📌 In Short — What ESOP Services Cover
Most companies think an ESOP is one document. It is actually a project with about ten moving parts — legal, valuation, secretarial, accounting, tax and employee communication — and each one has to be done in the right order.
A full ESOP service engagement covers: the first advisory discussion, educating the founders and management, identifying which employees get options, sizing the pool, drafting the scheme, valuing the shares, running the board and shareholder process, completing the MCA filings, briefing the finance and tax teams, holding the employee workshop, and maintaining the plan every year afterwards.
This page explains each of those phases in plain language, so you know exactly what you are buying when you engage an ESOP consultant.
ESOPs are the most common way Indian companies share ownership with their teams — and one of the most commonly mishandled. Not because the law is complicated, but because the work sits across four different functions. The founder decides the intent. The company secretary handles the resolutions and filings. The finance team books the expense. The payroll team deducts the tax. And the employee, who is the whole point of the exercise, usually understands none of it.
An ESOP service provider exists to hold all of that together. At Elite Valuation, we run the entire engagement end to end — advisory, drafting, valuation, secretarial process, finance and tax support, employee workshops and annual compliance — so the founders make the decisions and we handle everything else.
Key Takeaways:
- ESOP services cover far more than a scheme document — the drafting is roughly 20% of the actual work
- A typical engagement runs through ten phases, from the first discussion to annual maintenance
- Valuation is needed more than once — for the exercise price, for the accounting charge, and again at every exercise for tax
- The company secretarial process — board meeting, special resolution, MGT-14, SH-6 register, PAS-3 — is where most in-house attempts go wrong
- Your finance and payroll teams need worksheets, not opinions: the amortisation schedule, the perquisite computation and the TDS working
- The employee workshop is the cheapest and highest-impact part of the whole exercise
- Typical implementation timeline is 6–10 weeks for a private limited company with clean records
- ESOPs create permanent annual compliance — most companies retain their ESOP consultant on an ongoing basis
What Are ESOP Services, and What Does an ESOP Consultant Do?
An Employee Stock Option Plan gives selected employees the right to buy shares in the company at a fixed price, after they have completed a defined period or achieved defined goals. It is governed mainly by Section 62(1)(b) of the Companies Act, 2013 and Rule 12 of the Companies (Share Capital and Debentures) Rules, 2014.
An ESOP service consultant takes a company from the intention — "we want to give our team equity" — to a plan that is designed properly, documented properly, approved properly, understood by employees, and compliant year after year.
📌 The Four Kinds of Work Inside Every ESOP Engagement
- Advisory work — deciding whether an ESOP is the right instrument, how big the pool should be, who should get options, and on what terms
- Drafting work — the scheme, the resolutions, the grant letters, the registers and the trust deed where applicable
- Valuation work — the share value for the exercise price, the option value for accounting, and the fair market value at each exercise for tax
- Compliance work — the secretarial process, MCA filings, accounting entries, tax withholding, annual disclosures and register maintenance
Most providers do one or two of these. The gaps between them are where problems appear later — usually during a funding round or a due diligence exercise.
The 10 Phases of an ESOP Engagement — What We Do at Each Stage
Our Service Process
Due diligence is the most critical phase of the buy-side M&A process. It verifies everything the target has represented, identifies hidden risks, quantifies valuation adjustments, and builds the foundation for the definitive purchase agreement.
1. ESOP Management Discussion — Understanding What You Actually Want
We start with a working session with the founders and management. The purpose is not to sell a scheme — it is to establish whether an ESOP is the right instrument at all, and what it is meant to achieve.
- What is the objective — retention, hiring senior talent, rewarding early employees, or preparing for a funding round?
- What is the current shareholding, and how much dilution are the founders comfortable with?
- Is an ESOP the right tool, or would SARs, phantom stock or sweat equity fit better?
- What is the realistic liquidity horizon — will employees ever be able to sell?
2. Helping You Understand the ESOP — Educating Founders and Management
Before any decision is made, the leadership team needs to understand the mechanics properly. We run a plain-language session covering how ESOPs actually work.
- Grant, vesting, cliff, exercise price, exercise period — what each term means and why it matters
- How dilution works, and what the pool costs the existing shareholders
- What the company can and cannot do under the Companies Act
- What the tax consequences are for the employee, and what obligations fall on the company
- What happens when an employee resigns, is terminated, retires or passes away
3. Employee Identification — Deciding Who Gets Options and How Much
We work with the founders and the HR head to identify the eligible pool and build a grant plan by role and seniority, rather than allotting options case by case in salary negotiations.
