Vesting Schedules: Build and Check a Calendar

A vesting schedule becomes useful when you can turn its exact conditions into a dated quantity ledger. Start with the grant, service start, cliff, vesting intervals and rounding rule. Do not assume that a familiar schedule applies just because another company uses it.

Read the complete rule

FINRA’s employee-award questions distinguishes time-based and performance conditions and directs employees to confirm their own schedule. Vesting is not the same as exercising an option, settling an RSU or receiving permission to sell stock.

For this lesson, “month 12” means twelve completed service months after the stated commencement date. Actual calendars may use fixed dates or other conventions. The award documents, not this shortcut, determine the real schedule.

Work one explicit cliff schedule

Fictional terms: 48,000 option shares vest over 48 months. Nothing vests before month 12;12,000 vest at month 12, then 1,000 at the end of each subsequent completed service month through month 48. Assume continuous service and no acceleration or other conditions.

Completed-service-month ledger

At month 18, the cliff tranche plus six later monthly tranches gives 12,000 +6,000 =18,000. Do not add 18,000 on top of the cliff; the cumulative fraction already includes those first 12 months.

Intervals and rounding change the intermediate answer

Under a separately assumed quarterly schedule after the same cliff, the next 3,000 shares would vest at month 15. At month 13, that schedule still shows 12,000, while the monthly schedule shows 13,000. The schedule frequency changes timing even when both eventually reach 48,000.

For another grant of 10,000 shares,10,000 ÷48 is not a whole number. Rounding each monthly fraction down to 208 produces only 9,984 across 48 months. A hypothetical cumulative-floor rule instead computes floor(10,000 × completed months ÷48), subject to the cliff, and reaches exactly 10,000 at month 48. That rule is an example, not permission to choose your employer’s rounding treatment.

What does 20% vesting mean?

It means 20% of the relevant award quantity has satisfied the applicable vesting condition under the stated terms. For a 10,000-unit award, that is 2,000 units. It does not establish that 2,000 shares have been purchased, settled, or made transferable.

Do I lose vested shares if I leave?

There is no universal answer from the word “vested.” Identify whether the record is issued shares, an unexercised option or an unsettled award, then read the applicable service-end, expiry, repurchase and transfer provisions. Keep disputed rights as questions for the company and advisers.

The cap-table checklist helps locate source records. The cofounder equity discussion concerns the separate allocation decision; it does not set this schedule.

Copy the calendar check

Award ID / type / quantity:
Service commencement and grant dates:
Cliff and first vesting event:
Later interval and exact dates:
Rounding / partial-period treatment:
Conditions / interruptions / adjustments:
Date | vested this interval | cumulative | unvested
Source version / question / confirming owner:

Keep the permitted schedule and unresolved questions in Finta Documents. Ask Aurora to help explain the calendar, then check the dates and arithmetic against the actual award before relying on it.

Finta Field Guide. By Finta Editorial Team. Sources checked November 14, 2026. Examples are original, fictional teaching cases, not customer results or individualized legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.