How to Use Burn Data to Cut Costs
A step-by-step guide to reading the Burn Rate Sensitivity Table in AskBiz to pinpoint the highest-impact cost reductions for your business.
Key Takeaways
- The Sensitivity Table shows exactly how much daily burn drops for each 10% reduction in a cost category.
- Fixed costs have a guaranteed impact on burn; variable cost reductions depend on volume.
- Prioritising the category with the largest sensitivity value gives you the fastest path to lower burn.
Opening the Burn Rate Drill-Down Panel
Step 1: Navigate to the /intelligence page in AskBiz. Step 2: Locate the Daily Net Gain/Burn card in the top row of metric cards. Step 3: Click the card. The Burn Rate drill-down panel expands below the cards row. Step 4: Scroll down within the panel until you see the Sensitivity Table section. The table lists each of your cost categories in rows with a column showing the burn impact of a 10 percent reduction in that category.
Reading the Sensitivity Table
The Sensitivity Table in the Burn Rate panel has three key columns. The first column shows the cost category name — for example Payroll, Software/SaaS, or Marketing and Ads. The second column shows the current monthly cost assigned to that category. The third column shows how much your daily burn would fall if you cut that category by 10 percent. The row with the highest value in the third column is your highest-leverage cost target. If Payroll shows a daily burn reduction of $45 but Software/SaaS shows only $8, cutting payroll costs has roughly 5 times the impact on your daily burn rate.
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Start for free →Identifying High-Impact vs Low-Impact Cuts
Not all cost categories deserve equal attention. Step 1: Sort through the Sensitivity Table rows mentally by the burn impact column. Step 2: Identify the top two or three categories with the highest impact values. Step 3: For each of those categories, open the Cost Config Drawer — accessible from the gear icon or the 'Configure Costs' button — to see how those costs are entered. Step 4: Ask yourself whether a 10 or 20 percent reduction in that category is operationally feasible. Marketing and Ads costs are often more controllable short-term than Payroll, making them a common first target even if Payroll has a higher sensitivity value.
Fixed vs Variable Cost Cutting Strategy
The burn formula in AskBiz is (Fixed Costs + Variable Costs) divided by 30. Fixed costs appear in the Monthly Fixed Costs card and include Rent/Lease, Payroll, and Insurance. Variable costs are configured separately and scale with activity. When cutting costs to reduce burn, fixed cost cuts provide certain and immediate relief — a $500 monthly reduction in a fixed category reduces daily burn by exactly $16.67. Variable cost reductions depend on whether activity levels actually fall. Use the Channel Breakdown section of the burn panel to understand which expense channels are fixed versus volume-dependent before committing to a cut.
Modelling the Effect Before Committing
Before making any real-world cost changes, model them in AskBiz first. Step 1: Open the Cost Config Drawer from the /intelligence page. Step 2: Temporarily lower the value of a target cost category. Step 3: Click Save. Step 4: Return to the burn panel and observe the new Daily Net Gain/Burn figure and the updated Sensitivity Table. Step 5: Check the Cash Runway card — a lower daily burn translates directly into extended runway. If the runway extension is meaningful (for example, 3 months or more), the cost cut is worth pursuing. Step 6: If you are modelling only, reverse the change in the Cost Config Drawer after noting the projected figures.