Stock ownership through an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) is proven to increase employee engagement and help companies grow and become more profitable. So, many companies want to capitalize on the scheme.
It then brings us to the next important point – Execution. Even the best benefits can be perceived poorly if they’re not implemented properly. So, you need an automated system to take care of everything properly, from participant enrollment to trading and above board.
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Our award-winning ESPP management platform features ease of use at its core and provides employees with 24/7 personalized access to their ESPP equity. We’ll walk you through the ESPP process.
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In this article, you’ll gain peace of mind and confidence knowing there’s a simplified, all-in-one ESPP software option that provides the best ESPP personalized experience for you and your participants whether you are switching ESPP management providers or upgrading from managing your share plan on spreadsheets.
What is the best ESPP software for you and your participants?
A short answer to it is: A robust system that can simplify every process of the ESPP administration from, enrolment, through to stock purchase, and on to disposition. It should aim to save you time and money in the long run.
So, you should look for a provider that covers the following features and benefits to simplify your ESPP administration.
- Technology and Experts: The software provider should do the heavy lifting work for you – setting up your plan and offering you administrative efficiencies. So, you can concentrate on your core business.
- Ease of Administration without a Steep Learning Curve: You want to eliminate the risk of knowledge loss should your ESPP administrators move on and a new staff member has to learn everything from scratch.
- A Dedicated Relationship Manager: Your assigned manager will know you, your requirements, and your plan in great detail and will be there to assist you at all stages of the process, ensuring a smooth transition.
- An Engaging Employee Portal: It allows employees to log in to view and interact with their ESPP online, optimizing their experience and simplifying the stock plan administration.
Bonus Tip: A well-designed and easy-to-use online employee portal can also help boost ESPP enrolment rates. - Automation of Key Administrative Tasks: Such as tax elections, exercise options, transaction history, task notification, voting, modeling calculators, downloadable statements, grant acceptance, selling shares & much more
- Customized Reporting: You should be able to access all the reporting information e.g. financial and business intelligence (BI) reports, to keep on top of the activities within your employee stock plans and simplify expense/tax filing.
- Enhanced Security with the choice of a variety of login authentication options
- Low Legal Risk: You should be assured of the highest level of compliance to maintain data integrity and accuracy.
Global Shares – your ideal ESPP provider
Our cloud-based ESPP software is developed and managed 100% in-house. It’s smart, intuitive, and well-designed. It’s built with 4 key factors in mind: Accuracy, Security, Efficiency, and Comprehensiveness, to cater to all the complexities of administering an ESPP.
Features & Benefits at a Glance:
Our solution combines ESPP stock plan expertise with daily plan administration, operational processing and participant management with the above mentioned features PLUS extra benefits:
Smart & New Technology
along with a team of experienced experts
Ease of Administration
24/7 access without a steep learning curve
Excellent Support
Includes a dedicated client manager, stock plan analyst team and client service desk etc
Engaging Employee Portal
24/7 access with multi-lingual support
Automation of Key Tasks
E.g. task notification, grant acceptance, exercising options, selling shares
Enhanced Security
Supported by a team of in-house cyber security and IT professionals
Customized Reporting
Financial & BI reports in various types, e.g. tables, charts, data map etc. at the click of a button
Low Legal & Compliance Risks
The highest level of compliance to maintain data integrity and accuracy
EXTRA Features & Benefits:
- Offers a multi-lingual & multi-currency interface to improve employee’s experience
- Incorporates company logos and tailored-to-match fonts, colors, layout, and aesthetics of your corporate requirements.
- Provides improved functions and features regularly at no extra cost and without any need for input from your IT team
How Global Shares help employers and ESPP administrators?
No more administration headache. Thanks to our smart settings-based technology, you’ll benefit from extensive configurability and the fastest setup without experiencing the limitations associated with manual plan administration.
- Access:
– We allow for ease of online and real-time access using our cloud-based processing system (Equity Admin), enabling you to have complete management oversight.
– You can log in from a range of devices – desktop access or mobile access via tablet or smartphone - Tracking:
You can track and view employee ESPP enrollment and payroll contributions, and other activities. - Plan Design & Settings:
– Whether you choose a non-qualified plan or a qualified plan, the system is designed to apply the correct tax treatment.
– You can select your ESPP discount rate, limit participants’ contributions, and set up important dates. Together, we can design an ideal ESPP for your business. - Communication:
We offer personalized ESPP communication with powerful built-in tools for communicating with your employees seamlessly. - Reporting:
We generate equity compensation accounting reports instantly with our extensive financial reporting suite from IFRS102 to IFRS 2 to US GAAP standards. - Compliance:
– You can ensure regulatory compliance with the ESPP $25,000 limit by capping employee purchases
– We facilitate annual form 6039 processing for ESPPs
– We’re fully complaint – from tax rates between States, employee mobility and transfers or an international workforce
How Global Shares help participants?
You can manage your ESPP intuitively and transact in real-time 24/7. Have trouble trading? You’ll have excellent online and telephone support from our trading team.
- Access:
– You have cloud-based personalized access to view, manage and interact with your own ESPP equity holdings using our system ‘Equity Gateway’
– Our software offers a personalized experience with the language and currency customization - Purchase & Management:
– You can enjoy the ease of online purchase plan enrolment along with withdrawal, suspension and contribution change facilities and much more.
– You can track shares by cost basis (usually for filing taxes), acquisition date, sale or transfer dates
– Proceeds received can be directly transferred into your bank account in the currency you wish.
– We allow dividend reinvestment or payments
– We allow fractional purchases and tracking, with roll forward contribution for full share purchase - Modeling:
– We offer ESPP calculators for modeling purchases - Tax:
– You have access to their transaction histories and downloadable e-statements for ease of filing personal tax returns.
– The cost basis for ESPP purchases and sales is instantly available to accurately file taxes and ESPP returns.
– Our software automatically records all disqualifying dispositions at the time of sale to capture the ordinary element
Why partner with Global Shares?
With 16 offices in 10 countries, Global Shares is a global provider of highly specialized industry-leading ESPP and equity management software, stock plan administration services and reporting tools. We offer specialized ESPP solutions to corporate clients and their employees worldwide.
All your ESPP requirements are catered to by our first-class online system, offering you a comprehensive range of dynamic equity administration services and exceptional financial reporting tools to transform your Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Our clients attribute our success over the past 16 years to our refreshing customer-centric approach, the ease-of-use and cost-effectiveness of our fully customizable products and the support they get from our friendly team of experienced equity experts.
To read more about ESPPs and how we can work with you, please click here.
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Please Note: This publication contains general information only and Global Shares is not, through this article, issuing any advice, be it legal, financial, tax-related, business-related, professional or other. The Global Shares Academy is not a substitute for professional advice and should not be used as such. Global Shares does not assume any liability for reliance on the information provided herein.
