Total OpEx
Total operating expense for the period — R&D + Sales & Marketing + Customer Success + G&A. Subtracted from gross profit to produce EBITDA. Excludes COGS (above the gross-profit line) and below-EBITDA items. — 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.total_opex
Type: Currency
Domain: Finance
Definition
Total operating expense for the period — R&D + Sales & Marketing + Customer Success + G&A. Subtracted from gross profit to produce EBITDA. Excludes COGS (above the gross-profit line) and below-EBITDA items.
Formula
total_opex = total_rnd + total_sm + total_cs + total_ga.Why it matters
The full operating cost base below gross profit — the lever between gross profit and EBITDA.
How to interpret
Track against gross profit: OpEx growing faster than gross profit pushes EBITDA down.
Related KPIs
finance.total_rndfinance.total_smfinance.total_csfinance.total_gafinance.ebitda
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/total_opex.json - All Finance KPIs:
/api/ontology/finance.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Total Operational Outflow
Sum of cash actually paid for operating activities for the period — payroll and benefits, employer taxes, vendor payments (infra, tooling, contractors), sales and marketing spend, rent, professional services, refunds issued. Excludes financing activities (debt repayment, dividend payments) and investing activities (acquisitions, capex). Direct input to gross burn. Common pitfall: capitalized R&D and long-term capex sometimes get bucketed here; if so they distort gross burn. Keep this strictly operating-cash and surface investing/financing outflows separately so the board can see "ongoing cost base" vs. "discretionary capital deployment". — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Restricted Cash
Cash on the balance sheet that is not available for general operating use because it is contractually pledged or held for a specific purpose — typical examples include landlord lease-deposit escrows, customer-funds collateral, security deposits backing letters of credit, payment-processor reserves, and debt-covenant minimum-balance requirements. Per IFRS and US GAAP balance-sheet presentation, restricted cash must be disclosed separately from unrestricted cash; the board should treat this number as removed from runway. Common pitfall: payment-processor "reserve" balances and large customer-deposit floats are often missed when reporting unrestricted cash, inflating apparent runway. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).