Cash, forward. And when you'll need to act.
Runway isn't a number in a board deck. It's a path — your cash drawn forward with stated confidence, the last day you can still act well, and exactly what's burning it. All from live billing, on the same sealed forecast as everything else.
The runway you quoted last month already moved.
A number, already old
Runway is one figure in a deck, updated once a quarter. Billing moved the next day. The number didn't.
Warned too late to act well
By the time a spreadsheet flags short runway, a round or a plan change already needed a head start you don't have.
No trace to the cause
Runway shrank. But which lever moved — payroll, spend, slower collections? The number can't say.
So the most consequential clock in the company — when the cash runs out — is read from a figure that's stale, late, and impossible to trace to a cause.
See the cash forward. Know when to act.
Actual cash to today, then the sealed forecast forward with a confidence band. The act-by date is the last day to act well — start a round or cut burn — before the floor forces the call. Scenarios live in Forecasting; here you watch the cash and the date.
Illustrative — Latitude, on its sealed plan. The act-by date is where the worst-case path meets your floor — early enough to act well, not the day the cash is gone.
Burn moved $0.5M. Here's every dollar of why.
When burn shifts, Beacon traces the change to its drivers — so a shorter runway points at the lever that moved it, not a mystery. Burn ran $0.5M heavier than last forecast; here's every dollar of it.
Some was less cash in, some was more cash out — each driver live from billing, cohorts and payroll. Trace any of them on the scorecard →
No plan is committed that the cash can't fund.
Every target runs through cash and capacity before it seals. If a plan needs a round the runway hasn't got, or hires you can't afford, Beacon blocks it at commit — not two quarters in.
Cashflow check
$1.6M/mo burn · 10-month runway · needs an ~$30M round
Capacity check
22 people + 15 agents · sales is 4 reps short
Not sealed yet. This plan needs the round and the hires first. Cash and capacity gate every target.
Clear the checks and it seals as a versioned baseline. Commit it in Set your targets →
The most ARR for the least cash.
Ask the runway a plain question. Beacon reads your cohorts, pricing and pipeline, and recommends the most cash-efficient path. It recommends; you decide.
Know the date before the runway does.
The runway spreadsheet, the burn tracker, the cash tab someone rebuilds before every board meeting. The manual runway math.
Your accounting, billing and bank feeds stay the source of truth. Beacon reads them, projects cash forward, and links every figure back to the record.
Above ~$100M ARR, a treasury stack still earns its place. Below it, this is your cash command. Watch cash against the plan day to day in Track & re-steer; size the round in Capital & funding.
Stop quoting runway. Start steering it.
Cash forward, the act-by date, and the burn behind it — on the same sealed forecast the whole company runs on.