A burn rate and runway tracker for startups

Burn rate: the median of three complete months

A burn rate that moves every time payroll lands twice in one month is not a number a founder can plan on. Finances buckets the transactions by month, takes the operating inflow off the gross outflow, and reports the median of the last three complete months. A one-off month is flagged on the chart and never dropped, so you see it and the headline does not swing. Financing is kept out of the inflow: a deposit as large as three median months, a known lender, an investor on your cap table, or a memo that says so is a round, not revenue. The confidence label says how much history stands behind the number, up to six clean months.

Runway: cash over burn, and the day it reaches zero

Runway is cash divided by net monthly burn, in months of thirty days, with the date the balance crosses zero at the current pace. When you have typed a fresh burn figure, it wins; otherwise the smoothed net burn; and with under two complete months of history, the last thirty days of outflows, labeled as a thin fallback. The bands say how it feels: Plenty of broth at a year or more, Comfortable runway past six months, Watch the pot past three, Better start selling, and Out of broth. Interest on cash gets its own view, solved on the shrinking balance, and never flatters the burn.

The sources: your bank, your card, Stripe, or a number you type

Mercury connects with a read-only API token and Brex with a read-only user token: live balances plus twelve months of transactions, and the app shows only the last four characters of the token and never stores an account number. Any US bank, card, or brokerage connects through Plaid where it is turned on for your organization: you sign in at your institution, and two years of transactions arrive. Stripe takes a restricted key that can only read: its balance counts toward cash, and its subscription history unlocks the growth metrics, while Stripe rows stay out of burn so a payout is never counted twice. Gusto gives the headcount behind revenue per employee. A balance you type with its as-of day is a source too, and wins while it is under two months old.

Every connection syncs every six hours, a Plaid webhook starts a sync on its own, and a finance admin can press Sync now. A footer under the page says where each number came from: the state of each source, the row count, whether Stripe MRR is connected, and the notes the data left. When a bank needs you to sign in again, one notice asks you to reconnect, and the number stays marked until you do.

Six questions, answered on one page

• How much cash do we really have?
• How long will it last?
• What changed last month?
• What did we collect last month?
• How do we compare to companies like us?
• Which risks need action now?

The last one is the one that pages you: default dead with under six months of cash, runway under twelve months, revenue not on a path to cover expenses, or a sync that is failing. When none of them applies, it says Nothing urgent, and means it.

Benchmarks you can cite

Set your stage, from Bootstrapped and Pre-seed through Series C+ and Small business, and the page compares your burn multiple, runway, revenue growth, weekly MRR growth, revenue per employee, cash buffer days, and spend pace with companies like yours. The benchmarks are constants in the code with their citations, never a live feed or a scrape: CFO Advisors for the burn multiple, Bessemer for runway, Paul Graham for weekly growth, SaaS Capital and High Alpha for growth and revenue per employee, and the JPMorgan Chase Institute for the cash buffer of a small business. Each card names its source, so the number you repeat to your board has one.

Who sees the money

Finances has its own access list. Viewers see every finance page, read-only. Finance admins also connect accounts and change the settings. With no list saved, the Owners and Administrators of the organization have access and members have none, and a service account never does. The server checks every read as a viewer and every write as an admin, so a shared link shows nothing to someone outside the list.

Frequently asked questions

What is burn rate, and which one does the tracker show?

Gross burn is what leaves the account in a month, without spend refunds and pass-through. Net burn takes the operating inflow off that, with financing and interest left out. The headline is net burn, smoothed as the median of the last three complete months; the last full month's gross burn sits beside it.

How is runway calculated?

Cash divided by net monthly burn gives the months, in months of 30 days, and the date the balance reaches zero. The burn comes from a fresh number you typed, else the smoothed net burn, else the last 30 days of outflows when the history is thin. Interest on cash is shown separately and never netted into burn.

What does default alive mean?

Paul Graham's question: with expenses held flat and revenue growing at the rate of your last months, does revenue cross expenses before the cash crosses zero? Finances answers alive, dead, or unknown, and names a fatal pinch when the company is default dead with under six months of cash and growth under five percent a month.

Which banks and tools connect?

Mercury and Brex with a read-only token, any US bank, card, or brokerage through Plaid where it is turned on for your organization, Stripe with a restricted read-only key, and Gusto for headcount. A balance can also be typed in with the day it was true.

Does OrgOrg store my bank login?

No. Mercury and Brex connect with a read-only token, and the app shows only its last four characters and never stores account numbers. Plaid signs you in at your institution. Stripe takes a restricted key that can only read.

Who can see the money?

Only the people you name. Viewers see every finance page read-only, and finance admins also connect accounts and change the settings. With no list, the Owners and Administrators of the organization have access and members have none. The server checks every read and every write.

Is it free?

Finances is part of the OrgOrg suite, which is free for teams of up to 5 members, every app included. A larger team pays one price per member for the whole suite.