Startup Budget Template

Company: [Company name] Prepared by: [Your name / role] Period: [12 months starting Month YYYY] Currency: [USD]

---

1. Assumptions

State the handful of numbers everything else depends on, so a reader can sanity-check the whole budget at a glance.

• Starting cash: [Amount in the bank at the start of the period]
• Headcount plan: [e.g., 4 people at start, growing to 7 by month 12]
• Fully-loaded cost multiplier: [e.g., salary + 20% for taxes, benefits, overhead]
• Revenue assumption: [e.g., none until month 6, then growing slowly]
• Contingency / buffer: [e.g., 10% added to non-people spend]

2. Monthly operating expenses by category

Fill in a representative month, then repeat or project across the period. Keep every line under one category.

Category	Line item	Monthly cost
People	[Role 1 — fully-loaded]	[$]
People	[Role 2 — fully-loaded]	[$]
People	[Contractors]	[$]
Software & tools	[Code hosting, design, CRM, analytics]	[$]
Marketing	[Paid acquisition, content, events]	[$]
Infrastructure	[Cloud hosting, APIs, storage]	[$]
G&A	[Rent / co-working, legal, accounting, insurance]	[$]
Total monthly expenses		[$]

3. Burn, cash balance & runway

Metric	Value
Gross monthly burn (total spend)	[$]
Expected monthly revenue	[$]
Net monthly burn (gross burn − revenue)	[$]
Starting cash	[$]
Runway (starting cash / net burn)	[N months]
Cash-out month (estimated)	[Month YYYY]
Plan to start next raise	[Month YYYY — when ~6–9 months remain]

4. Scenario check

Scenario	Net monthly burn	Runway
Base case	[$]	[N months]
Downside (slower revenue, costs hold)	[$]	[N months]
Upside (faster growth or new raise)	[$]	[N months]

5. Notes

[Record what you would cut first in the downside case, which hires are firm vs. tentative, and the date you last revised this budget. Re-check it at least monthly.]