You can either cancel equity awards or cancelling the execution of an ongoing signing process.
On Carta, you can cancel equity awards in different ways, depending on how it should be reflected: either keeping record of a transaction or revoking its issuance. For the purpose of this article, we will use the cancellation of option grants as an example. Please, bear in mind that the same process is valid for Option Grants, Warrants, RSUs and Phantom Shares. You can also cancel share grants.
- Register offline cancellation - you can use this feature for both offline and online issuances if you need to register a partial or full cancellation of a grant (eg. the employee has left and you wish to cancel their grant).
- Cancel execution - you can use this feature only for online issuances to cancel a grant in signing status (eg. the grant has been sent for signing but you some details need to be amended).
Register offline cancellation
1. Go to Equity Awards > Options > Grants.
2. Click the Actions Button located on the right-hand side of the award > Register Offline Cancellation.
3. Select a cancellation reason.
If Buyback is selected as the cancellation reason, the cancelled portion will be deducted from the vested amount.
If any other reason is selected, the platform will prioritize cancelling the unvested amount.
4. Add the Cancellation Date and select one of the three options for the cancellation.
- Cancel options vested (Buyback only) - cancels only the vested portion.
- Cancel options yet to vest - cancels any unvested options in the grant.
- Cancel all outstanding options including any vested options - cancels the entire grant.
- Specify a number of options to cancel - this option allows you to input the number of options to be cancelled (could include vested and unvested). By selecting this option you can also choose to accelerate the unvested portion:
| Please note, any unvested options that are not accelerated will automatically return to the pool, if they are issued in connection to one. |
5. Add a Cancellation Note.
6. If applicable, add a funding round in the Advanced section.
7. Click Save Draft or Publish Cancellation.
Cancel Execution
Cancelling an execution is used if the online signing of an equity award must be interrupted. Cancelling an execution will also cancel the equity award.
1. Go to Equity Awards > Options > Online issuances.
2. Click the Actions Button located on the right-hand side of the award > Cancel execution.
3. Provide a cancellation reason and click Confirm.