Overview
The Performance Summary page is where you can get a quick overview of how your business plans are taking shape from a financial perspective. All information on this page comes from the income statement, balance sheet or cash flow statement.
You may download the financial results to Excel by clicking the ‘Download’ link in the top left-hand corner of the page.
The four tiles at the top of the page are intended to draw immediate attention to potential flaws in the business model.
Customer Acquisition Costs
The Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) tile is the average forecasted cost it takes to acquire a single customer for the duration of your project.
For instance, if you acquire 10,000 customers over a 3-year forecast, and you spend $100,000 on all Sales & Marketing activity over the same period, then your Customer Acquisition Cost is $10 ($100,000 / 10,000).
The ‘Pipeline’ page contains more detailed information on how CAC changes throughout your forecast.
Av. Customer Value
Average Customer value represents the average amount of money a customer spends on your products or services throughout your forecast.
The amount contained in this tile is merely the total revenue generated over the forecasted period divided by the total number of customers you expect to convert.
For instance, if you forecast a total 100,000 customers generate $10M in revenue over 3 years, then the average customer value is $100 ($10M / 100,000).
Max Burn Rate
Max Burn Rate comes from the Cash Flow Statement and represents the biggest month over month decrease in cash over your forecast. In other words, it’s the fastest rate at which you expect to spend money.
You can find this number by navigating to the Cash Flow Statement and scanning the “Net Increase (Decrease) In Cash” row at the bottom of the page.
Total Funding Needed
Total Funding Needed comes from the Cash Flow Statement, and represents the amount of money you’ll need to reach cash flow positivity. In other words, size of the financial hole you dig, before your project or business starts digging itself out.
You can find this number by navigating to the Cash Flow Statement and scanning the “Cash at End of Period” row at the bottom of the page.
Use of Funds
The Use of Funds table breaks the money you’ll spend over the first 18 months of your forecast.
Yearly Performance
The Yearly Performance table is simply a summarized version of your income statement over the first 3 years of the forecast.
Return on Investment (EBITDA)
Return on Investment calculated from EBITDA is a standard valuation method that indicates the financial value you intend to create based on your chosen business strategy.
ROI from EBITDA is calculated by multiplying EBITDA in a particular year by some multiple (usually an industry average).
Return on Investment (Cash Flow)
Return on Investment from Cash Flow is another valuation method intended to provide an idea of how much your business will be worth if all of your assumptions end up being correct.
The end result of this calculation is called the Net Present Value (NPV), and it is based on the future cash flows your project generates.