COMPLIANCE & GOVERNANCE
Equity compliance software that keeps the receipts
A rolling-12-month grant-activity monitor with clearly scoped Rule 701 context, board seats and voting power computed from the ledger, consent records with executed documents attached, a trigger-enforced audit trail, and scheduled deadline sweeps.
Rule 701 context & regional activity
A rolling-12-month monitor that keeps grant activity visible.
Vquity counts equity grants into a rolling 12-month window so finance and counsel have the activity assembled before a filing or disclosure question arrives. For US companies, it marks the USD 10 million Rule 701 enhanced-disclosure point while stating plainly that the exemption's actual sales limit also depends on the USD 1 million, 15%-of-assets, and 15%-of-class tests. Other region profiles track activity without inventing a local legal equivalent.
- Every counted issuance listed with the date it enters and leaves the window
- Currency-aware activity profiles for the US, UK/EU, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, and Singapore/SEA
- A planning monitor, not an exemption determination, filing service, or legal opinion
Board & consents
Board seats, voting power, and the consent behind every grant.
Option grants and issuances need board approval, and diligence will ask for the consents. If they live in inboxes, that request becomes a week of archaeology. Vquity records board seats and computes voting power from the live ledger, and each consent is recorded with its details and the executed document attached, so governance decisions sit next to the equity they authorize. One honest boundary: consent records carry the executed document; e-signature is not wired into this flow.
- Board seats recorded alongside the holders who occupy them
- Voting power computed from actual share-class terms, not a side spreadsheet
- Consents recorded with the executed document attached, ready for diligence
Notification center
Equity deadlines fail silently. The sweeps make them loud.
A valuation lapses, a cliff passes, a milestone lands, and nothing in a spreadsheet turns red. Vquity runs scheduled sweeps over the records you already keep and posts time-sensitive events to the notification center: valuation expiry with weeks of runway, vesting milestones and cliffs as they arrive, and other deadlines before they pass. Each user sets their own email preferences, so the alerts reach the person who acts on them.
- Valuation-expiry alerts posted before the lapse, not after the grant
- Vesting events (cliffs, milestones, accelerations) surfaced as they happen
- Per-user email preferences: finance gets the deadlines, founders get the headlines
The defensible record
Trust you can show, not just claim.
"Who changed this, and can we undo it?" is the question every cap-table owner eventually faces. Vquity answers it at the database layer.
Trigger-enforced reversibility
A reversibility report, enforced by database triggers rather than application code, shows that cap-table changes are tracked and reversible. Pair it with snapshots for point-in-time history with a restore preview before anything is committed.
Admin-gated audit trail
Cap-table changes are logged to an audit trail visible to workspace admins: what changed, who changed it, and when. The log does not prove an entry was correct, but it gives counsel and finance the history they need to reconcile it.
Role-gated access
Workspace members get roles, and roles gate which views they can open. Counsel sees governance, finance sees the ledger, and nobody sees more than their role grants. Invitations carry the role from the start, so access is deliberate, not accumulated.
What equity compliance software actually has to do
Equity compliance is unglamorous by design: it is counting, record-keeping, and alerting, done continuously. The expensive failures in startup equity are rarely dramatic. They are an exemption limit crossed because nobody was summing a rolling window, a batch of grants with no board consent on file, or options priced against a valuation that quietly lapsed two months earlier. All three are records-and-alerts problems, and records and alerts are exactly what equity compliance software is for.
Vquity's advantage is that the compliance layer reads the same ledger everything else writes. The issuance counter counts real ledger entries; voting power is computed from the share classes the waterfall model also reads; the sweeps watch the same valuation and vesting records that price and accrue your grants. There is no second system to reconcile. The compliance view is the cap table, seen through a regulator's questions.
Worked example: one grant's compliance footprint
A new hire is granted 40,000 options. The board consent authorizing the batch is recorded with the executed document attached. The grant is priced against the active 409A on record, the same record the expiry sweep watches. Its planning value appears in the rolling-12-month activity monitor, and its cliff date enters the sweep schedule. Each recorded change also lands in the admin-gated audit trail, keeping the grant, approval, valuation context, and history close enough to reconcile.
What this module is, and what it is not
Two boundaries worth stating plainly. First, Vquity counts, records, and alerts. It does not give legal advice, file with regulators, or replace counsel. The issuance counter exists so your call with counsel happens at 60% of the limit instead of 110%. Second, consent records attach the executed document; they do not collect signatures. You execute the consent however your board executes documents, then file it here. The signed originals belong in the Data Room, where diligence will look for them; the consent record ties them to the grants they authorized.
The process side of this (what a board actually has to approve before options go out, and in what order) is covered in the Academy's lesson on granting options correctly. And because issuance rules differ by market, regional equity differences explains why the same grant needs different advice in the US, UK/EU, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia. Vquity's region profile changes the activity currency, valuation label, and instrument terminology; it does not replace a jurisdiction-specific exemption analysis.
Why compliance belongs inside the cap table
Standalone compliance tracking has a structural flaw: it depends on someone exporting the cap table into it, and every export is a chance for the two to drift. Keeping the monitor, consents, sweeps, and audit trail inside the system of record removes one reconciliation step and reduces that risk. The audit trail is enforced with database triggers rather than optional application logging, so recorded changes are less likely to disappear from the history.
The fastest way to judge it is the seeded sample company in the app: Northwind Robotics ships with a three-seat board, a 409A on record, and live grants mid-vest, with dates anchored to today, so the counter, the sweeps, and the alerts are all running the moment you open it.
Frequently asked questions
What does the issuance counter actually track?
It counts equity-grant activity into a rolling 12-month window. The US view marks Rule 701's USD 10 million enhanced-disclosure point but does not calculate the exemption's asset and outstanding-class tests. Other region profiles track activity in a relevant currency without claiming a statutory local threshold. In every market, confirm eligibility, disclosure, tax, and filing obligations with counsel.
Does Vquity file anything with regulators or replace counsel?
No. Vquity counts, records, and alerts. It does not give legal advice or file with regulators. The counter exists so the conversation with your counsel happens well before a limit, with the numbers already assembled, rather than after an accidental breach.
Can board members sign consents inside Vquity?
No, and we say so plainly. Consent records carry the details of the decision with the executed document attached; e-signature is not wired into the consent flow. You execute the consent the way your board executes documents, then record it in Vquity so the approval sits next to the grants and issuances it authorized.
Who can see the audit trail?
Workspace admins. The audit trail logs cap-table changes (what changed, who changed it, when), and access-control roles gate which views each workspace member can open, so counsel, finance, and collaborators each see what their role grants. The reversibility report alongside it is enforced by database triggers, showing that changes are tracked and reversible.
What kinds of alerts does the notification center send?
Scheduled sweeps watch for time-sensitive equity events and post them to the notification center: valuations approaching expiry, vesting events like cliffs and milestones as they land, and other deadlines. Each user sets their own email preferences, so alerts reach the people who act on them.
Move your cap table off the spreadsheet.
Shareholders to SAFEs, option grants to exit modeling. One platform, priced by the company and not the head, on web and desktop.
All modules included · No per-stakeholder pricing · Explore a seeded sample company in one click