Financial Assumptions
Narrative listing of the key inputs the forecast rests on — growth-rate assumptions, churn assumptions, hiring plan, FX rates, expected timing of large bookings, planned price changes, capitalized-vs-expensed R&D treatment, etc. Without this field, the board cannot tell whether a forecast change reflects a real-world update or a quietly changed assumption. Common pitfall: assumptions are written once at planning and never updated when the underlying reality shifts — track explicitly which assumption changed each quarter and why. Best practice (per "Venture Deals" by Feld & Mendelson, and standard board-pack guidance): every material variance vs. forecast should be traceable to either an executed plan or a changed assumption. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)
No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.
Rogue ID: finance.assumptions
Type: Text
Domain: Finance
Definition
Narrative listing of the key inputs the forecast rests on — growth-rate assumptions, churn assumptions, hiring plan, FX rates, expected timing of large bookings, planned price changes, capitalized-vs-expensed R&D treatment, etc. Without this field, the board cannot tell whether a forecast change reflects a real-world update or a quietly changed assumption. Common pitfall: assumptions are written once at planning and never updated when the underlying reality shifts — track explicitly which assumption changed each quarter and why. Best practice (per "Venture Deals" by Feld & Mendelson, and standard board-pack guidance): every material variance vs. forecast should be traceable to either an executed plan or a changed assumption.
Formula
No calculation — free-text narrative. Convention: enumerate top 5–8 assumptions with the value used and the source (plan, observed run-rate, investor letter, board-approved hiring cap).Why it matters
Makes the forecast auditable across periods. Boards cannot challenge or endorse a number whose assumptions are invisible — and quietly changing assumptions is the single most common source of forecast drift.
How to interpret
Flag whenever an assumption changes vs. prior period and note the reason. If the list is missing or stale (unchanged for >2 reporting cycles while reality has clearly moved), treat as a yellow flag on financial-process maturity. No published threshold for completeness — coverage is judged by whether a board member can recompute the forecast from the listed assumptions.
Related KPIs
finance.forecast_notesfinance.risk_factorsfinance.burn_rate_scenarios
Source
I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Pre-Seed | Recommended |
| Seed | Core |
| Series A | Core |
| Series B | Core |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
| Public | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/finance/assumptions.json - All Finance KPIs:
/api/ontology/finance.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Finance KPIs
Cash, revenue, burn, runway, expenses. 19 KPIs in this domain — 1 anchored to third-party standards, 18 editorial.
Bank Accounts
FX-aware enumeration of the company's bank, brokerage, and money-market accounts — each with bank name, account type, restricted flag, currency, balance, as-of date, and notes. The underlying data source for `finance.total_cash_in_bank`, `finance.total_restricted_cash`, `finance.total_unrestricted_cash`, and the FX conversion that turns multi-currency holdings into a single reporting-currency number. Common pitfall: a single forgotten account (often a legacy operational account or a money-market sweep) silently misstates the total — boards should ask for a checklist reconciliation against the prior board pack each cycle. Best practice: include account-number last-4 (not full numbers, for security) and the FX rate used per non-functional-currency account. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).