Equity Audit
OPTIONS DATA COMPARISON TOOL
Key Benefits:
w Eliminates time-consuming
manual tracking of changes
w Automates reporting of
discrepancies with options
data reconciliation
w Provides a detailed electronic
audit trail to ensure data
reliablity and integrity
w Tracks changes to option
data for any period—day,
week, month, quarter, etc.
To request your copy
of Equity Audit, contact
your sales representative
or send an email to
salesinfo@etrade.com.
Keeping track of stock option plans is
not easy. Stock Plan Administrators often
have limited time and bandwidth to manually detect and reconcile important changes
to option data. Tighter regulations, heightened scrutiny of stock option plans, and
increased emphasis on internal controls
have raised the stakes, making it more
critical than ever to ensure the reliability
and integrity of options data.
Equity Audit is a tool that works with our
state-of-the-art Equity Edge ® stock plan
administration software to simplify tracking of option plan data. Equity Audit
helps administrators save time and money
by identifying backdated transactions and
modifications that complicate period-end
reconciliation. And Equity Audit makes
it easy to perform regular, comprehensive
database audits so administrators can ensure
their data is accurate and complete.
Equity Audit is simple to use. It takes a
snapshot of options data for a certain period and then, at a later date, takes another
snapshot. Equity Audit then compares the
two snapshots and generates a complete
list of option additions, deletions, and
modifications—including changes to vesting
schedules and terminations.
Automate Reconciliation
Procedures
With conventional period- or month-end
reconciliation procedures, administrators
compare a hard copy of the prior period’s
option reports to reports of the same timeframe run more recently. If there are any
discrepancies, the source of these
discrepancies must be identified and
reconciled. When performed manually,
this process can be time-consuming and
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prone to error. With Equity Audit, however, administrators can now easily generate
a report that automatically highlights the
source of discrepancies to aid in reconciling
backdated transactions and ensuring the
integrity of data. Equity Audit also generates an electronic audit trail for record
keeping.
Consider a plan summary report run on
March 31 that shows 562,000 shares
granted and 34,000 shares cancelled.
When this report is re-run three months
later for the same date, it shows 542,000
shares granted and 44,000 shares cancelled.
In theory, both reports should show the
same numbers because they are run for
the same date. Finding the source of such
discrepancies manually is a cumbersome
process. With Equity Audit, a report is
automatically generated highlighting the
source of discrepancies to better assist with
reconciliation.
Other examples of discrepancies created by
backdated transactions or edits include:
w
Backdated option grants entered after
period-end with an option date prior to
period-end
w
Backdated exercises entered after
period-end with an exercise date prior to
period-end
w
Backdated terminations
w
Backdated vest schedule adjustments
w
Option deletions
Order Equity Audit Today
To request your copy of Equity Audit,
contact your sales representative or send
an email to salesinfo@etrade.com.