Payroll
MONTHLY fully-loaded payroll run-rate — what one month of the current workforce costs: wages plus employer-paid taxes, benefits, and typical equity refresh allocation. A point-in-time amount per month, never an annual or quarterly total: when a source (deck, payroll export, budget) states an annual figure, divide it by 12 (a $2.52M annual payroll is entered as 210,000); a quarterly figure, divide by 3. The annual figure is a derived display (× 12). Used as the dominant input into `hr.payroll_as_pct_of_burn` (payroll ÷ gross monthly burn) and `hr.fte_metrics` (cost per FTE per month; annualized payroll = × 12). Common pitfall: reporting base-salary-only and missing employer payroll taxes, benefits, and bonus accrual — this can understate true cost by 15–30%. Document the loading convention (typically wages × 1.20–1.30 for US fully-loaded) and apply consistently. — HR 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: hr.payroll_run_rate
Type: Currency
Domain: HR
Definition
MONTHLY fully-loaded payroll run-rate — what one month of the current workforce costs: wages plus employer-paid taxes, benefits, and typical equity refresh allocation. A point-in-time amount per month, never an annual or quarterly total: when a source (deck, payroll export, budget) states an annual figure, divide it by 12 (a $2.52M annual payroll is entered as 210,000); a quarterly figure, divide by 3. The annual figure is a derived display (× 12). Used as the dominant input into hr.payroll_as_pct_of_burn (payroll ÷ gross monthly burn) and hr.fte_metrics (cost per FTE per month; annualized payroll = × 12). Common pitfall: reporting base-salary-only and missing employer payroll taxes, benefits, and bonus accrual — this can understate true cost by 15–30%. Document the loading convention (typically wages × 1.20–1.30 for US fully-loaded) and apply consistently.
Formula
Payroll (monthly run-rate) = Σ(employee fully-loaded annual comp) ÷ 12, i.e. one month of the current workforce at today's comp. Fully-loaded ≈ base + bonus + employer taxes (Social Security, Medicare, FUTA, SUTA) + benefits (health, dental, 401k match) + equity refresh accrual. US-typical loading factor 1.20–1.30× base; international varies materially by country.Why it matters
The single largest line in most operating budgets — drives runway calculus, dilution sensitivity at fundraise, and the unit economics conversation. Visible upward steps without a corresponding revenue or headcount-plan justification are board-action triggers.
How to interpret
Trend month-over-month; flag step-changes >5% that are not attributable to net new hires or planned comp cycles. Compare against hr.approved_headcount_budget × stage-typical avg comp (industry folk-wisdom, not citation-grade) to surface comp-band drift.
Calculation policy
How an AI agent should compute this KPI from messy company data. Free-text rules consumed at reasoning time — not a deterministic DSL. The most common ways to get this wrong are listed under Common miscomputations.
Inclusion rules
- One month of the current workforce at current comp: base wages + bonus accrual + employer payroll taxes + benefits + equity refresh accrual.
- Stored as a monthly amount. An annual figure from a deck, budget or payroll export is divided by 12; a quarterly figure by 3.
- Point in time: the run-rate at period end, not the cash paid during the period.
Exclusion rules
- Contractor and agency spend — that is
hr.total_contractorscapacity, not employee payroll. - One-off payments (severance, signing bonuses, retention grants) — footnote them; they are not run-rate.
- Annual or year-to-date totals entered without dividing to a monthly figure.
Required inputs
- Current employee roster with base comp.
- Loading convention (employer taxes + benefits factor) for each country of employment.
Data-source priority
- Payroll system run for the last full month, plus employer-side taxes and benefits.
- Budget / FP&A people-cost line for the month.
- Annual payroll from a board deck, divided by 12.
Edge cases
- A source that only says "payroll $2.52M" with no period: compare with gross monthly burn — if payroll alone is several times the monthly burn, the figure is annual; divide by 12.
- Mid-month hires and exits: use the run-rate at period end, not a pro-rated month.
- Multi-currency payroll: convert each country at the period-end rate before summing.
Validation checks
- Monthly payroll ÷
finance.gross_burn_rateis normally 0.3–0.95. A ratio of 2.4 or more means the value is almost certainly annual. - Monthly fully-loaded cost per head above ~$40k (USD-equivalent) means the value is almost certainly annual.
Common miscomputations
- Entering the annual payroll as the run-rate — every derived view (cost per FTE, payroll vs burn, annual payroll) is then 12× too high.
- Base salary only — understates fully-loaded cost by 15–30%.
- Summing monthly run-rates across a quarter — the quarterly view is the closing month, not a sum.
Related KPIs
hr.payroll_as_pct_of_burnhr.fte_metricshr.total_headcounthr.arr_per_ftefinance.gross_burn_rate
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 | Core |
| Series B | Core |
| Series C+ | Core |
| Public | Core |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- HR
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/hr/payroll_run_rate.json - All HR KPIs:
/api/ontology/hr.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Payroll as % of Burn
Monthly fully-loaded payroll cost as a percentage of `finance.gross_burn_rate`. Tells the board what share of cash outflow funds people vs everything else (infra, GTM spend, professional services, facilities). Common pitfall: comparing this ratio across companies without normalizing for stage and capex intensity — a pure-software seed company will run very payroll-heavy; a hardware-or-bio company will not. Best practice is to read this in conjunction with the burn-rate trend, not in isolation. — HR KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Performance Watch
Count of employees currently on a formal Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) or equivalent performance-bar process. Leading indicator for `hr.terminations` — most PIPs that do not resolve with measurable improvement convert to involuntary exits within one quarter. Common pitfall: confusing PIPs with informal coaching — only employees on a written, time-bound plan with defined exit criteria should be counted here. Informal "we need to talk" relationships belong in the at-risk count, not this number. — HR KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).