Stock Option Offer Statuses and What They Mean

Option grants in Cake move through several statuses as they progress from draft to issued and eventually vested, lapsed, or exercised. This article explains what each status means and what to do at each stage.

Status reference

Waiting on you to complete

The grant is saved as a draft and needs an admin action before it moves forward. You have two options:

Issue grant: use this if the employee has already signed their agreement outside Cake. You'll enter the grant date and upload the signed document. No documents are sent to the employee.
Send grant: use this to send the grant letter digitally through Cake for the employee to sign.

Board approval required (US-only)

The grant is saved as a draft and is waiting for the Board Approval to be sent for signature before the grant is sent to the employee to accept.

Waiting for board approval (US-only)

The grant is out for signature with the Board. Track the board signature process via Plans → Board approvals.

Your employee / investor needs to sign

The grant has been sent and is waiting for the recipient to sign. You can send a reminder at any time from the To do tab by clicking Send reminder.

Waiting on contract

The grant has been sent and the recipient has started the next steps to accept the offer. You can send a reminder at any time from the To do tab by clicking Send reminder.

Vesting

The grant is active and vesting has begun. The grant date shown is when options were officially issued.

Partially vested

Some options have vested and some have been cancelled (lapsed). This typically happens when an employee leaves before completing their full vesting schedule.

Paused

Vesting has been temporarily stopped, for example, due to leave. Vesting can be resumed when the employee returns.

Lapsed

Options have been cancelled and returned to the unallocated pool. This occurs when an employee leaves before full vesting or when options expire without being exercised.

Exercised

The employee has converted their vested options into shares. The exercise is recorded on the cap table.