- Checking eligibility under Rule 12 — permanent employees, directors other than independent directors, and employees of holding, subsidiary or associate companies
- Identifying who is excluded — promoters, the promoter group, and directors holding more than 10% of equity, subject to the DPIIT-recognised startup exemption
- Building a grant matrix by band so grants are consistent and defensible
- Planning for future hires and refresh grants, not just today's team
4. Pool Sizing and Structure Design
We size the option pool from your hiring plan and model what it does to the cap table, then fix the commercial terms of the plan.
- Total pool size and how it sits on the fully diluted cap table
- Vesting schedule — the standard four-year schedule, and whether to link part of it to performance milestones
- Exercise price policy, balanced against the tax the employee will pay on exercise
- Exercise window after resignation, and treatment of good leavers and bad leavers
- Direct grant route or ESOP trust route
5. ESOP Drafting Services — The Complete Document Set
We draft every document the plan needs, tailored to the decisions taken in the earlier phases. No templates.
- ESOP scheme / plan document
- Board resolution and notice of general meeting with the explanatory statement
- Special resolution, including separate resolutions where required for large individual grants or group-company employees
- Grant letter and employee acceptance form
- Exercise application form and allotment documentation
- Register of Employee Stock Options in Form SH-6
- Trust deed and trustee documentation, where the trust route is used
6. ESOP Valuation — By an IBBI Registered Valuer
Valuation is where our practice began, and it is required at more than one point in the ESOP lifecycle. Each has a different purpose and a different date.
- Share valuation at grant — to set and support a defensible exercise price
- Option valuation — the fair value of the option itself, using Black-Scholes or a binomial model, for the accounting charge
- Fair market value at exercise — to compute the perquisite and the tax to be withheld
- Valuation for cross-border grants — where options are granted to employees outside India
7. Company Secretarial Process — Approvals, Resolutions and MCA Filings
We run the entire corporate approval process, either alongside your CS or in full where you do not have one.
- Convening and minuting the board meeting approving the scheme
- Issuing the notice of general meeting with the explanatory statement in the prescribed form
- Passing the special resolution required under Section 62(1)(b)
- Filing Form MGT-14 with the Registrar of Companies within 30 days
- Opening and maintaining the Form SH-6 register
- On exercise: allotment, share certificates, and Form PAS-3 filing within 30 days
- Checking whether the articles of association need amendment before implementation
8. Finance and Tax Team Support — Accounting, TDS and Reporting
Your internal teams get worksheets they can use, not a legal note they have to interpret. This is the phase most external advisers skip.
- For the finance team: the employee benefit expense, the amortisation schedule over the vesting period, journal entries, and the working papers the statutory auditor will ask for
- For the payroll and tax team: the perquisite computation on each exercise, the tax to be withheld, and reporting in Form 12BA and Form 16
- For the secretarial team: the annual Board's Report disclosure of options granted, vested, exercised and lapsed
- For the employee: a simple statement showing their grant, vested position and tax position
9. Employee Workshop — Making Sure the Team Understands What They Have
An ESOP that employees do not understand has almost no retention value. We run a live session, plus a written FAQ, in language employees can follow.
- What an option is, and what the employee owns today versus later
- Vesting and cliff, explained with the employee's own numbers
- What they will pay to exercise, and what tax applies at exercise and at sale
- What happens to their options if they resign or are asked to leave
- How and when they might realise value — buyback, secondary sale or a listing
- A live Q&A, plus a one-page take-home summary for every grantee
10. Ongoing Compliance and ESOP Administration
An ESOP is not a one-time project. We maintain the plan on an annual retainer so nothing drifts.
- Maintaining the option register and reconciling it to the register of members
- Tracking vesting and issuing vesting communications to employees
- Processing exercises — valuation, perquisite computation, allotment and PAS-3
- Processing leavers against the scheme's exercise window
- Annual Board's Report disclosures and audit support
- Fresh grants, pool top-ups and scheme amendments as the company grows
- Preparing the ESOP file for due diligence ahead of a funding round or sale
Thinking About Setting Up an ESOP?
Start with a discussion, not a document. We will walk your founders and management through how ESOPs work, what it will cost in dilution, and whether it is the right instrument for what you are trying to achieve.
