Use of Funds Template: Free Startup Budget & Runway Plan

Investors see the same use of funds slide in almost every deck: a few percentages with no plan behind them. This template works the other way round. You build the operating plan first, and the use of funds calculates itself from it.

Everything happens on one working sheet.

1. Plan the team. Enter your hiring plan quarter by quarter, by department.
2. Set the drivers. Enter the revenue and cost drivers for the business.
3. Read the result. The template calculates how the round is spent by category, how long it lasts, and when cash flow turns.

Blue cells are your inputs. Every calculated cell is locked, so the model stays intact however much you change the plan. A guidance tab explains each input.

What the template calculates

Once your plan is in, four answers appear without any further work.

• Spend by category. Each category is shown as a percentage of the round, ready to lift into your deck.
• Raise amount and cash position. How much you need and where your cash stands across the plan.
• Runway. How many months the round buys.
• Cash-flow inflection point. The point at which the business stops burning cash.

A spend breakdown chart and a cumulative cash curve are built in, so you can paste both straight into a pitch deck or an investor update.

Because the split comes from a plan, you can defend every number in it. If an investor asks why engineering takes the largest share, the answer is the hiring plan sitting behind it. To check how long your current cash lasts before the round closes, use the Startup Runway Calculator.

What's inside

• One working sheet, with every calculated cell locked
• Quarterly team plan by department
• Revenue and cost driver inputs
• Spend breakdown by category, as a percentage of the round
• Funding metrics: raise amount, cash position, runway and cash-flow inflection point
• Spend breakdown chart and cumulative cash curve
• Guidance tab with notes on every input

Common use of funds mistakes

• Round numbers with no plan behind them. "40 per cent product, 30 per cent sales" invites the question of where those figures came from.
• Ignoring time. A split shows where money goes, not when. Investors also want to know how many months it buys.
• Forgetting hiring lag. New hires take time to recruit and get up to speed, so spending and output rarely start on day one.
• No milestone. Every category should link to something the round achieves, such as a product launch or a revenue target.

The template avoids the first three by building the split from your team and cost drivers. The fourth is yours to add to the slide.

Who it's for

• Founders from pre-seed through Series A who need an investor-ready use of funds
• Finance leads who prefer a plan built from drivers over a split built from guesses
• Founders who want to know how long a round lasts before they decide how much to raise

Use of funds questions founders ask

What is a use of funds?

A use of funds shows how you will spend the money you are raising. It usually breaks the round into a few categories, such as team, product, sales and marketing, and operations, and shows how long the money lasts.

What do investors look for in a use of funds?

They want to see that the spend connects to milestones. The question behind the slide is simple: what will this money achieve, and will it get the company to the next round or to profitability?

How detailed should it be?

Keep the slide short, with four to six categories. Keep the detail in the model behind it. Investors who are interested will ask for the plan, and this template is that plan.

How much runway should a round buy?

A common rule of thumb is 18 to 24 months. Less than that and you are fundraising again before you have results to show. The template shows the runway your plan produces, so you can adjust the raise or the plan.

Where does the use of funds go in a pitch deck?

It normally sits with the ask, near the end of the deck. State how much you are raising, show the split, and name the milestones the money reaches. For the full structure, read How to Build a Killer Pitch Deck.

What is a cash-flow inflection point?

It is the point at which money coming in starts to exceed money going out. After it, the business funds itself. The cumulative cash curve in the template shows where that point falls in your plan.