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VC Portfolio Monitoring Template

Three documents and three sheets that convert every founder's reported runway into a cash-out date computed from that company's own as-of date.

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What you get

Pack of 6 files: 3 documents, 3 spreadsheets

VC Portfolio Monitoring Template
  • Reporting StandardDocument
  • Escalation CriteriaDocument
  • Portfolio Review NoteDocument
  • Metric RegisterSpreadsheet
  • Runway and Burn TrackerSpreadsheet
  • Reporting Compliance LogSpreadsheet
RiverVC Portfolio Monitoring Template

Reporting Standard

[Fund] — What We Ask Portfolio Companies To Report

Sent to every company once, then referenced rather than restated. Each metric carries its definition and not just its name, because the name is where the divergence lives.

Cadence and timing

Who reports monthly, who reports quarterly, the working day it is due, and the as-of date it has to be measured on.

Cash, burn and runway

FieldThe definition we useCommonly reported instead
Cash——
Monthly net burn——
Runway——

Revenue, retention and margin

FieldThe definition we useCommonly reported instead
Annual recurring revenue——
Net dollar retention——
Gross margin——
Headcount——

What to do when you cannot meet a definition

Report your own figure, say which definition produced it, and leave the restatement to us. A company guessing at our definition is worse than a company telling us it used its own.

The third column is what makes a portfolio addable. Runway reported on each company’s own basis cannot be compared across nine of them, and summing it produces a number that belongs to nobody.

Draycott Mobility reports 18.0 months of runway, the longest of nine portfolio companies. Marrowfield Labs reports 13.2 months. Put both on one definition of burn and count from each company's own as-of date, and Marrowfield runs out of cash on 8 November 2026 and Draycott on 24 December 2026. They are the first two in the portfolio to run out. Both cleared a twelve-month threshold, and the one that looked safest ranked ninth of nine on reported runway and second on the date.

Every portfolio monitoring template on page one has a Runway Months column you paste a number into. That single column carries three distortions at once: whether burn includes capitalised development, whether cash includes an undrawn facility, and how old the figures are. Draycott's 18.0 months contained all three. Restating nine companies onto one definition moved portfolio monthly burn from 5,110,000 dollars to 6,130,000, an understatement of twenty per cent, and no company had done anything improper. The same gap opens at the first meeting, which a pitch deck analysis is built to catch.

Two primary documents already measure liquidity the way this pack does. Item 303(b)(1) of Regulation S-K sets the short-term horizon at twelve months from the most recent fiscal period end rather than from today, and asks for unused sources of liquid assets separately from cash. PCAOB AS 2415.02 gives an auditor a going-concern window ending one year past the date of the statements being audited. Both anchor to a period end. A reported runway figure anchors to nothing.

Nine companies, nine definitions of burn, and the ranking that changes when you fix that

The Runway and Burn Tracker, the Metric Register, the Reporting Compliance Log and the review note they produce.

VC Portfolio Monitoring Template
RiverRunway and Burn Tracker

Runway and Burn Tracker

Illustrative, for nine fictional portfolio companies reviewed on 30 April 2026. Sorted by cash-out date. Every date is that company's own cash divided by its restated burn, added to that company's own as-of date.

CompanyAs ofCashBurn reportedBurn restatedRunway reportedCash-out dateRank move
Marrowfield Labs31 Dec 256,200,000470,000605,00013.2 mo8 Nov 20264 to 1
Draycott Mobility31 Mar 262,900,000245,000330,00018.0 mo24 Dec 20269 to 2
Pintail Robotics31 Mar 265,100,000410,000560,00012.4 mo2 Jan 20272 to 3
Overbeck Analytics31 Mar 263,800,000290,000395,00013.1 mo18 Jan 20273 to 4
Halstead Optics31 Mar 267,300,000455,000720,00016.0 mo3 Feb 20275 to 5
Fenwick Nutrition28 Feb 2614,600,0001,180,0001,205,00012.4 mo4 Mar 20271 to 6
Kelso Interactive31 Mar 2611,900,000940,0001,010,00016.9 mo25 Mar 20278 to 7
Salterton Grid31 Mar 268,400,000520,000690,00016.2 mo6 Apr 20276 to 8
Windrush Materials31 Dec 259,700,000600,000615,00016.2 mo25 Apr 20277 to 9
Portfolio30 Apr 2669,900,0005,110,0006,130,00014.8 mo2 inside window5,500,000 in facilities

