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What can you track in the ClearBooks cap table?
The cap table is organized around two records: investors (the people and firms) and investments (each instrument they hold).
Investors carry a name, contact details and a type: individual, angel, venture capital, institutional or strategic.
Each investment records:
- Instrument type: equity, SAFE, convertible note, or a stock plan reservation.
- Amount and date, plus shares issued, price per share and ownership percentage for priced equity.
- SAFE and note terms: valuation cap, discount rate, and for notes the interest rate and maturity date.
- Consideration: cash, acquisition consideration, services, conversion of another instrument, or other non-cash. Only cash counts toward money raised, so a SAFE issued as acquisition consideration still appears as a security without inflating the amount you raised.
- Status: outstanding, converted, expired, terminated or draft, so a lapsed instrument stops counting as a live security.
- A document reference or link to the signed agreement.
The overview groups stockholders, SAFEs and convertible notes, with summary totals for amount raised and an issued-versus-reserved shares chart. You can bulk import stockholder, SAFE and stock plan entries and export a summary.
How do investor data rooms work?
A data room is a private, read-only page you share with an investor, lender or acquirer by link. You give it a name and description, upload the files you want to share, such as exported financial statements, a board deck, bank statements or contracts, and send the link.
How access works:
- Unguessable links. Each data room gets a random 32-byte token. Only a SHA-256 hash of it is stored, and the token is checked on the server, so a leaked database would not expose working links.
- Time-limited downloads. Files are served through signed download links that expire after an hour, rather than permanent public URLs.
- An access log. Every time the page is opened, a view is recorded against that data room, so you can see when it was looked at.
- Revocable. Deleting a data room stops its link from working.
Financial statements are shared as files: export them from reports and upload them to the room.
Investor reporting from the same numbers
The Investor Reports area pulls key metrics, forecasts and links to the financial statements from the same ledger as the rest of ClearBooks, so the burn and runway you show investors are the figures in your books, not a separate spreadsheet. The AI agent can also produce a shareable summary of the numbers for investors or your accountant.
Working with the cap table through the API and AI agent
Cap table and data room data are available to software as well as people. Through the REST API and the MCP server, an agent with the right scopes can list investors, record a new investment (for example "record a $50k SAFE from Jane Doe"), get a cap table summary with totals by investor and instrument, and create or list data rooms. Access is controlled by the cap table and data room read and write scopes on the API key.
What the cap table does not do
ClearBooks keeps the record. It does not do equity modeling or legal administration:
| Capability | In ClearBooks? |
|---|---|
| Record investors, equity, SAFEs, convertible notes | Yes |
| Valuation cap, discount, interest and maturity terms | Recorded |
| Model SAFE or note conversion at a priced round | No |
| Pro forma dilution, round modeling or exit waterfalls | No |
| Issue or e-sign stock certificates, SAFEs or option grants | No |
| 409A valuations or option vesting schedules | No |
| Automatic journal entries for investments | No; equity is recorded in the ledger separately |
The authorized shares chart uses a default of 10,000,000 authorized shares rather than reading your charter, so treat it as an approximation. When you raise a priced round or start granting options to employees, your lawyer's equity management platform should be the system of record, and the ClearBooks cap table becomes a summary that sits next to the books.
Who is it for?
Founders of pre-seed and seed-stage companies whose cap table is a handful of founders and SAFE holders, who want that information kept with their books and want to share up-to-date metrics with investors without building a new deck every quarter. See pricing to get started.
Frequently asked questions
Can I track SAFEs in ClearBooks?
Yes. Each SAFE is recorded as an investment with its amount, date, valuation cap, discount rate, status and a link to the signed agreement. SAFEs issued for non-cash consideration are tracked as securities without counting toward money raised.
Does ClearBooks calculate SAFE conversion or dilution?
No. ClearBooks records the terms of SAFEs and convertible notes but does not model their conversion into a priced round, pro forma dilution or exit waterfalls.
What is a ClearBooks data room?
A read-only page shared by an unguessable link, where an investor or acquirer can download the files you upload, such as financial statements and contracts. Downloads use signed links that expire after an hour, and deleting the data room disables the link.
Can I see when my data room was opened?
Yes. Each time the shared page is opened, a view is recorded in that data room's access log.
Does recording an investment post a journal entry?
No. The cap table is a separate record from the ledger. Record the cash received from an investment as a transaction or journal entry in the books as well.