Cash Burn Rate

Cash Burn Rate: Net cash consumed per month.

Formula

Burn Rate = (Cash at start of period - Cash at end of period) / Months in period

Computable definition

The canonical formula in the GASP formula grammar. The MCP server compiles it to SQL over the datasets listed below.

(sum(field.cash_balance) at period_start - sum(field.cash_balance) at period_end) / (period_days / 30.4375)

Unit: currency

Notes: Net cash burn per month: cash delta over the period divided by months in the period.

Data requirements

Grain: End-of-month snapshot · Frequency: Monthly · Aggregation: snapshot (month) · Staged: no · Main source: Finance / ERP.

Field	Dataset	Type
`cash_balance`	balance_sheet	decimal
`snapshot_date`	balance_sheet	date

Example SQL (Postgres)

SELECT (CAST(((SELECT COALESCE(SUM(cash_balance), 0) FROM balance_sheet WHERE snapshot_date = :period_start) - (SELECT COALESCE(SUM(cash_balance), 0) FROM balance_sheet WHERE snapshot_date = :period_end)) AS DOUBLE PRECISION) / NULLIF((CAST((:period_end - :period_start + 1) AS DOUBLE PRECISION) / 30.4375), 0)) AS burn_rate

Access: recommended sensitivity tier restricted, access scope unscoped. Guidance your policy engine enforces.

From an agent: with the GASP MCP server, call lookup_metric({ "name": "Cash Burn Rate" }) or generate_query({ "metric": "Cash Burn Rate", "adapter": "<your adapter JSON>" }).

What It Tells You

How fast cash is being consumed.

Connected in the GASP relationship graph.

Upstream: what drives this

MRR reduces Cash Burn Rate (Core)
Gross Margin reduces Cash Burn Rate (Core)

Downstream: what this drives

Cash Burn Rate reduces Free Cash Flow (Finance)

← Back to Finance metrics