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Cap table management is a process where a company explores all its options to maximize its growth potential. In other words, it is the study of a companies’ capital structure and all the various alternatives that are open to the management in order to gain an upper hand. Known officially as a caps table, a cap table helps to accurately measure a companies’ equity and capital growth potential. This will include items such as:

The companies’ percentages of ownership in other firms. Also known as EBIT, or Earnings per Deposit. The total value of the equity dilution of the company during previous rounds of stock issuances by founding, partners, and others. The capitalization and liquidation of the company’s own shares during the next round of stock issuances

All issues and events occurring during the past six or seven rounds of financing. These include: startup companies, venture capitalists, original investors, bankers, stock issuers, other private investors, regulatory agencies, other companies looking to invest in the startup, other venture capitalists, and so on. All these can have a direct or indirect effect on the future of the startup. This is where cap table management comes into play.

Capitalization tables are extremely detailed and need to be customized for each specific case. This is where a cap-tables package or cap table template comes into play. A cap-table is a spreadsheet that automatically creates and maintains a properly formatted equity capitalization table depending on the level of detail that is required from the management of a given company. Each company can tailor their own cap table which can vary depending on their level of involvement with the company.

The cap table will first need to have all of the company information for the current rounds of financing including: current market value of the shares of stock, current dividend per share holdings, dividend yield, net income, and other important numbers. The purpose of this is to provide an easy reference for how the company is performing as well as to keep track of the individual performance of each shareholder during recent rounds of financing. It will also require the company to indicate their current market value and to show what they are paying per share as well as how they are valued. The goal is to show all of the dividends per share and how they are being distributed among the owners. All shareholders must be included in the process so that cap table data can be manually organized.

Formulating a cap tables package can be done quickly using either Microsoft Excel or a similar program. In order to utilize the program of choice it would be best to first create an excel workbook for your company and then import all of the needed Excel data to the company created workbook. From there it would be as easy as copy and paste the required data and then use the copy and paste features to customize any cell. Formulating the package for what is cap table management can take a while depending on how many rounds of financing and the amount of shares owned by each owner. startups will be required to add a few formulas to their worksheet so that the package can be completed as quickly as possible. Formulating the package for what is cap table management can be done quickly using either Microsoft Excel or a similar program.

Using an excel workbook is the fastest way to manage the finance of a business. This is the preferred method for managing what is cap table management because of the ease of access and the ability to customize the package as needed. Excel also has a built in graphing capability which can be used when necessary to provide a more comprehensive view of the company as well as the cap table management package. Most often a person will be required to add a few formulas to their worksheet so that the package can be completed as quickly as possible.

Using what is cap table management for a private company allows a person to track the equity ownership of the company. The cap tables can be used to track the dividends paid out by the company and to track capital assets and liabilities. It is important to note that a private company does not have to report its own equity or assets. In startups for investors to receive full information about a private company they generally have to purchase a security from the company in order to obtain the information. Cap tables are often used to track the changes in equity.