How fast your business is spending its cash reserves each month.
Burn rate is how much money you're "burning through" each month. If you have £60,000 in the bank and spend £10,000 more than you earn each month, your burn rate is £10,000 and your runway is 6 months. After that, you need more revenue or more funding.
Net Burn Rate = Monthly Cash Outflows − Monthly Cash InflowsBurn rate and runway are the most critical numbers for any business in a growth phase or going through a difficult period. They tell you exactly how long you can operate before running out of options. Knowing your burn rate lets you make deliberate decisions — rather than discovering you're out of cash suddenly.
Upload your financial data. Ask "What is my burn rate?" AskBiz calculates your net monthly cash consumption, projects your runway at the current rate, and identifies the largest contributors to the burn.
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A startup uploads 8 months of financial data. AskBiz calculates gross burn (total monthly spend) of £42,000 and net burn (after revenue) of £11,000. At that rate, their current £88,000 reserves give them 8 months of runway. AskBiz flags two expense categories representing 60% of the burn.
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Gross burn is total monthly spending. Net burn subtracts revenue — it's how much your cash reserves actually shrink each month. Net burn is the more useful number for understanding runway.
No. Any business drawing down cash reserves — whether due to seasonality, growth investment, or a difficult period — should track burn rate. It's useful for any business where the cash balance is changing.