it’s important your equity management software can support both your local and global needs.

A software solution should be able to not only support the types of equity compensation plans you want to offer but should also help by automating admin tasks and facilitate financial reporting.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s Equity Management Solutions

☑ BI reporting suite

A business intelligence (BI) suite should allow you to easily get insights into your company’s equity awards and participants, such as the total number of grants (issued versus outstanding) and the equity participation % by region, gender, and department etc, participant payroll and tax, future vesting transactions, etc.

Having access to this reporting suite can simplify analyzing and visualizing complex data to gain valuable insights into your employee ownership program.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s BI Reporting

☑ Financial reporting suite

Consider the various financial reporting demands associated with stock plan administration such as Fair Value, Earnings Per Share, Treatment of Forfeitures and Disclosures to name a few.

A robust reporting suite can enable you to get unparalleled insights into your equity compensation financials with accurate reports that seamlessly integrate into your participants’ data and grant details. Look at how filter functions allow you to generate customized reports at the granular level you require, including grant or award, plan, employee or country level.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s Financial Reporting

☑ Integration with the systems you already use

This capability will allow you to synchronize equity and participant data with the systems and software you’re already using for HR and payroll, tax and accounting. Being able to get a near-real-time, consolidated view of your people’s data without the need to switch between systems can help shrink admin time and streamline your workflows, reducing the need for manual inputs.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s API integration

☑ Data security

An equity management platform as it holds a wealth of sensitive data about your employees and business so data security should be a top priority when onboarding a software solution.

Some questions that should be answered include:
– Does the vendor hold recognized data security certifications?
– What’s their data infrastructure like?
– How is the data stored and protected?

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s Security

☑ Participant experience

Informed employees tend to be better engaged, so giving them access to their plan’s details should be crucial. A participant portal is an online self-service platform to provide employees with 24/7 access to their equity awards.

Once logged-in they should be able to see exactly what stock they own and how much it’s worth, make transactions and access their grant agreements and documents. This will not be possible with a manual equity management solution.

Depending on where your employees are based you may also want to consider if multi-lingual service deck support is offered.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s Participant Experience

☑ Trading solution

If the equity management software offers your share plan participants brokerage services, this will be an added advantage of seamless and direct access to the financial markets.

Giving your employees full control can allow them to easily and quickly transact whenever they want to themselves, cutting down on manual processes for your equity plan administers.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s Trading solution

☑ Compliance is crucial

Compliance is central to every stage of the equity management process – from planning and onboarding to granting, transacting, reporting and more. If you operate in multiple countries or are considering expanding your business globally, compliance can be even more challenging.

So, it’s important that the vendor’s technology can help you with global compliance throughout the entire process. For example, since an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) has an employee contribution limit of $25,000 annually, an equity management platform should help track this without manually monitoring each employee.

Some companies even have robust on-the-ground teams to ensure you are updated on any regulatory changes in each region.

→ Learn more about J.P. Morgan Workplace’s Equity Intelligence

Why choose J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions to be your equity management solution provider?

Let’s get started

1. Book a 30-min product demo:
   We’ll show you how our equity management software works.
2. We set up an initial ‘Discovery’ meeting:
   All your questions, requirements and concerns are discussed and documented to identify your needs and determine how we can best meet them.
3. We share a project plan that provides an overview of every step that needs to be complete.
4. We collect, import and reconcile your data:
   Your complete equity plan is configured and set up in 8 – 12 weeks or even less, depending on varying aspects like the number of employees and equity types. At this stage, you can test and review everything.
5. You are assigned a personal relationship manager once data has been signed off. The person will know you, your requirements, and your plans and who will be available to assist you at all stages.
6. Each participant receives a login link to access the participant portal. Using the portal, they can manage their equity holdings. They can also access the learning hub and their documents 24/7.