Business Operations

This handbook page details processes specific to working with and within this department.

Team

Role	Contributor(s)
Head of Business Operations	Joanne Stableford (@jostableford)
Business Operations Engineer	Nathan Holliday (@hollidayn) Isabell Reedy (@ireedy)

Contact us

To make a request of this department, create an issue and a team member will get back to you within one business day (If urgent, mention a team member in #g-business-operations.
- Please use issue comments and GitHub mentions to communicate follow-ups or answer questions related to your request.
- Any Fleet team member can view the kanban board for this department, including pending tasks and the status of new requests.

Responsibilities

The Business Operations department is directly responsible for people operations, finance + invoicing, tax, compliance, and legal + deal desk.

Run payroll

Many of these processes are automated, but it's vital to check Gusto and Plane manually for accuracy.

Salaried fleeties are automated in Gusto and Plane.
Hourly fleeties and consultants are a manual process each month in Gusto and Plane.

Payroll type	What to use	DRI
Commissions and ramp	"Off-cycle" payroll	Head of Business Operations
Sign-on bonus	"Bonus" payroll	Head of Business Operations
Performance bonus	"Bonus" payroll	Head of Business Operations
Accelerations (quarterly)	"Off-cycle" payroll	Head of Business Operations
US contractor payroll	"Off-cycle" payroll	Head of Business Operations

Reconcile monthly recurring expenses

Recurring monthly or annual expenses, such as the tools we use throughout Fleet, are tracked as recurring, non-personnel expenses in "🧮 The Numbers" (¶confidential Google Sheet), along with their payment source. Reconciliation of recurring expenses happens monthly.

Use this spreadsheet as the source of truth. Always make changes to it first before adding or removing a recurring expense. Only track significant expenses. (Other things besides amount can make a payment significant; like it being an individualized expense, for example.)

Access a background check

Fleet team members with access to Fleet's infrastructure undergo a background check provided through Vetty. Only the most recent background checks appear on the home page of Vetty's dashboard. To access a complete list of background checks run in Vetty, scroll down to the bottom of the candidates page and click "View Historical".

Process an email from a state agency

From time to time, you may get notices via email (or in the mail) from state agencies regarding Fleet's withholding and/or unemployment tax accounts. You can resolve some of these notices on your own by verifying and/or updating the settings in your Gusto account.

If the notice is regarding an upcoming change to your deposit schedule or unemployment tax rate, make the required change in Gusto, such as:

Update your unemployment tax rate.
Update your federal deposit schedule.
Update your state deposit schedule.

In Gusto, you can click How to review your notice to help you understand what kind of notice you received and what additional action you can take to help speed up the time it takes to resolve the issue.

Note: Many agencies do not send notices to Gusto directly, so it’s important that you read and take action before any listed deadlines or effective dates of requested changes, in case you have to do something. If you can't resolve the notice on your own, are unsure what the notice is in reference to, or the tax notice has a missing payment or balance owed, follow the steps in the Report and upload a tax notice in Gusto.

Inform managers about hours worked

Every Friday at 1:00pm CT, we gather hours worked for anyone who gets paid hourly by Fleet. This includes core team members and consultants, regardless of employment classification, and regardless whether inside or outside of the United States.

Here's how:

For every hourly core team member in Gusto or Plane.com, find the DRI by looking up (who they report to).
If any direct report is hourly in Plane.com and does not submit their hours until the end of the month, still list them, but explain.
Consultants don't have a formal reporting structure. They submit their hours through Gusto (US consultants) or Plane.com (international consultants), which require approval from a DRI. You can find the DRI by looking at the Business Operations KPIs

Then, send the DRI a direct message in Slack with a screenshot of the HRIS portal, showing hours logged since last Saturday at midnight and tasks undertaken during those hours (if provided). Ensure the screenshot does not contain any compensation information.

More info: https://fleetdm.com/handbook/business-operations#inform-managers-about-hours-worked

Change the DRI of a consultant

In the KPIs sheet, find the consultant's column.
Change the DRI documented there to the new DRI who will receive information about the consultant's hours.

Run US contractor payroll

For Fleet's US contractors, running payroll is a manual process:

Add the amount to be paid to the "Gross" line.
Review hours ("Time tools > Time tracking")
Adjust time frame to match current payroll period (the 27th through 26th of the month)
Sync hours and run contractor payroll.

