Investor Update Template and Board KPI Pack for SaaS

How the investor update template works

You enter one month: the MRR you started with and how it moved (new, expansion, contraction, churn), cash at month end, net burn, customers and headcount. Pipeline and plan MRR are optional. Everything else is derived, with each definition stated so an investor can check it:

• Net new MRR = new + expansion − contraction − churned MRR, and ending MRR = starting MRR + net new MRR. If you also type the ending MRR from your billing system, the template flags any gap, which is usually a movement that was not recorded.
• MRR growth = net new MRR ÷ starting MRR, month over month. ARR = ending MRR × 12.
• Monthly NRR and GRR use the same formulas as the NRR guide and NRR vs GRR, applied to one month's starting MRR, with new customers left out.
• Runway = cash ÷ net burn, in months, at this month's burn.
• Burn multiple = net burn ÷ net new ARR for the same month = net burn ÷ (net new MRR × 12). With three or more prior months entered, the template adds a 3-month burn multiple, which moves less from one lumpy month.

The output has two parts. The investor update is plain text in a fixed order (TL;DR, key metrics, highlights, lowlights, asks, hiring) with a copy button, or Markdown if you keep updates in Notion or a doc. The board KPI pack is a one-page view of the same numbers with tiles, last month vs this month, plan vs actual and a trend table, and it prints to a clean PDF.

Worked example: the default update

The inputs above are an illustrative SaaS company reporting September 2026. It started the month at $82,000 MRR, added $6,500 of new MRR and $2,100 of expansion, and lost $600 to downgrades and $1,400 to churn. It ended with $1,850,000 in the bank after a net burn of $95,000.

Net new MRR is $6,500 + $2,100 − $600 − $1,400 = $6,600, so MRR grows +8.0% to $88,600 and ARR is $1,063,200. Monthly NRR is ($82,000 + $2,100 − $600 − $1,400) ÷ $82,000 = 100.1%, and GRR is 97.6%. Runway is $1,850,000 ÷ $95,000 = 19.5 months. The burn multiple is $95,000 ÷ ($6,600 × 12) = 1.20x; across July to September it is 1.36x, because the company burned $284,000 while MRR rose from $71,200 at the end of June to $88,600.

Two mistakes the template avoids

Mixing monthly and annual units in the burn multiple. Dividing this month's burn by this month's net new MRR gives $95,000 ÷ $6,600 = 14.4x, twelve times the real figure of 1.20x. The burn multiple compares burn with net new ARR, so either annualize both sides (12 months of this burn against 12 months of this net new ARR) or, the same thing, multiply net new MRR by 12. In the 2020 post that introduced the metric, David Sacks treats about 2x as reasonable for an early-stage startup and 5x as terrible; the burn multiple guide has his full scale.

Reading a monthly retention figure as an annual one. A 97.6% GRR sounds strong, but it is one month. If the same losses repeated every month for a year, GRR for the year would be about 74.4%, and NRR would be about 101.5%. Label the figures as monthly in the update, as the template does, and report trailing-12-month NRR and GRR separately once you have a year of data. The ARR waterfall calculator builds the multi-period bridge.

What to write in each section

• TL;DR: the template writes the numbers sentence for you (MRR, growth, ARR, burn, runway, cash). Add one line of your own: the single thing you most want an investor to remember from this month.
• Key metrics: keep the same metrics in the same order every month, including the months they look bad. Changing the set when numbers dip is the fastest way to lose trust.
• Highlights and lowlights: concrete events with numbers, not adjectives. A lowlight should say what happened and what you are doing about it.
• Asks: specific enough to act on in one reply: a named type of intro, a role you need to fill, a decision you want input on.
• Hiring: headcount, the roles you are hiring and where each one stands. Hiring is usually the biggest driver of next month's burn, so this line explains the cost side of the numbers.

Where the numbers come from

MRR movements come from your billing system or subscription analytics tool; cash and net burn from the bank and the month's books. If the two MRR sources disagree, fix that before you send, because an investor who later sees a different number will remember the gap. A forecast for the next months, and plan vs actual on more than MRR, needs a monthly model: the SaaS budget template adds budget vs actual and a rolling forecast, and the runway guide covers runway when burn changes month to month.

Adlega keeps all of it in one place: a 36-month driver-based model with MRR movements, headcount, P&L and cash, actuals that update the forecast, and an AI CFO that explains every number. Build the model in Adlega and keep this template for the monthly email.

Download the Excel version

The Excel template has a KPI sheet with twelve monthly columns: type each month's MRR movement, cash, burn, customers and headcount, and live formulas give ending MRR, growth, ARR, monthly NRR and GRR, runway, the monthly and 3-month burn multiple and the gap to plan. An Email sheet builds the update text for whichever month you pick, ready to copy. The defaults match the example above. No email needed to download it.