Rank 1 is the most exposed. Draycott reported the longest runway of the nine and is second to run out of cash, because it counted a 1,500,000 undrawn facility inside cash, netted a one-off supplier rebate against burn, and left 48,000 a month of capitalised fleet cost out of it. Fenwick is the mirror image: worst on reported runway, sixth on the date, and two quarters of attention that went to the wrong company.

RiverMetric Register

Metric Register

The reported figure is never overwritten. Both definitions stay on the row, in words, because a restatement you cannot show the founder is a restatement you cannot defend.

CompanyMetricReportedDefinition usedRestatedAdjustment
Draycott MobilityCash4,400,000Bank balance plus a 1,500,000 undrawn facility2,900,000Facility removed and reported in its own column
Draycott MobilityMonthly net burn245,000Net of a supplier rebate, before capitalised fleet cost330,000Rebate removed, 48,000 a month of fleet cost added
Halstead OpticsMonthly net burn455,000Gross burn less prepaid annual invoices collected720,000795,000 of prepayments spread across three months
Salterton GridMonthly net burn520,000Last month only690,000March was the lightest month. January was 812,000
Marrowfield LabsMonthly net burn470,000Board approved plan forecast605,000Actuals ran 29 per cent above plan for the quarter
Overbeck AnalyticsMonthly net burn290,000Net burn excluding capitalised software395,000105,000 a month of capitalised software added back
Pintail RoboticsMonthly net burn410,000Net of a research tax credit received once560,000A 450,000 one-off credit removed from three months
Kelso InteractiveNet dollar retention118%Retained cohort, churned accounts excluded103%Churn and downgrades returned to the denominator
Salterton GridRecurring revenue6,900,000Annualised final month of the quarter6,410,000490,000 of month-to-month accounts removed
Marrowfield LabsRecurring revenueabsentNot reportedabsentMissing two consecutive periods. Requested

Seven of nine restate burn upward. That is a fact about the reporting standard rather than about any one company, and it is the paragraph the review note opens with. An absent figure stays absent. It is never filled from a sector benchmark or an average of the other eight.

RiverCompliance Log

Reporting Compliance Log

The only sheet here whose signal is a thing that did not happen. The cash-out date sits next to the silence on purpose.

CompanyCadenceLast receivedDays silentPeriods missedFigures ageCash-outStatus
Marrowfield LabsMonthly20 Jan 261003120 d8 Nov 2026Gone quiet
Windrush MaterialsQuarterly12 Feb 26770120 d25 Apr 2027Compliant and stale
Fenwick NutritionMonthly22 Mar 2639161 d4 Mar 2027Overdue
Halstead OpticsMonthly17 Apr 2613030 d3 Feb 2027Current
Salterton GridMonthly18 Apr 2612030 d6 Apr 2027Current
Overbeck AnalyticsMonthly19 Apr 2611030 d18 Jan 2027Current
Pintail RoboticsMonthly20 Apr 2610030 d2 Jan 2027Current
Draycott MobilityMonthly20 Apr 2610030 d24 Dec 2026Current
Kelso InteractiveMonthly24 Apr 266030 d25 Mar 2027Current

The company we have heard least from is the company that runs out of cash first. Nothing in the arriving data said so, because no data was arriving. This log said so in February, on the strength of the gap alone. Windrush is the third status most trackers do not have: filing exactly on the cadence agreed, fully compliant, and handing over figures 120 days old. That is a problem with the cadence, fixed at a board meeting rather than by a chaser email.

RiverPortfolio Review Note

Portfolio Review Note

Sections 1 and 2 of 7. Written for a partner who has not opened a founder update this quarter and will not open the sheets.