Communicate the status of customer financial actions

This reporting is performed to update the status of open or upcoming customer actions regarding the financial health of the opportunity. To complete the report:

Go to this report folder in SFDC. The three reports will provide the data used in the report.
Copy the template below and paste it into the #g-sales slack channel and complete all "todos" using the data from Salesforce before sending.

Weekly revenue report - [@`todo: CRO` and @`todo: CEO`]
- Number accounts with outstanding balances = `todo`
- Number of customers awaiting invoices = `todo`
- Number of past-due renewals = `todo`

Run US commission payroll

Update commission calculator with new revenue from any deals that are closed/won (have a subscription agreement signed by both parties) and have a Close date within the previous month.
- Find detailed notes on this process in Notes - Run commission payroll in Gusto.
Let the Head of Business Operations know they can run the commission payroll. Use the off-cycle payroll option in Gusto. Be sure to classify the payment as "Commission" in the "other earnings" field and not the generic "Bonus."
Once commission payroll has been run, update the commission calculator to mark the commission as paid.

Convert a Fleetie to a consultant

If a Fleetie decides they want to move to being a consultant, either the Fleetie or their manager need to create a custom issue for the BizOps team to notify them of the change. Once notified, BizOps takes the following steps:

Confirm the following details with the Fleetie:
- Date of change
- Term of consultancy (time period)
- Hours/capacity expected (hours per week or month)
- Confirm hourly rate
Once details are confirmed, use the information given to create the consulting agreement for the Fleetie (either in docusign (US-based) or via Plane (international)), and send to their personal email for signature. Once signed, save in Fleetie's employee file.
Schedule the Fleetie's final day in HRIS (Gusto or Plane).
Update final day in "🧑‍🚀 Fleeties" spreadsheet.
Create an offboarding issue for the Fleetie converting to a consultant, and confirm with their manager if there is a need to retain any tools or access while they are a consultant (default to removing all access from Fleet email, and migrating to personal email for Slack and other tools unless there is a business case to retain the Fleet email and associated tool access).
Follow the offboarding issue for next steps, including communicating to teammates and updating equity plan.

Update personnel details

When a Fleetie, consultant or advisor requests an update to their personnel details (name, location, phone, etc), follow these steps to ensure accurate representation across systems.

Team member submits a custom issue to update their personnel details (or BizOps team creates if the request comes via email or is sensitive and needs a classified issue).
- If change is for a primary identification or contact method, ask for evidence of change and capture in employee's personnel file.
BizOps makes change to HRIS (Gusto or Plane) to reflect change.
- Note: if making the change requires follow up steps, resolve those steps to action the change.
Once change is effected in HRIS, BizOps makes changes to "🧑‍🚀 Fleeties" spreadsheet.
If required, BizOps makes any relevant changes to Fleet's equity plan.
If required, BizOps makes any relevant changes to the "🗺️ Geographical factors" spreadsheet and follows through on any action items involving tax implications (i.e. registering with a new state for employer taxes).
If required, BizOps also makes changes to other core systems (e.g: creating a new email alias in google workspace; updating details in Carta; etc).
The change is now actioned, notify the team member and close the issue.

Note: if the Fleetie is US based and has a qualifying life event that impacts benefit coverage, they can follow the Gusto steps to update their coverage elections.

Change a Fleetie's job title

When BizOps receives notification of a Fleetie's job title changing, follow these steps to ensure accurate recording of the change across our systems.

Update "🧑‍🚀 Fleeties":
- Search the spreadsheet for the Fleetie in need of a job title change.
- Input the new job title in the Fleetie's row in the "Job title" cell.
- Navigate to the "Org chart" tab of the spreadsheet, and verify that the Fleetie's title appears correctly in the org chart.
Update the departmental handbook page with the change of job title
Update the relevant payroll/HRIS system.
- For updating Gusto (US-based Fleeties):
  - Login to Gusto and navigate to "People > Team members".
  - Find the Fleetie and select them to see their profile page.
  - Under the "Compensation" heading, select edit and update the "Job title" and input the specific date the change happened. Save the changes.
- For updating Plane (non-US Fleeties):
  - Login to Plane and navigate to "People > Team".
  - Find the Fleetie and select them to see their profile page.
  - Use the "Help" function, or email support@plane.com to notify Plane of the need to change the job title for the Fleetie. Include the Fleetie's name, current title, new title, and effective date.
  - Take any relevant steps as directed by Plane in order to make the required changes to the Fleetie's profile.

