Exercise, settlement and forfeiture

Methods and settings

Select an eligible grant

Add Exercise/settle, select an existing grant in the pool and enter units. The grant must exist at that step in the shared transaction sequence. Units cannot exceed outstanding or vested/exercisable units at Ownership date. Select an outstanding share class for settlement in Pool settings; managed award securities cannot be the destination share class.

Calculate the share and cash effects

Options use the grant strike unless an optional exercise-price override is entered. RSUs and other incentive units settle with zero exercise price. Exercised awards decrease and issued shares increase one-for-one for the holder. Exercise cash equals units × price. With 40 options exercised at EUR 2, company cash is EUR 80 and 40 shares are issued; these cash effects remain Ownership analysis outputs.

Choose return or removal

Forfeit/cancel cannot exceed outstanding units. Return to available pool increases availability while reserved capacity stays unchanged. Remove from reserved pool lowers reserved capacity instead, without restoring availability. The current calculation consumes unvested units first: vested outstanding is capped by what remains after cancellation and prior exercise. Inspect both vested and available balances after a large cancellation.

Compare the two forfeiture treatments

Reserved 200, outstanding 100 and exercised 20 leaves 80 available. Cancelling 30 by return leaves outstanding 70 and available 110, with reserve 200. Cancelling 30 by removal instead leaves outstanding 70, available 80 and reserve 170. In both cases lifetime cancelled rises by 30; the difference is whether those units can support a future grant.

Review the full closing state

Exercise and forfeiture are previewed in the shared sequence until Apply closing. Applying locks the steps and updates opening pools, grants and shares together. It does not book Model cash, employee withholding or compensation expense. Cashless exercise, net settlement, payroll tax and contractual clawback/termination rules are not implemented.