Stock Compensation Expense Schedule Template
One document and four sheets that price every option grant off the 409A report actually in effect on its own grant date.
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Grant Register
[Company] — every option grant, matched to its 409A
409A Used is the report whose effective window actually covers the grant date, not the newest report on file. Nothing here is priced from memory.
| Grant | Role | Options | 409A Used | BS Value/Option | Total Fair Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — |
409A Used only fills in once the grant date is checked against every report's effective window, not against whichever report happens to be newest.
Windemere Labs granted a VP of Engineering 40,000 options on 2024-02-01, priced off the 409A report effective 2023-11-15 at 0.42 a share. The next 409A, effective 2024-12-01 at 0.68, was not in effect yet on the grant date, but it was the newer file sitting in the folder. Pricing that grant off it instead runs the Black-Scholes value from 0.2478 to 0.3765 a share, and the total grant-date fair value from 9,912.00 to 15,060.00. That is a 5,148.00 overstatement, 51.9 percent too high, expensed for four straight years.
Every grant here vests in four annual tranches of 25 percent. The plan elects the straight-line method under ASC 718-10-35-8, spreading the total grant-date fair value evenly across all four years instead of accelerating it tranche by tranche. That election carries a floor: cumulative expense recognized can never fall below the grant-date fair value of whatever has actually vested. On a clean annual schedule the straight-line balance and the vested floor move together, and the floor never binds until someone leaves between two anniversaries.
Windemere's Sales Director left after 19 months, with one of four tranches vested. Straight-line had already posted 3,725.71 in cumulative expense by then, but the vested floor is only 2,353.12, 25 percent of the grant's total fair value. The reversal is that difference, 1,372.59, posted the month service ended, not a re-estimate and not zero. Stopping future postings without it would leave 1,372.63 sitting on the books for a grant that only ever earned 2,353.12. Total FY2026 stock compensation expense across all four grants, reversal included, comes to 10,872.40.
What's in the pack
Grant Register
Every option grant matched to the 409A report whose effective window actually covers its own grant date, the same register-first discipline the revenue recognition policy pack applies to a contract population.
Valuation Assumptions Note
Every 409A report on file: its effective window, the inputs it actually states, and the expected-term method applied to every grant under the SEC staff's simplified method.
Vesting Schedule
Every tranche's vest date, percentage and cumulative position, so a termination date can be checked against what had actually vested, the same dated-schedule logic the lease accounting pack applies to a renewal option.
Expense by Period
Monthly compensation cost for every active grant, straight-lined over its own requisite service period and reconciling to the sum of every grant's total grant-date fair value.
Forfeiture Tracker
What reverses, and what stays, the moment someone leaves before a tranche vests: cumulative expense minus the vested floor, not zero and not a fresh estimate. A commission plan's clawback prorates the same way, against months served rather than a vested floor; see the commission calculation pack.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and let the agent build it from your own 409A reports and grant records, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly.
- 2
Send the reports and grants
Every 409A valuation report on file, plus your cap table or grant register: employee, grant date, option count and vesting terms for each award.
- 3
Match, then value
Every grant matched to the report that actually covered its own date first, then Black-Scholes run on that report's own fair value, volatility and risk-free rate.
- 4
Roll the schedule forward
Vesting Schedule and Expense by Period roll from the matched grants, and Forfeiture Tracker reverses exactly the unvested excess the moment someone leaves.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, all of it. Word documents and CSV sheets, no signup, no card required. Edit with AI is a separate, optional route for anyone who would rather hand over their 409A reports and grant records than build the register by hand.
Does this replace a 409A valuation or a cap table platform?
No. A 409A valuation is an independent appraisal from a qualified outside firm, and this pack consumes its output rather than producing one. It is not a cap table system either, the same evidence-extraction discipline the software capitalization memo applies to a build date rather than a strike price.
Why does the 409A report in effect matter more than the newest one on file?
Because grant-date fair value is fixed at the grant date and never moves when a later valuation changes it. A company usually holds several 409A reports at once, each valid for a specific window. Pricing a grant off whichever report is newest instead of whichever one covered its own date can overstate the award by half or more.
How is the expected term determined?
This plan uses the SEC staff's simplified method for a standard, plain-vanilla option: the midpoint of the weighted-average vesting term across tranches and the full contractual term. PwC's guide to developing the expected term covers when a grant actually qualifies for it.
What happens to the expense schedule when someone leaves before vesting?
Nothing changes until they actually leave, since this plan expenses every grant as if it will fully vest rather than estimating forfeitures in advance. At termination, the excess above the vested floor reverses in that same period, not the whole grant and not a fresh guess.
What does this produce for the disclosure footnote?
Total unrecognized compensation cost for nonvested awards and the weighted-average period it is expected to recognize over: the specific figures ASC 718-10-50-2(i) requires. Both roll forward from Grant Register each period, the same way balance sheet substantiation rolls forward every other account.
Price every grant off the report that actually covers it
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build your own register from your own 409A reports.
Edit with AI