Who Does What — Our Team Versus Your Team
One of the most common questions we get is how the work splits between us and the company's internal team. Here is how a typical engagement is divided.
| Activity | Elite Valuation | Your Team |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding objectives and dilution appetite | Advise | Founders decide |
| Educating management on how ESOPs work | We deliver | Attend |
| Identifying eligible employees and grant sizes | Framework and eligibility check | HR and founders finalise names |
| Pool sizing and cap table modelling | We deliver | Provide hiring plan |
| Drafting the scheme and all documents | We deliver | Review and approve |
| Share and option valuation | We deliver | Provide financials and projections |
| Board meeting, general meeting and resolutions | We run the process | Board and shareholders approve |
| MGT-14, SH-6 and PAS-3 filings | We file | Provide DSC and signatures |
| Accounting entries and audit support | Worksheets and support | Finance team books entries |
| Perquisite computation and TDS | Computation and working | Payroll team deducts and reports |
| Employee workshop and FAQ | We deliver | Arrange attendance |
| Annual maintenance and register upkeep | We deliver | Notify us of joiners and leavers |
How Long Does ESOP Implementation Take?
Typical Timeline
| Phase | Typical Duration | Depends On |
|---|---|---|
| Discussion, education and design | 1–2 weeks | Founder availability and clarity of objectives |
| Employee identification and pool sizing | 1 week | Availability of the hiring plan |
| Drafting the scheme and documents | 1–2 weeks | Complexity of vesting and leaver terms |
| Valuation | 1–2 weeks (runs in parallel) | Quality of financials and projections |
| Secretarial process and MGT-14 filing | 3–4 weeks | General meeting notice period |
| Grant letters and employee workshop | 1 week | Employee scheduling |
| End to end | 6–10 weeks | Assumes a private limited company with clean records |
⚠️ The one thing that consistently causes delay: incomplete corporate records. Missing board minutes, an outdated register of members, unfiled past resolutions, or articles of association that need amendment before an ESOP can be implemented. We check all of this at the start of the engagement rather than discovering it at the filing stage.
Already Have an ESOP That Needs Cleaning Up?
Missing resolutions, a register that does not reconcile, grants made without the right approvals, or an ESOP file that will not survive due diligence — we review, regularise and bring it back into compliance.
📋 Your Complete ESOP File
- ESOP scheme document, approved and executed
- Board resolution, general meeting notice with explanatory statement, and the special resolution
- MGT-14 filing acknowledgement and challan
- Register of Employee Stock Options in Form SH-6, opened and current
- Signed grant letters and employee acceptances for every grantee
- Valuation report supporting the exercise price and the accounting charge
- Option ledger and vesting tracker for the HR and finance teams
- Accounting worksheet with the amortisation schedule and journal entries
- Perquisite and TDS computation format for the payroll team
- Employee FAQ document and workshop material
- Annual compliance calendar showing every date and filing for the year ahead
Common Mistakes We See When Companies Do It Themselves
❌ Promising options verbally before any scheme exists
Employees are told "you'll get 0.5%" in an offer letter, months before the scheme is drafted or approved. When the plan is finally set up, the promised numbers no longer fit the pool, and the company has to choose between breaking a promise and breaking its own framework.
❌ Downloading a template scheme from the internet
Template schemes carry vesting terms, leaver clauses and exercise windows that were written for a different company. They also frequently miss the specific disclosures the explanatory statement must contain.
❌ Treating valuation as a one-time formality
A single valuation is obtained at the time of the scheme and then reused for years, including at exercise. The exercise-date fair market value drives the perquisite tax and the company's withholding obligation — it cannot be a stale number.
❌ Forgetting the tax the employee will owe at exercise
The employee pays tax on the difference between the fair market value and the exercise price, in cash, at the time of exercise — often when the shares cannot be sold. If there is no liquidity route, employees simply never exercise and the plan achieves nothing.
❌Never explaining the plan to employees
Grant letters are issued and never discussed. Employees cannot value what they do not understand, so the company incurs the full dilution and receives none of the retention benefit.
❌Letting the register drift after implementation
Vesting is not tracked, leavers are not processed, and the option ledger stops reconciling to the statutory register. This surfaces during a funding round or a sale, at the worst possible moment.
Closing Summary
An ESOP looks like a document but behaves like a project. It needs an advisory conversation before anything is drafted, a valuation before an exercise price can be set, a proper board and shareholder process before any option is granted, working papers for the finance and payroll teams so the numbers land correctly in the accounts and the payroll, a workshop so employees actually understand what they have been given, and steady annual upkeep so the file still stands up when an investor or an acquirer asks for it. At Elite Valuation, we cover all of it — ESOP advisory, drafting, valuation, secretarial process, finance and tax support, employee workshops and ongoing administration — as a single engagement, so nothing falls between the founders, the CS, the CFO and the HR team.
Frequently Asked Questions —ESOP Services in India
CA Sagar Shah, Founder
Mr Sagar Shah is the Founder of Elite Valuation and leads the firm’s Valuation and Advisory practice. With over 15+ years of professional experience.
