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Business Burn Rate & Runway Calculator

How long can you survive on current cash? See your monthly burn rate, runway in months, break-even revenue, and what happens if revenue drops 25% or 50%.

Where this fits

💸 Budgeting & Cash FlowGoing 1099Cash FlowFreelancersFounders

This tool lives inside Going 1099 + Cash Flow and is most useful for freelancers and founders.

Corp Tax Rate21%
SE Threshold$400
FICA Cap 2024$168,600

STABLE — Monitor Your Pipeline

11 months runway

You have 11 months of runway. Stable, but work to close the revenue gap.

Cash depleted: March 2027

Your Business Financials

Monthly Burn Rate
$1,300
Burned per month
Cash Runway
11 mo
March 2027
Break-Even Revenue
$7,300
Needed per month
Revenue Gap
$1,300
To break-even

Monthly Cash Flow

Revenue+$6,000
Fixed expenses−$2,500
Variable expenses−$800
Owner draw−$4,000
Net monthly-$1,300

Scenario Analysis

ScenarioRevenueExpensesNet BurnRunway
Current$6,000$7,300−$1,30011 mo
Revenue -25%$4,500$7,300−$2,8005 mo
Revenue -50%$3,000$7,300−$4,3003 mo
Cut Expenses 20%$6,000$5,840+$160Profitable
<3 mo critical 3-6 mo warning 6+ mo stable profitable

Recommendations

  • 1.You have runway but are burning cash. Set a target to reach break-even within 90 days.
  • 2.Track revenue weekly, not monthly. Slow periods are easier to course-correct early.
1

Total monthly expenses

fixedExpenses + variableExpenses + ownerDraw

$2,500 + $800 + $4,000

= $7,300

2

Net burn rate (positive = burning cash)

totalExpenses − monthlyRevenue

$7,300 − $6,000

= $1,300/month burned

3

Runway calculation

cashBalance ÷ netBurnRate

$15,000 ÷ $1,300/mo

= 11 months (until March 2027)

4

Break-even revenue needed

totalMonthlyExpenses

Fixed ($2,500) + Variable ($800) + Draw ($4,000)

= $7,300

5

Revenue gap to break-even

max(0, breakEvenRevenue − monthlyRevenue)

max(0, $7,300 − $6,000)

= $1,300

6

Scenario: Revenue -25%

cashBalance ÷ (expenses − revenue × 0.75)

$15,000 ÷ ($7,300 − $4,500)

= 5 months runway

7

Scenario: Cut expenses 20%

cashBalance ÷ (expenses × 0.8 − revenue)

$15,000 ÷ ($5,840 − $6,000)

= Profitable with 20% expense cut

Key insight

You are burning $1,300/month and have 11 months of runway (until March 2027). You need $1,300/month more revenue to reach break-even. Cutting expenses 20% extends runway to profitability months.

Use this result in →

Break-Even Calculator →Bad Client Cost Calculator →Business Entity Picker →

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