Change a Fleetie's manager

When BizOps receives notification of a Fleetie's manager changing, follow these steps to ensure correct recording in our systems.

Update 🧑‍🚀 Fleeties:
- Search for the Fleetie's new manager, and copy the new manager's unique ID from the far left "Unique ID" column.
- Search for the Fleetie who's manager is changing, and paste (without formatting) their new manager's unique ID in the "Reports to: (manager unique ID)" cell in the Fleetie's row.
- Verify that the "Reports to (auto: manager name and job title)" cell in the Fleetie's row reflects the new manager's details.
- Verify that in the new manager's row, the "# direct reports" cell reflect the correct number.
- Navigate to the "Org chart" tab in the spreadsheet, and verify that the Fleetie now appears in the correct place in the org chart.
If the person's department is changing, then update both departmental handbook pages to move the person to their new department:
- Remove the person from the "Team" section of the old department and add them to the "Team" section of the new department.
If the person's level of confidential access will change along with the change to their manager, then update that level of access:
- Update Google Workspace to make sure this person lives in the correct Google Group, removing them from the old and/or adding them to the new.
- Update 1password to remove this person from old vaults and/or add them to new vaults.
- For a team member moving from "classified" to "confidential" access, check Gusto, Plane, and other systems to remove their access.

Note: The Fleeties spreadsheet is the source of truth for who everyone's manager is and their job titles.

Prepare salary benchmarking information

Use the relevant template text in the README section of the ¶¶ 💌 Compensation decisions document for a current Fleetie, a new role, a prospective hire, or other benchmarking use case.
Copy the template text and paste at the end of the document.
Fill in details as required, pulling from 🧑‍🚀 Fleeties spreadsheet and equity spreadsheet as required.
Use the teammate's information to benchmark in Pave (login details in 1Password). You can pattern match from previous benchmarking entries, and include all company assumtions. Add the direct link to the Pave benchmark.

Update a team member's compensation

To change a team member's compensation, follow these steps:

Create a copy of the "Values assessment" template and move it to the team member's personnel folder in Google Drive.
Share the values assessment document with the manager and ask them to perform the values assessment.
Once the values assessment is complete, prepare salary benchmarking information and set a meeting between the manager, head of department, and Head of Business Operations about level of job skill in relation to compensation benchmarking levels.
Schedule a new calendar event for the Head of Business Operations with the founders over an existing founders' 1:1 to discuss if an adjustment needs to be made to team member's compensation to align with benchmarking. During the 1:1 call, founders review values assessment, benchmarking for role and geography, and decide if there will be an adjustment.
Head of Business Operations will post in slack to #help-classified with the decision on compensation changes and effective date, if any.
Communicate via Slack DM the decision to the teammate's people manager, who will then communicate to their teammate.
Update the respective payroll platform (Gusto or Plane) by navigating to the personnel page, selecting salary field, and updating with an effective date that makes the next payroll.
Update the equity spreadsheet (internal doc) by copying existing OTE to the bottom of the "Notes" cell, updating the OTE column with the new compensation information, and updating the "Last compensation change" column with the effective date from payroll platform.

If the company decides on an additional equity grant as part of a compensation change, note the previous equity and new situation in detail in the "Notes" column of the equity plan. Update the "Grant started?" column to "todo" which adds it to the queue for the next time grants are processed (quarterly).

Process monthly accounting

Create a new montly accounting issue for the current month and year named "Closing out YYYY-MM" in GitHub and complete all of the tasks in the issue. (This uses the monthly accounting issue template.

SLA: The monthly accounting issue should be completed and closed before the 7th of the month.
The close date is tracked each month in KPIs.
When is the issue created? We create and close the monthly accounting issue for the previous month within the first 7 days of the following month. For example, the monthly accounting issue to close out the month of January is created promptly in February and closed before the end of the day, Feb 7th. A convenient trick is to create the issue on the first Friday of the month and close it ASAP.

Check franchise tax status

No later than the second month of every quarter, we check Delaware divison of corporations to ensure that Fleet has paid the quarterly franchise tax amounts to remain in good standing with the state of Delaware.

Go to the DCIS - eCorp website and use the details in 1Password to look up Fleet's status.
If no outstanding amounts: the tax has been paid.
If outstanding amounts shown: ensure payment before due date to avoid penalties, interest, and entering bad standing.

Check finances for quirks

Every quarter, we check Quickbooks Online (QBO) for discrepancies and follow up on quirks.

