Cash runway calculator ESTIMATE
Estimate how many months current cash lasts at your recent monthly burn.
Result ESTIMATE
Burn is a cash idea
Monthly net burn is cash out minus cash in. With $30,000 in the bank, $5,000 coming in, and $8,000 going out, burn is $3,000 and runway is 10 months. That is $30,000 ÷ $3,000. If money in covers money out, the business is not on a countdown. Profit on the income statement can disagree with this, because accrual accounting records invoices you have not collected and bills you have not paid.
Monthly net burn = Cash out − Cash in
Runway (months) = Cash ÷ Monthly net burn
Make the averages honest
Use a typical month, then stress it. A quarter of rent paid once, an annual insurance bill, and estimated taxes are not in a quiet month. Set aside the quarterly estimated tax payment if it is due from this same cash. Sales tax you collected is not yours — it should sit in a liability, not in “money I can burn.” Owner draws and loan payments are cash out even when they are not expenses.
What to do with a short runway
The number does not raise cash. It tells you how many months the current pace buys. Speeding collections (see the invoice habits on what to put on an invoice), pausing a discretionary cost, or naming a date to revisit pricing are operating decisions. A bank reconciliation is the right first step so the cash figure is the real bank balance, not a stale book balance.