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).
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_restricted_cash
Type: Currency
Domain: Finance
Definition
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.
Formula
Sum of bank-account balances flagged `restricted: true` in `finance.bank_accounts_list`, plus any restricted balances held in non-bank vehicles (escrow agents, payment-processor reserve accounts).Why it matters
Excluded from operationally available cash and from the runway calculation — reporting it inside total cash without flagging the restriction overstates runway and can mask a covenant or liquidity issue.
How to interpret
A non-trivial restricted balance (say, >5% of total cash — industry folk-wisdom, not citation-grade) usually warrants a footnote on the source of the restriction and any release schedule. Watch for restricted cash that grows faster than the corresponding operating activity (e.g. payment-processor reserves growing faster than GMV) — that often signals a tightening processor relationship.
Related KPIs
finance.total_cash_in_bankfinance.total_unrestricted_cashfinance.operationally_available_cashfinance.bank_accounts_list
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_restricted_cash.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).
Unrestricted Cash
Cash that the company can freely deploy for any operational purpose — total bank balances minus any contractually restricted balances. This is the input most boards actually want when judging runway, because it strips out escrows, security deposits, and processor reserves that cannot be spent on payroll or vendors. The distinction matters more as the company adds enterprise contracts (deposit obligations), debt facilities (covenant balances), and payment processing volume (rolling reserves). Common pitfall: at early stage, restricted cash is often near zero so teams equate this with `finance.total_cash_in_bank` — track them separately from day one to avoid surprise reclassifications later. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).