Check to make sure bookkeeping quirks are all accounted for and resolved or in progress toward resolution.
Check balance sheet and profit and loss statements (P&Ls) in QBO against the latest monthly workbooks in Google Drive.
Reach out to Pilot with any differences or quirks, and ask them to resolve/provide clarity. This often will need to happen over a call to review sycnhronously.
Once quirks are resolved, note the day it was resolved in the spreadsheet.

Report quarterly numbers in Chronograph

Follow these steps to perform quarterly reporting for Fleet's investors:

Login to Chronograph and upload our profit and loss statement (P&L), balance sheet and cash flow statements for CRV (all in one book saved in Google Drive.
Provide updated metrics for the following items using Fleet's KPI spreadsheet.
- Headcount at end of the previous quarter.
- Starting ARR for the previous quarter.
- Total new ARR for the previous quarter.
- "Upsell ARR" (new ARR from expansions only- Chronograph defines "upsell" as price increases for any reason. - Fleet does not "upsell" anything; we deliver more value and customers enroll more hosts), downgrade ARR and churn ARR (if any) for the previous quarter.
- Ending ARR for the previous quarter.
- Starting number of customers, churned customers, and the number of new customers Fleet gained during the previous quarter.
- Total amount of Fleet customers at the end of the previous quarter.
- Gross margin %
  - How to calculate: (total revenue for the quarter - cost of goods sold for the quarter)/total revenue for the quarter (these metrics can be found in our books from Pilot). Chronograph will automatically conver this number to a %.
- Net dollar retention rate
  - How to calculate: (starting ARR + new subscriptions and expansions - churn)/starting ARR.
- Cash burn
  - How to calculate: start of quarter runway - end of quarter runway.

Grant equity

Equity grants for new hires are queued up as part of the hiring process, then grants and consents are batched and processed quarterly.

Doing an equity grant involves:

Executing a board consent
The recipient and CEO signing paperwork about the stock options
Updating the number of shares for the recipient in the equity plan
Updating Carta to reflect the grant

For the status of stock option grants, exercises, and all other common stock including advisor, founder, and team member equity ownership, see Fleet's equity plan. For information about investor ownership, see Carta.

Fleet's equity plan is the source of truth, not Carta. Neither are pro formas sent in an email attachment, even if they come from lawyers.

Anyone can make mistakes, and none of us are perfect. Even when we triple check. Small mistakes in share counts can be hard to attribute, and can cause headaches and eat up nights of our CEO's and operations team's time. If you notice what might be a discrepancy between the equity plan and any other secondary source of information, please speak up and let Fleet's CEO know ASAP. Even if you're wrong, your note will be appreciated.

Deliver annual report for venture line

Within 60 days of the end of the year, follow these steps:

Provide Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) with our balance sheet and profit and loss statement (P&L, sometimes called a cashflow statement) for the past twelve months.
Provide SVB with our board-approved annual operating budgets and projections (on a quarterly granularity) for the new year.
Deliver this as early as possible in case they have questions.

Process a new vendor invoice

After making sure that an invoice received from a new vendor is valid, add the new vendor to the recurring expenses section of "The numbers" before paying the invoice.

Process a request to cancel a vendor

Make the cancellation notification in accordance with the contract terms between Fleet and the vendor, typically these notifications are made via email and may have a specific address that notice must be sent to. If the vendor has an autorenew contract with Fleet there will often be a window of time in which Fleet can cancel, if notification is made after this time period Fleet may be obligated to pay for the subsequent year even if we don't use the vendor during the next contract term.
Once cancelled, update the recurring expenses section of The Numbers to reflect the cancellation by changing the projected monthly burn in column G to $0 and adding "CANCELLED" in front of the vendor's name in column C.

Update weekly KPIs

Create the weekly update issue from the template in ZenHub every Friday and update the KPIs for BizOps by 5pm US central time.
Check the KPI sheet at 5pm US central time to ensure all departments have updated their KPIs on time. If any departments are delinquent, notify the department head and let the Apprentice to the CEO know so they can put it on the agenda for their next one-on-one with the CEO.

Rituals

The following table lists this department's rituals, frequency, and Directly Responsible Individual (DRI).

Stubs

The following stubs are included only to make links backward compatible.

Vetty

Please see hanbook/business-operations#access-a-background-check.

Role-specific licenses

Please see hanbook/business-operations#grant-role-specific-license-to-a-team member.

Recurring expenses

Maintained by:

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