The Basics: Navigating Your Carta Account & Settings

What should I know before I get started?

Equity administration is no easy task. Before getting to the exciting part, we want to make sure your company’s Carta account is set up for success. Let’s review the basics or click a section to skip ahead:

Setting up company users & permissions
Review or enable transaction settings
Review or edit company settings
Review or set up your HRIS integration
Cap table access for investors
Managing share classes
Reporting Beneficial Ownership Information
Helpful resources

First, setting up your users and permissions

We’ve made it easy for you to control who accesses and alters the company’s Carta account information, including the cap table.

WHY IT MATTERS: Understanding and setting the appropriate permissions for other users is crucial for managing your Carta account, determining who can take certain actions, and who can access what information

This contributes to data protection, data accuracy, and overall transparency in your organization’s financial management

Start by navigating to Company Settings > Users and permissions

COMPANY ACCOUNT USERS: We have four main company user settings. Check out this article for a full list of details behind each permission level:

- Full Access
- Company Editor
- HR Administrator
- View only

Only users added to this page can be designated as board users, signatories or company contacts

BOARD USERS: Will automatically be added to any board consents sent through Carta requiring their signature
SIGNATORIES: A company officer is required to sign securities upon issuance
COMPANY CONTACTS: Handle specific tasks within Carta, either facilitating workflows or serving as key points of contact in designated circumstances
LAW FIRMS: This will grant all of your law firm Carta users Full Access so they can make updates or changes to your cap table
OUTSOURCED FINANCE FIRMS: Similar to law firms – this will grant Full Access to the users assigned this permission level

If at any point you or your team can’t complete an action or see a page, review your permission settings and adjust accordingly

Add company users Access levels explained

Transaction settings

Make exercising easy for you and your stakeholders. Easily approve requests, adjust taxes, and track the entire process when you enable this setting.

US-BASED COMPANIES: Can enable ACH transactions for US stakeholders and wire transfers for international stakeholders

NON-US COMPANIES: Can enable wire transfers for their holders. After exercises are approved, stakeholders will receive wire instructions specific to the company.

WHY IT MATTERS: This setting cuts administrative work for you and your team while enabling stakeholders to initiate exercises within the Carta platform

Avoid the manual work & extra billable hours from your law firm
Easily keep track of exercise requests and payments
Funds are verified by Carta and automatically deposited into the company's bank account
Automatically create certificates and send them to the company signatory(ies)

Enable transaction settings

Now, let’s take a look at the rest of your company’s settings

Within your Company Settings tab, you’ll see the rest of your settings. It’s important to review these settings periodically to ensure a smooth stakeholder experience and easy renewal process.

PROFILE SETTINGS: Here you’ll find key information including your Incorporation Date, Tax ID, TCC Code, and Company address. It’s important to note that the address on this page is also used for billing purposes.

PAYMENT INFORMATION: View all linked company bank accounts

SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS: This is where you’ll set your billing contact—the person who receives all billing and accounts receivable (AR) notices. You’ll also find key information such as a summary of your subscription, estimated next charge, and renewal date.

Reviewing your payment information now, including your billing contact and payment method, can help prevent issues at renewal

Reach out to your Carta Customer Success Manager for anything relating to your subscription, payment information and/or renewal questions

Let’s integrate your HRIS system

Carta seamlessly integrates with the majority of HRIS providers through Finch and native API, or provides alternative integration options such as SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) and CSV.

WHY IT MATTERS: Setting up an HRIS integration allows you to streamline HR processes. You can automate and track stakeholder changes, terminations, synchronize records, and unlock the power of Carta Total Compensation.

This is free to use with all Carta subscriptions

HOW TO INTEGRATE: Navigate to the HRIS Integrations tab under Company Settings

Native API (such as Rippling, Finch, Sequoia, Gusto, BambooHR & more)
SFTP
CSV

Supported HRIS systems

Next, set up cap table access for investors

We make it easy to share company information with your investors, employees, and other key stakeholders through their Carta portfolios by managing your cap table access settings.

With four different levels of cap table viewing permissions to choose from, you can share the exact desired amount of information with the right stakeholders

This setting will not give stakeholders access to the company's Carta account

Access levels can be granted on a group or individual level
Navigate here to understand the different access levels and how to set them up

Setting access levels to any level will prevent stakeholders from being able to send cap table access requests

Cap table access explained

Finally, learn how to manage share classes

Managing share classes is foundational to issuing compliant securities and ensuring alignment between your company’s share class details and incorporation documents.

Common reasons you may need to manage your share classes:

A new financing round
Changes or amendments to a historical AOI version
Initiation of a share class conversion

TLDR: Share classes play a pivotal role in defining ownership categories within a company and offer distinct rights and privileges to shareholders. These classes typically include common shares and preferred stock, each associated with specific benefits such as voting rights, dividend preferences, and priority during company liquidation.

Share class FAQ

Reporting Beneficial Ownership Information: Corporate Transparency Act

Effective January 1, 2024, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), introduces new reporting requirements for U.S.-based companies. Carta makes complying with the new requirements easy.

WHY IT MATTERS: This new requirement mandates that startups and small businesses disclose Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) to FinCEN, identifying individuals with significant control or ownership in the company

To understand if this impacts your company, read more information here.

HOW IT WORKS: Company information is pre-filled using the details provided during onboarding and found in the company profile settings. All you need to input is your beneficial owner’s and company applicant’s information.

Beneficial owner: An individual who owns 25% or more of the company or has substantial control over the company
A beneficial owner can be an individual or a legal entity
Company applicant: An individual who files the document that creates or registers the company, but can also include up to one additional individual who directed the filing action

Small Entity Compliance Guide

A place to learn, ask, & succeed

We are here to help set you up for success. Whether you need help with a workflow in Carta, have a question, or want to discuss certain topics with others in the space, we have resources to help.

Carta Community: A digital space to discuss best practices, gain new skills, and learn from other Carta users so you can thrive in the startup and equity administration business

Carta Support Team: Available Monday through Friday, you can click here to contact our expert team by phone or submit a support case via Carta's Help Center

Carta Virtual Events: We host frequent events that range from basic equity conversations to seasonal topics we see trending