When Corporate Governance Fails
Humans have organized the world through an infinite string of agreements and social contracts. Whether people agree to stop at a red light or get in line at the grocery store, a functioning society depends on these kinds of agreements. Managing organizations like nonprofits and corporations require layers of agreements between stakeholders.
At formation, organizations must abide by government policies by registering with the state and obtaining a tax registration ID. If these rules aren’t explicitly outlined by the regulatory body, they are covered by an operating agreement. Fully understanding the contents of your operating agreement and knowing your organization’s needs can save you many sleepless nights.
Aside from the largest liability of not having an operating agreement, to begin with, another common mistake includes assuming that all signatures have been collected to make the document legally binding.
As your trusted tax advisor will tell you, different organizations fall under different tax categories and your operating agreement needs to align, accordingly, from the start. Further, most businesses “set it and forget it” when it comes to their operating agreements. Similarly, changes in IRS tax policy may necessitate changes to your operating agreement. Equa brings dormant agreements to life via its cutting-edge technology.
The second major agreement that organizations must pay significant attention to is the capitalization table, often referred to as the “cap table”. Since this is a ledger deciphering who owns what and how much, the cap table needs frequent analysis to ensure accuracy as it can impact company valuation, capital raises and even recruiting talented executives.
Many cap tables are created using spreadsheet software and most cap tables have errors stemming from duplicated files that have been shared among multiple owners. Depending on basic spreadsheet software to account for true ownership when dealing with vested shares, options, dividends, transfers, buybacks and cancellation of vested shares due to employee termination can result in an accounting nightmare. Furthermore, correcting mistakes involves costly attorneys and accountants. Unfortunately, these mistakes are usually overlooked until a company is pursuing a capital raise. However, in today’s competitive capital markets, money may dry up while investors wait for a resolution to this oversight.
This is where Equa can help!
As a technology company, Equa understands these problems and has built an incredible team of entrepreneurs and developers to automate the management of operating agreements, as well as the organized maintenance of a cap table. Our technology empowers any organization to swiftly make decisions covered by an operating agreement. Every vote is captured and recorded securely and in real-time through our web application and mobile app.
Fundamentally, this process reduces friction by adding velocity and accountability to organizational management such as owner or director level decision-making processes. Our technology also includes a single source of truth that allows a fully transparent and auditable ledger of an organization’s ownership. The combination of Equa's advanced agreement and ownership management provides peace of mind to busy business owners. Further, our tools provide them with the ability to timestamp and permanently store their decisions in a system for easy dispute resolution and reconciliation in the future.
Equa: Frictionless agreements. Cap Table Management. Business Simplified
To learn more about Equa and sign up for a free trial, please visit us at www.equa.global
