The Certificate Module gives Issuers a cost efficient and time effective way to distribute share certificates to clients, while also keeping an organized record. This guide will help you understand how it works and where to locate it on your portal.
Initial Steps
Load the Documents
The first step of this process is to load the signed document template that will be used to create your certificates. This document template should have all the necessary FDF fields applied to the document to have it pre-populate with the relevant information. (Guide on 'Fillable Forms') When uploading these templates, you will have the option to define whether the template being uploaded is a 'Global Share Certificate', as well as the trust company of the global certificate. These templates will need to be added to each Offering via the 'Document Control' tab found on each offering. (See examples below)
The next step of this process is to fill out the default certificate settings found in the ‘Offering Details' tab. To locate the offering certificates settings, first select an issuer within the ‘Issuers’ Module. Select an Offering, go to the ‘Offering Details' Tab, and click Edit Offering.
Scroll down to the "Certificate Presets" section
The starting certificate number will be set to 0 if no number is entered (if you have previous certificate numbers you are using you can pick a starting number based on that)
Enable or disable 'Automatic Certificate Generation' method
Enabling 'Automatic Certificate Generation' setting will reveal 'Automatic Certification Process' dropdown
'Consolidated' certificate process will use and update a single certificate number for each position (multiple transactions contained under a single active certificate)
'Chronological' certificate process will cancel the currently active certificate and generate a new certificate number for each 'certificateable' event. (Each transaction will trigger a new certificate to be generated)
Certificate prefix and suffix (Series-A, LP etc.)
Leading zeros (ex. 000XXX)
Within each Offering, there is a Certificates tab.
This tab will show you the existing certificates for each offering as well as the transactions that are 'Waiting for Certificates.'
To see the transactions that are Waiting for Certificates, you need to click Toggle View.
Creating a Certificate (Individual)
Go into the Waiting for Certificates section (Toggle View) - If you have transactions listed, you have certificates you can create.
Click the plus (+) symbol beside the Investor. A window will pop up with the initial details.
There are 2 status settings for certificates: Active & Draft
When you create a certificate, no certificate files will be generated until you set the status to active.
Keeping it in draft is best if you’re planning on making changes, or don’t have all the details of the certificate yet. However, in draft, the only details that can be edited are the status, dates, and the document/director selection.
After setting it to active, the active and historic dates are required. Once the certificate is saved, it’s locked and the FDF document is created. To change this certificate, you will need to cancel and regenerate.
Within the Certificates page you can search certificates, allowing you to see the certificates and download the PDF for each. You can do this by toggling your view back to Draft and Active Certificates.
Create Certificates (Multi-Create)
This feature is used to help you create certificates for batches of transactions such as DRIP, Redemptions etc. in one action. You will have the option to define which transactions you would like to create certificates for
Click Create Batch in the Certificate Batches section (Found by Toggling your view).
The first drop down (Transaction Batch) shows you the listing of batches that you can create certificates for. This will include any purchase or DRIP batches.
You can pre-set the active date for the batch. This is changeable per-certificate before posting the batch, but this will default them if needed.
The Generate For dropdown determines what we want to do with this batch.
“This transaction batch only” - Means that the batch system will only include transactions within that particular batch that needs certificates.
The other option will use transactions from this batch, but it will also go into the Waiting for Certificates section and grab all available transactions for this investor. This option is helpful for companies that create certificates based on total holdings.
The next dropdown is related (Deal with current certificates). If you’re creating specifically for that batch, then nothing is required for this and the dropdown is locked. With the other option (This Batch & All Related Transactions...), it gives you the ability to handle active certificates.
For companies that generate certificates on a total holdings basis, they would select cancel or retire the old certificates, and create new. If they do this, then all old certificates will be canceled (or retired) and those transactions will be absorbed by this new certificate batch.
If you choose to leave active certificates, then the only transactions that will be included in this batch are ones that are within the Waiting for Certificates section.
In cases where each certificate generated is signed by a specific director then the next 2 dropdowns handle this. The second dropdown is related to the documents you would have loaded in the Certificate Template section. To ensure these documents populate correctly, they should have the FDF fields on them.
Pressing Save will queue the batch for creation. The generation uses backend processes, so it can take a couple minutes to begin - you can either leave the page or refresh until the batch is created.
Once the batch is generated, it’ll be in draft mode and you can edit the active dates and select the certificates you actually want to generate. When done, click Start Batch Process at the top and it will be queued again for processing.
Exporting Certificate Zips Files and Excel Reports
You also have the ability to download a Zip file of all the certificate PDFs that have been generated using the template that was previously uploaded to the offering. The 'Active Certificates Zip' can be queued from within the 'Certificates' module and will only contain active certificates that meet the specified requirements. (Date range, batch number etc.)
The 'Certificates Export' will generate an excel report that give the details of a batch of certificates:
