FP&A software for startups that run without a finance hire
FP&A software for startups gives a founder a live financial model without a finance hire. Budgeter.ai reads your books and bank, tracks burn, runway and burn multiple, shows the cash you need before the next raise, and prepares board numbers from seed to Series B. Every price is public and you can start today.
Read-only connections. Encrypted data. Cancel anytime.
Cash in bank
$2.84M
Bank feed, Sep 30
Net burn
$186K/mo
3 month average
Runway
15.3months
Cash out Dec 2027
ARR
$1.42M
Burn multiple 1.6
Example figures inside the product interface.
What a founder needs at each stage
The questions change as the company grows. The model has to change with them, without a rebuild every round.
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| Stage | Questions the investors and the team ask | Numbers you must have ready | Review rhythm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed, 5 to 15 people | How long does the money last? Can we afford the next two engineers? | Cash, net burn, runway, simple monthly budget | Monthly, plus a quick cash check every week |
| Series A, 15 to 50 people | Is growth efficient? What does the hiring plan do to burn? | Burn multiple, ARR bridge, headcount plan, budget vs actual | Monthly close review and a quarterly board deck |
| Series B, 50 to 80 people and up | Which department earns its budget? When do we break even? | Department budgets, rolling forecast, scenarios, break-even month | Monthly by department, board pack each quarter |
At seed the model is mostly a cash question. You have a bank balance, a few recurring costs and a plan to hire. What matters is an honest net burn, built from actual spend rather than the optimistic budget, and a runway figure that moves the day a hire is approved. A single tab can carry this for a while, as long as somebody updates it.
By Series A the questions get sharper. Investors look at how much you burn to add each dollar of ARR, and the board wants to see the plan against what actually happened. This is where a founder without a finance hire starts losing weekends, because the budget, the hiring plan and the revenue forecast live in different places and none of them updates itself.
At Series B the company has department heads who own budgets, more than one source of revenue and often a second legal entity. The model now has to answer who is over plan, by how much and why, and it has to roll forward every month without someone rebuilding it. At this point most companies either hire a finance lead or adopt FP&A software that the finance lead will later inherit.
Budgeter is built so the same model grows through all three stages. You start with cash and runway, add a headcount plan and revenue planning when you need them, and later split the budget by department owner. Nothing is rebuilt, the history carries forward.
The four numbers a startup model has to answer
These four outputs cover most of what a board, an investor or your own leadership team will ask for between rounds.
Runway in months
Runway = Cash ÷ Average net burn
Use a three month average of actual net burn, not the budget. Budgeter also shows forward runway, which uses the forecast and therefore includes the hires you already approved. When the two differ by several months, the forward figure is the one to plan with. You can try the calculation on your own numbers with the free runway calculator.
Burn multiple
Burn multiple = Net burn ÷ Net new ARR
Measure it per quarter so a single big deal does not distort it. It tells you how much cash the company spends to add one dollar of recurring revenue. Budgeter calculates it from your bank feed and from Stripe or CRM revenue data, so new, expansion and churned ARR are counted the same way every quarter.
Cash needed to the next raise
Cash needed = Burn to target date + Buffer
Pick the month you want the round closed and the runway you want left on that day, often six months. The model sums forecast burn until then and adds the buffer. If the result is larger than cash in bank, you know how much to cut, or how much bridge you need, long before it becomes urgent.
The board deck numbers
Plan, actual, variance, outlook
Boards want the same few slides every quarter. Revenue and burn against plan, headcount against plan, runway and the updated outlook. On Growth and up, the board pack exports these as PDF or slides-ready pages, built from the same model you review each month.
A worked example for a seed company
Take a hypothetical 18 person software company eight months after its seed round. It has 2.84 million dollars in the bank, net burn averaged 186,000 dollars over the last three months and ARR is 1.42 million. Over the last quarter ARR grew by 350,000 dollars while the company burned 558,000 dollars.
Trailing runway is 2,840,000 divided by 186,000, a little over 15 months. Burn multiple for the quarter is 558,000 divided by 350,000, about 1.6, which is a reasonable figure at this stage. So far the spreadsheet and Budgeter agree.
The difference shows up in the plan. The founders want to add three engineers in November and one account executive in January. With salaries, benefits load and equipment, monthly burn rises to roughly 236,000 dollars by February. Forward runway drops to about 12 months, and if the Series A process takes six months and they want six months of cash left at close, they have to start the raise in the third quarter of next year, not the fourth.
In a spreadsheet that conclusion takes an afternoon and is out of date after the next close. In Budgeter the hires are entries in the headcount plan, the forecast moves at once, and the months until the raise must close sit on the same screen as runway.
When to move off the spreadsheet model
A spreadsheet is a fine first model. It stops being fine at a fairly predictable point, and the signs usually show up together.
If two or more of these sound familiar, the cost of the sheet is already higher than the cost of a tool, mostly in founder time and in decisions made on old numbers.
- The model is only correct right after you rebuild it Actuals are pasted in by hand once a month, so for three weeks the runway figure is a guess.
- Nobody else can safely edit it One broken reference changes runway by months, and only the person who built it can find out why.
- Hiring questions wait for a weekend A simple question such as what two more engineers do to burn needs a new tab and a few hours.
- The board deck is assembled from screenshots Every quarter the numbers are copied into slides and checked again by hand.
- Department heads ask for their own view Sharing the full sheet shows salaries to everyone, and building filtered copies multiplies the errors.
- You raise again within 12 to 18 months Investors in the next round will test the model. It is better to have one that updates itself and shows its sources.
How a founder sets up Budgeter
Setup takes minutes, not an implementation project. You keep full control of every assumption.
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01
Connect the books and bank
Link QuickBooks Online or Xero and one more source such as your bank feed or Stripe revenue data. Every connection is read-only.
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02
Let it draft the model
Budgeter reads 12 to 24 months of history and drafts a monthly budget, a 13-week cash view and a 12-month forecast with runway.
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03
Add the hiring plan and the raise
Enter planned hires with start dates and salaries, and the month you expect to start fundraising. Runway and cash needed update at once.
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04
Review monthly and report
After each close you see budget vs actual, ask the AI CFO what changed, and export the numbers for the board update.
Once the model is live, the AI CFO answers questions such as what a three month delay in the January hire does to runway, in plain English and with the figures it used. Each answer comes from your connected books and your forecast, so you can check it before it goes anywhere near an investor.
Spreadsheet, simple planner, FP&A suite, fractional CFO or Budgeter
An honest look at the options a startup usually weighs before its first finance hire.
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| Option | Typical cost | Live actuals | Runway and burn multiple | Good fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet model | Founder time | Pasted by hand | Formulas you maintain | First months after incorporation |
| Simple business plan tools such as LivePlan | $15 to $40 a month | Basic | Simple forecast | Very small companies and business plans |
| Mid-market FP&A platforms | $10,000 to $150,000 a year, often after a demo | Yes | Yes, after implementation | Companies with a finance team |
| Fractional CFO | $3,000 to $10,000 a month | Depends on the person | Yes, prepared by hand | Fundraising support and judgment calls |
| Budgeter.ai | From $74 a month billed yearly | Synced, read-only | Calculated after every sync | Seed to Series B without a finance hire |
A fractional CFO and software are not either or. Many founders bring in a fractional CFO for a raise or a pricing decision. If the model already updates itself, that time goes into judgment rather than into cleaning up the spreadsheet, which makes each billed hour worth more.
Seed companies usually start on Small Business at $149 a month, or $74 billed yearly. Growth, at $599 a month or $299 billed yearly, adds headcount and revenue planning, 25 scenarios and the board pack, which is usually the right move around Series A. Every plan and limit is on the pricing page.
Questions founders ask about FP&A tools
Runway, burn and budget vs actual are part of every plan. Your data stays encrypted and is never used to train public models.
Do we need FP&A software before we hire a finance person?
That is usually the best moment. Without a finance hire the founder owns the model, and the model is only useful if actuals arrive on their own and runway updates after every close. Software covers the routine work, so the founder spends time on decisions rather than on copy and paste.
What is a good burn multiple for a startup?
Burn multiple is net burn divided by net new ARR over the same period. Below 1 is very efficient, 1 to 2 is common for venture backed companies that are growing well, and above 2 usually means growth is expensive and investors will ask why. The right target depends on stage and market.
How much cash do we need before starting the next raise?
A common rule is to start a raise with at least 12 months of runway and to plan for the process to take around six months. Budgeter shows the cash needed to reach a target runway at a chosen month, based on your own burn, hiring plan and revenue forecast.
Which plan fits a seed stage startup?
Most seed companies start on Small Business at $149 a month, or $74 a month billed yearly, which covers the budget, cash forecast, runway, 5 saved scenarios and 100 AI CFO questions a month. Teams that need a hiring plan, revenue planning and a board pack move to Growth.
Can we keep our spreadsheet model?
Yes. Google Sheets is a read-only integration, so a sheet you still like can feed Budgeter while the books and bank feed provide actuals. Many founders keep a sheet for one-off analysis and let Budgeter carry the monthly model.
Related planning modules
Check your runway before the next board meeting
Enter a few numbers to see runway and the month cash runs out, then connect your books to keep the model current every month.
Forecasts and scenarios are estimates based on your data and assumptions, not financial, investment, tax or accounting advice.