Measured at grant.
Expensed as it vests.
Aleq pulls every grant from your cap table, measures grant-date fair value, and books the compensation expense across the service period — forfeitures and all.
From cap-table grant to monthly expense.
Aleq reads the grant off your cap table, measures it once at the grant date, and spreads the cost over the service period. Below is the senior RSU pool.
The cliff, then every month after.
The pool vests 25% at the one-year cliff, then monthly across the remaining three years. Aleq tracks each tranche, recognizes the expense as service is rendered, and keeps recognized and unrecognized cost reconciled to the share count — so dilution and expense always agree.
An RSU is arithmetic. An option is a model.
Same cap table, same pool, three different events. One needs nothing but a share price. One needs assumptions only your team can set. One reverses itself the day someone leaves.
For a full-value award like an RSU, grant-date fair value is the market price of the underlying share — no valuation model, no assumptions to set. This month's expense is the total cost spread over the remaining service period.
Every instrument measures differently.
RSUs, options, performance shares, ESPP, cash-settled SARs — the measurement model changes with the award. Aleq runs the right one for each.
Fair value is the share price. Expense is the service.
An RSU's grant-date fair value is simply the share price on the grant date. Aleq spreads it over the requisite service period and books the expense each month — no option model, no exercise to track.
- Grant-date fair value the share price on the grant date.
- Attribution straight-line over the vesting period.
- Forfeitures reversed as they occur, or estimated up front.
Fair value needs a model — and your assumptions.
Options are measured at grant-date fair value under an option-pricing model. Aleq assembles the inputs — expected term, volatility, risk-free rate — drafts the valuation, and holds the assumptions for your sign-off before it expenses over the vesting period.
- Black-Scholes inputs term, volatility, risk-free rate, dividend yield.
- Assumptions drafted with basis, held for your sign-off.
- Expense recognized over the requisite service period.
Vesting depends on an outcome — so does the expense.
Performance awards vest on a target — ARR, an exit, a milestone. Aleq expenses based on the probable outcome for performance conditions, trues up as the estimate moves, and reverses if the target won't be met. Market conditions are baked into the grant-date fair value instead.
- Performance conditions expensed on probable outcome, trued up.
- Market conditions priced into grant-date fair value, no true-up.
- Probability drafted and held for your sign-off.
The discount and the look-back are compensation.
A qualified ESPP with a purchase discount and a look-back is compensatory. Aleq measures the cost — the discount plus the option-like value of the look-back — and recognizes it over the offering period.
- Purchase discount the stated discount off fair value.
- Look-back valued like an option over the offering period.
- Recognition spread across the offering period.
Settled in cash — so it's a liability, remeasured.
Cash-settled stock appreciation rights are liability-classified, not equity. Aleq remeasures them to fair value every period until settlement and runs the change through expense — so the charge moves with your share price.
- Liability classification not equity — it settles in cash.
- Remeasured each period to fair value through settlement.
- Expense moves with the share price every period.
What controllers and auditors ask.
The award's fair value is measured once at the grant date, and that cost is recognized as expense over the requisite service period, which is usually the vesting schedule. For RSUs, fair value is the share price at the grant date. For options, fair value comes from a pricing model such as Black-Scholes. Equity-classified awards are not remeasured after grant, so subsequent stock-price movements do not change the expense. Aleq pulls each grant from your cap table, measures it at the grant date, and books the expense each month across the service period.
Put your cap table on Aleq.
Connect your equity plan. Watch Aleq measure every RSU at fair value, attribute the expense over the service period, and reverse forfeitures automatically — no re-keyed spreadsheet, disclosure tied out to every grant.