How to exercise options on Carta: ACH, wire, and manual

Carta supports three ways for employees to exercise their options. The right method depends on where the employee is based, where the company is based, and whether the company has enabled online transactions.

Exercise Simulator

Before submitting any request, employees can use the exercise simulator to model different scenarios, adjusting the exercise date to see potential vesting quantities, exercise costs, and estimated taxes.

Exercising via ACH

Available to US optionholders exercising into a US company, when the company has enabled online transactions.

  1. Employee submits an exercise request in Carta: confirms residency, e-signs the necessary documents, and provides ACH bank details.

  2. The company is notified automatically.

  3. Once the company administrator approves, Carta initiates the ACH transfer from the employee's verified bank account.

  4. After funds are verified, the resulting certificate is automatically generated and sent to company officers for signature.

Submitting an ACH exercise request is a binding commitment, similar to handing over a signed check. The employee agrees to have funds withdrawn from their account once approved, and the request can't be easily reversed.

One common failure point: the name on the bank account must exactly match the name on the employee's Carta account. A mismatch will cause the bank to reject the transfer, which automatically cancels the exercise.

Processing typically takes a few business days depending on when the transfer is submitted. See the full fund transfer process for the exact timeline and what happens if payment succeeds or fails.

The exercise's effective date, which becomes the certificate's issue date, is the date the employee submitted the request.

Exercising via wire

Wire exercises work differently depending on where the company is based.

Wire to a US company: for non-US optionholders exercising into a US company. Funds are wired to Carta, which forwards them to the company via ACH.

  1. Employee submits an exercise request: confirms residency and e-signs the documents.

  2. Company administrator approves, and the employee receives wire instructions by email.

  3. The employee manually wires the funds using their own bank. This step is never automatic. When submitting, the employee also enters a transaction reference ID for their own records; it can't be changed afterward, but Carta tracks the payment either way.

  4. Once Carta confirms receipt of the full amount, the resulting certificate is created.

The effective date, and the certificate's issue date, is the date Carta receives the funds, not the date the wire was sent.

Send funds in USD only, and add any bank fees on top of the exercise cost so the full amount arrives; underpaying because of fees is a common mistake. Use the exact bank details from the wire instructions email. If the sending bank asks for a contact phone number or email for the wire, use the issuing company's contact information, not Carta's. If a bank's daily transfer limit is a problem, the payment can be split across multiple wires.

If more than one exercise is pending, a wire payment is applied to whichever exercise the company approved first; funds can't be directed to a specific exercise. To pay for multiple exercises with a single wire, all of them need to already be approved before the wire is sent.

For how to check a pending exercise's status, what happens after payment succeeds or fails, and how to handle an incorrect wire amount, see how the fund transfer process works.

Wire to a non-US company: for any optionholder, US or non-US, exercising into a non-US company. Due to regulatory restrictions, ACH can't be used at any stage for a non-US company, so funds never flow through Carta; they go directly from the employee to the company.

  1. Employee submits an exercise request through Carta: confirms residency and e-signs the documents.

  2. The company is notified automatically.

  3. Once approved, the employee receives an email with instructions to wire funds directly to the company.

  4. The employee wires the funds directly to the company, following the company's own instructions, then provides the wire date and (optionally) a transaction reference number in Carta.

  5. Once the company acknowledges receipt of the funds, the resulting certificate is created.

This is the one case where payment never touches Carta at all. The effective date is the date the company acknowledges receipt, not the date the wire was sent.

If the exercise option isn't available in Carta at all for a non-US company, online exercises may not be enabled for that company. The employee should contact the company directly to ask about a manual exercise instead.

In both wire cases, funds must arrive within 30 days of exercise approval, and before the post-termination exercise period or grant expiration date, whichever comes first. Missing this window means the exercise may be automatically canceled.

Manual exercise

For employees who prefer not to set up a bank account or electronic signature in Carta, or for US-based employees who need to use wire instead of ACH for some reason (wire isn't available as an in-platform option for a US employee exercising into a US company, so this has to be handled manually):

  1. Employee prints the documents attached to their equity award and works directly with the issuing company to send payment. Carta is not involved in this transfer, and whether a company offers this option at all is entirely up to the issuing company.

  2. After the offline transaction is complete, the company administrator initiates the manual exercise in Carta.

For the full official reference, see exercise effective date rules and how the fund transfer process works.