Allotting shares and awarding options

Allotting shares and awarding options are the two most common ways to issue equity in Shareflo. This guide shows you how to record both, what information you’ll need, and what happens after you save the event.

Before you start

• Awards can be made by Company users with appropriate permissions

• Make sure the relevant instrument exists:

Shareflo records equity changes as “events” to preserve your audit trail. If something is recorded incorrectly, you normally correct it by voiding the event and recording a new one (rather than deleting history).

Step-by-step: allot shares or options

Step 1: Select Manage equity & choose the type of instrument to award

1. In the Company view, select Manage equity from the side panel

2. Then select Manage shares to allot shares, or Manage options to award options

3. Click the Allot new shares button (or Award new options as appropriate)

Step 2: fill in the allotment details

Complete the fields shown in the form. You’ll must fill in:

• Stakeholder — who is receiving the shares (you can create a new stakeholder if needed)

• Share class / instrument — what type of share is being issued

• Quantity — how many shares or options are being issued

• Date — the effective date of the award. This will normally be the date that the investment round closed or the date when the option grant documents were signed

• Price paid:

• Tax scheme: If the award is being made under a beneficial tax scheme such as (S)EIS shares or EMI or CSOP options, you should record it here. This will be valuable when it comes to HMRC filings, and keeping track of issuance limits. If the award doesn’t fall under such a scheme, select None.

• Exercise price: If you are awarding options, then you must set an exercise price for the options. This will default to the exercise price that was specified when the instrument was created, but you can override it for a specific award. The exercise price sits within the vesting schedule section of the form, since both sets of parameters are normally set together for options. There won’t be an exercise price for shares.

Other optional fields:

• Vesting schedule: You will normally set a vesting schedule for option awards. In certain cases (e.g. founder awards) you may also want to set a vesting schedule for share allotments. See the related article at the bottom for more details on vesting schedules.

• Notes: You can use this field to add optional notes - for example to keep track of the reason why you awarded a particular option grant to an employee. This field is only visible to your company users. It won’t be visible to the share/option holder.

Step 3: Optionally: attach a document

When you save the share or option award, you can choose to attach a document, such as an option award letter. This document will be visible to both your company users, and to the share/option holder.

What happens after

After you save an allotment or grant:

• Shareflo creates a new holding for the stakeholder

• Shareflo creates a corresponding event in your audit trail

• The stakeholder will be notified of the award, and will be able to see it if they log into their stakeholder portal.

❇️ Flo and Claude MCP Plugin

Share an option awards can also be performed via Flo, the AI chat agent, or via the Claude plugin. Please note that documents can only be added via the web interface and not via the AI agents though.

Troubleshooting / FAQs

I can’t see “Allot shares” or “Grant options”.

This usually means you don’t have the right permissions for the company, or you’re not in a view that supports creating events. Check you are a company admin, then try again from the company’s cap table.

I can’t find the right share class or option scheme.

You may need to create the instrument first. See the related article: Creating & editing new share and option classes.

I entered the wrong details. Can I edit an allotment or grant?

If you need to correct an equity issuance, the usual approach is to void the original event and record a new one so the audit trail stays accurate.