The share register as a series of mutations, not a snapshot

There are two ways to keep a share register. The first is a table: shareholder, number of shares, percentage. It is easy to read and easy to get wrong, because every change overwrites the previous state. The second is a ledger: a list of events, each with a date, a deed and a from-to. The current position is derived from it. The first is a snapshot. The second is a register.

Why the snapshot fails

A snapshot answers one question: who owns what now. It cannot answer any of the others. When was this shareholder admitted? Under which deed were the shares transferred? Was there a pledge in between, and has it been released? What did the cap table look like on the date the earn-out was agreed? Every one of those comes up in a transaction, an audit or a dispute, and every one requires history the snapshot has thrown away.

What a mutation looks like

A mutation is one event: issue, transfer, pledge, release of pledge, cancellation, conversion. It has a date, a deed reference, the party it comes from, the party it goes to, the number and class of shares. That is all. The register is the ordered list of mutations, and the position at any date is the sum of everything up to that date.

Issue, 100 ordinary shares, to J. Zonneveld, deed 12 Apr 2011
Transfer, 60 ordinary shares, J. Zonneveld to Meridiaan Holding B.V., deed 5 Mar 2026
Pledge, 40 ordinary shares, J. Zonneveld to Ardent Bank N.V., deed 5 Mar 2026
Position today: Meridiaan Holding 60%, J. Zonneveld 40% (40 shares pledged)

The group structure falls out of it

Once the register is a ledger, the group chart is not a separate drawing anyone maintains. Each entity knows which entity it hangs under, and the register supplies the percentage. Change the register and the chart changes. Draw the chart by hand and it is wrong within a quarter.

One rule for the software

Never let anyone edit the position directly. Every change is a mutation with a date and a deed. It feels slower for about a week. Then the first time someone asks what the cap table looked like on a given date, and the answer is on screen in five seconds, it pays for itself and never stops.