Handling the hard parts of employee leave management: Why Carta chose Sparrow to streamline payroll and compliance

Carta is the global platform powering private capital. The company’s end-to-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) software connects data, workflows, and people across the entire private capital ecosystem. Everyone—from founders and CFOs to employees and advisors—can use Carta to manage and grow their assets with ease.

More than 40,000 private companies in over 160 countries rely on Carta to manage their cap tables, valuations, and equity programs. Carta’s fund administration platform also supports nearly 7,000 funds representing a whopping $150 billion in assets.

Behind Carta’s sophisticated platform are 1,900 employees working from 14 locations around the world. When the company needed their own end-to-end solution for employee leave management, they reached out to Sparrow.

Carta invests in employee relationships

Carta has worked hard to build a workplace where everyone can be the best versions of themselves. A certified Great Place to Work, Carta has also been featured on Built In’s 2025 Best Places to Work list (in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Washington D.C.) and Fortune’s list of Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance.

“We maintain a founder’s mindset in everything we do,” said Maxine Edwards, Senior Employee Relations Manager at Carta. “And that mindset informs how we support our employees, too.”

Carta’s approach is all about investing in long-term employee relationships: taking action to meet employees’ diverse needs and giving them tools to thrive in and out of work.

That’s one of the reasons Carta offers such a wide range of employee benefits. Cartans can take advantage of book reimbursements, Carta business school, fertility coverage, complimentary therapy and coaching sessions, 401(k) matching, sabbatical programs, and equity. Plus, up to 22 weeks of parental leave and a minimum time off policy that requires everyone to take at least three weeks of paid time off each year.

“We’re a big company, but we want employees to feel like they’re part of a smaller, more energized company that supports them holistically,” Edwards said.

Even more than the benefits, Cartans cherish the consistent internal support they receive, Edwards said.

“Because as many benefits as you give employees, if they don’t feel supported, empowered, and educated on those benefits, it doesn’t make a difference,” she explained.

“Our previous vendor was supposed to manage leave, but it didn’t function that way in practice. It was a big manual lift for our team.”

The challenge: A leave vendor that created more work for Carta’s admins

Before Sparrow, Carta worked with a different employee leave management provider, but their experience didn’t live up to their expectations. “It wasn’t a set-it-and-forget-it system,” Edwards said.

“Our vendor was supposed to manage most aspects of leave, but it didn’t function that way in practice,” she explained. “It was a big manual lift on our part to manage and oversee everything.”

Corresponding with employees, managers, and HRBPs ate up a lot of the team’s time, not to mention the constant auditing Edwards did to ensure that Carta was in compliance—and that employees had the resources and practical information they needed to apply for benefits.

“With our previous vendor, a lot of employees went on self-initiated leaves then disappeared in the system, which left managers out of the loop,” she added. “When employees go out on leave without having a big-picture perspective of how their leave will work, it causes frustrations down the line.”

Edwards said Carta was missing a human touch in the leave management process, the person who could step in to set expectations for employees, offer reassurance, and answer questions. “The arrangement didn’t work for our operating style,” she explained.

To complicate matters, Carta faced ongoing compliance challenges. “That was the tipping point,” shared Edwards. “I had to evaluate our lift and ask, ‘Is the effort we’re putting into this process worth the results we’re getting?’”

The answer was a definitive no, so Edwards began exploring alternative leave management vendors. Sparrow’s comprehensive payroll support, combined with their projected global rollout plan ultimately sold her. “Plus the white glove treatment Sparrow promised during implementation and for our employees.”

“Sparrow provides knowledge and context around state leave laws, plus reassurance that we’re complying with state requirements.”

The solution: Team up with Sparrow to improve leave management and lower the individual administrative burden

Switching to Sparrow strengthened Carta’s compliance, while reducing the benefits team’s workload. “Sparrow provides a lot of knowledge and context around state leave laws, plus reassurance that we’re complying with state requirements,” said Edwards.

Carta has employees in over 38 states, so Sparrow stays up to date with changing leave laws and keeps Edwards and her team in the loop. “Having another well-versed resource to check in with is really valuable,” she added.

Sparrow also fills out and submits state benefits paperwork for Carta, tracks each employee leave in the Sparrow dashboard, and works directly with Carta employees to apply for state benefits.

“We connect with all our employees before we enter them into Sparrow’s system, but after that initial connection, Sparrow owns the rest of the conversation,” explained Edwards. “Sparrow taking on that additional manual lift is really helpful for us.”

“Sparrow worked with us to create a custom payroll report that uploads straight into our system, allowing us to ingest it exactly how we need and save time.”

Sparrow Leave Specialists schedule one-on-one introduction calls with Cartans preparing for leave, so they can review their particular leave benefits, discuss how their state benefits process works, clue them into what kind of pay they can expect, and answer questions.

From there, Sparrow Leave Specialists coordinate with state agency representatives and insurance providers to gather additional papers or push an employee’s benefits application forward.

Employee support and compliance aren’t the only areas where Carta has saved time, though. The team’s payroll process has also done a 180, thanks to Sparrow’s automatic payroll calculations and report generation.

“Sparrow worked with us to create a custom payroll report that uploads straight into our system,” said Edwards. The report breaks down how much pay each employee on leave receives, which portions come from Carta versus the state, and when payments will be made.

“The customization is great because we can ingest the report in the exact way we need to and save time,” she added.

“I have the best team at Sparrow. They’re super supportive and responsive.”

The result: A partnership that doesn’t require Carta to change or put in extra work

Working with Sparrow has given Edwards and her team more confidence in Carta’s leave compliance, more insight into payroll fluctuations, and more time to nurture employee relationships.

Edwards said her favorite part of working with Sparrow is the people. “I have the best team at Sparrow,” she gushed. “They’re super supportive and responsive.”

For Carta, Sparrow’s flexibility is particularly valuable. “Because our founder’s mindset focuses on innovation, I end up having some pretty creative requests for the Sparrow team,” added Edwards. “And they’re always open to our ideas and willing to accommodate us.”

Sparrow simplifies every part of employee leave management, from navigating compliance to adjusting payroll. Learn more about our solutions or book a demo today.