| For Equity Compensation Leaders |
June
2002
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Imagine this: a participant calls you with questions about his or her stock options (perhaps to ask how many shares are exercisable, at what price, and when the rest of the options will vest). Sound familiar? What if you never again had to print and fax this information or wait while the participant tries to write down everything you say? What if you could send this participant an e-mail containing a copy of the Equity Edge Options and Awards Summary report with all the information they need? What if the participant in question was your company's CEO? If you use a Microsoft e-mail program such as Outlook or Outlook Express, Equity Edge allows you to e-mail statements directly to employees. Your employees will appreciate receiving a printer-friendly statement they can take home and review at their leisure. You can also use this functionality to provide reports to other departments such as Accounting, Finance, or Human Resources, or to send participants confirmations of exercise or purchase, disqualifying disposition surveys, and notices of expiring options. Instead of printing documents and stuffing envelopes, send e-mails directly with only a few clicks of the button. All you have to do is preview the statement you want to send and then export it to your e-mail program. You can complete the entire process within Equity Edge; it is not necessary to create anything within your e-mail program. You can even access your e-mail address book! Learn about this exciting functionality by attending the workshop “E-Mail, Equity Edge, and You,” at our 16th Annual Business Solutions Group Conference being held August 11-14 in San Francisco. This workshop will include a complete demonstration of how to e-mail a statement to a single participant and how to use Equity Edge and Microsoft Word to send mass e-mails to all your participants. For more information on this and more than 40 other workshops offered at our Annual Conference, visit business.etrade.com/conference.
New OptionsLink Report for Insider Reporting The OptionsLink Client Service Center has added a monthly report to facilitate insider reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you file Forms 3, 4, and 5 on behalf of your insiders, you can now use our new “Insider Monthly Partial Execution Report,” which provides individual lot prices rather than weighted average prices for partial executions. Reporting individual lot prices can enhance the detail and accuracy of the forms you file with the SEC. Additionally, OptionsLink simplifies insider reporting by continuing to provide:
The new “Insider Monthly Partial Execution Report” will be available for download from the Client Service Center on the first of each month, covering the preceding month’s transactions.
Transferring OptionsLink Proceeds to E*TRADE Bank Did you know that OptionsLink participants can transfer proceeds from ESPP and/or SOP transactions to their FDIC-insured E*TRADE Bank accounts? This capability complements other disbursement options including checks by mail or overnight delivery, wire transfers, or moving proceeds to an E*TRADE Securities, Incorporated brokerage account. Participants with E*TRADE Bank accounts that have been opened, funded and linked to their brokerage accounts can easily transfer proceeds to their checking, savings, money market, and money market plus accounts. (Specific options available to each participant will depend upon his or her eligible accounts.) Please note that this feature is not available for some non-U.S. participants or view-only participants.
Equity Edge Tip: Importing a Microsoft Excel® file for which the first or last data field must be blank Let's say you want to update just the e-mail addresses for a group of account records. Your IT department has created a spreadsheet with two columns: employee ID and current e-mail address. Since Equity Edge expects 27 columns of data with each field in a specific column, you need to modify the spreadsheet into an acceptable import format. Start by cutting-and-pasting the IDs into column D and the e-mail addresses into column W. Next, enter an apostrophe into the first column (A) and the 27th column (AA) to save places for the missing data. (Be sure to copy the apostrophes to each row of data in your spreadsheet. Excel’s “Fill Down” command makes this easy.) The apostrophe indicates to Excel that these columns (and all the columns in between) should be included when the spreadsheet is saved as a CSV file (the format required for import into Equity Edge). Excel separates the columns—including the blank ones—with commas. If you open the CSV file in a text editor or word processor, you will see that each line looks something like this: ,,,100-30-4889,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,eamor@etrade.com,,,, If you were to save this file as a CSV file without the apostrophes in the first and last columns, you would see: 100-30-4889,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,eamor@etrade.com Note that, unless you enter the apostrophes as “place holders,” there are no commas before the ID or after the e-mail address. This means that the file contains only 20 fields, rather than the 27 Equity Edge expects. If you attempt to import this file into Equity Edge, you will receive a message indicating that the row contains an “incorrect number of elements” and the data will not be loaded. Want to know more about importing and exporting data with Equity Edge? Attend our Annual Conference where we'll be offering a special workshop session on this very topic. For more information, see our web site at business.etrade.com/conference.
Starting May 26, please send any correspondence to our London office to this new address: E*TRADE
Securities Limited
Give Us Your Feedback on Our Products and Services The Business Solutions Group relies on feedback from our clients to help shape our product strategy. If you have something you want to share with us—anything from an additional feature you'd like to see to a whole new product concept—we want to hear about it! You can submit your comments and requests using our online enhancement form.
Make Sure You Have the Latest Product Information The Business Solutions Group periodically issues Technical Alerts and software updates with important product information. We recommend that you review Technical Alerts as soon as you receive them and, if applicable, install any necessary updates. Recent product updates include:
Education and Training Calendar (June - July 2002) Product Training
Courses: Employee Stock
Plan Administration Seminars: For more information on Business Solutions Group's education and training classes check our website at business.etrade.com.
Securities products and services are offered by E*TRADE Securities, Incorporated, member NASD/SIPC. System response times may vary due to a variety of factors, including trading volumes, market conditions and system performance. *Reminder to Always Consult Advisors. The Business Solutions Group of E*TRADE Financial ("BSG") has taken care to develop quality products and services as tools to assist companies that work effectively with their own professional legal, accounting and tax advisors to comply with the laws, regulations, and rules pertaining to equity compensation. However, there may be aspects of any company's equity compensation plan or grant arrangements, including those offered by your company, which are not addressed by products or services of BSG. You should always consult your legal counsel, accountant, tax and other professional advisors to ensure the accuracy, timeliness, and legality or other compliance of all results produced by products or services of BSG. © 2002 E*TRADE Group, Inc. All rights reserved. E*TRADE, OptionsLink and Equity Edge are registered trademarks of E*TRADE Group, Inc. or its subsidiaries. |
