Burn Multiple
How many dollars of cash a company burns to generate each new dollar of annualized recurring revenue, lower is more efficient.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
Both the numerator and denominator fork. NET BURN = cash out minus cash in from operations, but teams disagree whether to net out interest income, one-time financing costs, or capital expenditure. NET NEW ARR = the increase in ARR over the period, and it inherits the ARR forks (run-rate vs contracted, gross vs net of churn). A company measuring net-new ARR on a run-rate basis (which jumps on signing) against a lenient net-burn definition reports a far lower multiple than one using net-new recognized-revenue-run-rate against fully-loaded burn. Investors want net operating burn over net-new ARR (net of churn).
The trap
Annual prepay and financing flatter the numerator.
- The full trap, worked on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: SaaS operating-metric convention (no single standards body) · FASB ASC 230 (Statement of Cash Flows)