Marketing Payroll
Fully-loaded compensation for marketing leadership, demand generation, content, and growth for the period. — 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.marketing_payroll
Type: Currency
Domain: Finance
Definition
Fully-loaded compensation for marketing leadership, demand generation, content, and growth for the period.
Formula
Fully-loaded marketing personnel cost for the period.Why it matters
The people cost of demand generation, distinct from paid media spend.
How to interpret
Read alongside paid marketing to understand the people-vs-media split of GTM spend.
Related KPIs
finance.total_smfinance.paid_marketing
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 |
|---|---|
| Series A | Recommended |
| Series B | Recommended |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
| Public | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/finance/marketing_payroll.json - All Finance KPIs:
/api/ontology/finance.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Legal, Accounting & Professional Services
Cost of legal, accounting, audit, tax, fractional CFO, and outside consultants for the period. Often spikes around financings, audits, and major contracts. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Net Burn Rate
Average monthly net cash outflow over the reporting period — total cash spent minus total cash collected, divided by the number of months in the period. The headline survival number for venture-backed startups: it pairs with `finance.total_cash_in_bank` to produce runway, and pairs with revenue growth to produce the Bessemer "burn multiple". Common pitfall: net burn is volatile — large quarterly bills (annual SaaS renewals, employer-tax true-ups), enterprise prepayments, and FX swings can mask the underlying trend. Smoothing over a trailing 3-month average is standard board practice. Equally important: do not silently include one-off cash events (acquisitions, settlements, large prepayments received) without flagging them — boards prefer a "core burn" and "headline burn" pair when the period is noisy. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).