Want to keep you start-up alive? You need these 5 reports

From burn rate to cash flow, these are the things you need to know, reports Tech in Asia

What do you know about your start-up? No, not your team, not your product, and not your competition. What do you really know about the health of the business?

Here are some of the reports you need to be generating.

Burn rate

Burn rate is not so much a report as a warning of impending doom. In its most basic form, the burn rate shows your operational costs on a weekly or monthly basis. It typically accounts for variances but reliably identifies all recurring payables like salary, rent, and utilities.

Work in progress

WIP reports are essential in the service sector. Simply put, the WIP draws up your project pipeline and completion dates. This sums up how much revenue you stand to gain at the end of the credit term, which helps in planning capital expenditures and operational expansions if any.

Cashflow

Cash flow statements are pretty standard. Every business generates some form of a payable versus receivable report. This helps figure out which suppliers to avoid (joke) and which customers to pester (no joke). 

Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is a moderately advanced report to generate, especially for early-stage start-ups, because some level of data capturing is required. However, it’s not necessarily rocket science and isn’t resource-intensive.

To start, it might be advisable to devise a funnel model that is most suited for the business based on customer touch-points. 

Revenue and margin

The revenue and margin statement is more popularly included in the profit and loss (PnL) statement. For early-stage start-ups, the reason for focusing on revenue and margin instead of the standard PnL is because their break-even point might be further along.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here