Create Custom Vesting Schedule Templates

Cake defaults to industry-standard vesting but lets you build any custom schedule you need.

Custom vesting templates can be applied to stock options, share plans, RSAs, RSUs and Warrants.

Create a vesting template

1. Go to Plans → Vesting templates.

2. Click + Add template.

3. Enter a template name – eg. Advisor Vesting – 1/24 monthly.

4. Build your vesting events by adding any combination of:

   • Cliff: a fixed percentage that vests on a single date (only one cliff per schedule)

   • Time-based periods: regular installments over a set duration (add as many as needed)

   • Milestone events: a percentage that vests when a specific condition is met

5. Click Apply to lock each vesting event as you build it.

6. Once all vesting events have been added, click Create template.

What happens next

You'll be able to apply a custom vesting template to an individual security at the time of drafting it in Cake.

1. When prompted to add vesting for the individual grant, choose Custom.

2. Select Use template.

3. Press Select on the relevant vesting template you wish to apply to the grant.

4. All options need to be allocated before sending or saving: address any rounding errors across the vesting schedule if you see this message upon saving the grant.

Related articles

• Create a New Option Grant
• Create an Employee Stock Option Plan
• How Cake calculates diluted equity ownership for option holders