{
  "rogueId": "product.rd_monthly_spend",
  "slug": "rd_monthly_spend",
  "domain": "product",
  "defaultLabel": "R&D Monthly Spend",
  "description": "Total monthly cash outflow on research and development — fully-loaded engineering, product, and design payroll plus tooling, infrastructure dedicated to product development, contractors, and direct R&D vendor spend. The \"input\" side of R&D efficiency. Common pitfall: companies report base-payroll R&D and exclude the loaded cost (benefits, stock comp at cash-cost basis, allocated rent, dev tooling), under-reporting true R&D burn by 25–40%. Boards should always ask whether the number is base-payroll, fully-loaded, or GAAP R&D expense — they tell different stories. The KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey reports R&D as a percentage of revenue for its company panel — use that as the benchmarking lens.",
  "fieldType": "currency",
  "unit": "/month",
  "maturity": "general",
  "suggestedForStages": [
    "seriesA",
    "seriesB",
    "seriesC",
    "public"
  ],
  "defaultOwningFunctions": [
    "R&D",
    "Finance"
  ],
  "stageRelevance": {
    "seriesA": "core",
    "seriesB": "core",
    "seriesC": "core",
    "public": "core"
  },
  "definitionSource": {
    "tier": "published",
    "sourceName": "KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 (15th Annual)",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.cfodesk.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024_kbcm_sapphire_saas_survey.pdf",
    "sectionRef": "R&D as % of Revenue (capital-allocation section)",
    "publicationDate": "2024-09-01",
    "attributionNotice": null
  },
  "formula": "Sum of fully-loaded R&D-team payroll + benefits + allocated stock-comp + R&D-dedicated infrastructure + R&D tooling + R&D vendor spend, expressed as a monthly figure. Different from GAAP R&D expense (which capitalizes some software development costs); footnote the convention.",
  "whyItMatters": "Largest single line of operating spend at most growth-stage SaaS companies — the input that `rd_efficiency` converts into revenue. The board reads this to gauge whether the company is over- or under-investing in product velocity relative to revenue ramp.",
  "interpretationGuidance": "Compare R&D spend to revenue (or ARR run-rate) to derive R&D-as-% of revenue. Per the KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey (latest annual edition — see capital-allocation section), median R&D-as-% of revenue runs ~25–35% at early-growth SaaS and compresses with scale. Out-of-band (e.g. 60%+ at a $20M ARR company) usually signals either heavy platform-investment cycles or under-monetization — flag for context. Always pull the current KBCM/Sapphire edition rather than relying on a memorized range.",
  "relatedKpiIds": [
    "product.rd_efficiency",
    "product.total_engineers",
    "product.innovation_capacity_pct",
    "sales.arr",
    "finance.net_burn_rate"
  ]
}