1. What the restatement changed

Portfolio monthly net burn, as the nine companies reported it, is 5,110,000. On the definitions in our reporting standard it is 6,130,000, an understatement of 1,020,000 a month, or 20.0 per cent. Seven of the nine restate upward. The largest single driver is capitalised cost, which four companies exclude from burn because it is not an expense in their management accounts, and which is cash leaving the business in all four cases.

Two companies count an undrawn facility inside their cash line, together 5,500,000 the portfolio does not have available on demand.

2. The two companies inside the going-concern window

Marrowfield Labs reported 470,000 of monthly burn against a board approved plan. Actual operating outflow ran 605,000. The figures are as of 31 December 2025 and no package has arrived since, so what looked like 13.2 months of runway in January is 10.2 months measured from a date now four months in the past. Cash out 8 November 2026. Recurring revenue and retention absent two periods running. Tier 1, partner call.

Draycott Mobility reported the longest runway in the portfolio and ranks second soonest to run out. Three adjustments account for it, each defensible in isolation: an undrawn facility inside cash, a one-off rebate netted against burn, and capitalised fleet cost excluded from it. Cash out 24 December 2026. The company is fully current on reporting and has done nothing improper. Tier 1, and read the facility drawdown conditions before the call.

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What is in the pack

01

Metric Register

One row per company per metric carrying the reported value, the definition it was computed on, the restated value, the definition it was moved to, and the adjustment in words

02

Runway and Burn Tracker

A cash-out date per company computed from that company's own as-of date, with the portfolio ranked twice, on reported runway and on the date, and the movement between them

03

Reporting Compliance Log

Days silent, periods missed and the age of the figures beside each company's cash-out date, with compliant and stale as a status of its own

04

Reporting Standard

The definition of every metric you ask companies for, written to close the specific ambiguities where nine finance leads diverge rather than to list metric names

05

Escalation Criteria

Three tiers of trigger written against dates and counts, so a company lands on the watchlist by rule rather than when somebody happens to read its update

06

Portfolio Review Note

What goes to the partnership: what the restatement changed, who is inside the going-concern window, the ranking before and after, and the calls to make

07

Missing update sweep

Runs the cadence against what has actually arrived and flags a second consecutive miss on the day it happens rather than at the next quarterly review

How it works

  1. 1

    Send the reporting

    Founder updates, board decks, reporting packages, bank statements where you get them, and any facility agreements. Whatever format they arrive in.

  2. 2

    Restate onto one definition

    Each figure gets the definition that produces it, then the standard definition, then both stay on the row. Capitalised cost back into burn, undrawn facilities out of cash, one-off inflows out of both.

  3. 3

    Convert runway to a date

    Cash divided by restated burn, added to that company's own as-of date. Then rank the portfolio on the reported figure and on the date, and read the difference.

  4. 4

    Log who has gone quiet

    Days silent and figures age beside every cash-out date. A company that has stopped reporting and has an early date is the first call, before any number is read.

Frequently asked questions

Why a cash-out date instead of runway in months?

Because months do not say from when. Twelve months of runway as of 31 December is eight months of runway by April, and the reported number never changes to say so. A date can be sorted across a portfolio whose companies closed their books on four different dates.

Is an undrawn credit facility really not cash?

It is a source of liquidity and it belongs in the pack, in its own column with the drawdown conditions and covenants. It is not a bank balance. Two of the nine companies here fold one into cash, and both of them report a runway figure that cannot be compared with the other seven.

Our companies will not adopt a reporting standard. Does this still work?

Yes, and that is the normal case. The restatement happens on your side, from whatever arrives. Sending the standard makes next quarter cheaper, but nothing here depends on a founder changing anything. The register records the definition each company used and moves the figure itself.

What if all we get is a monthly founder email?

Then more rows are marked not restatable, and the register says so rather than guessing. Burn against a plan cannot be turned into actuals without the accounts. Reading a single update against the prior months for what quietly stopped being reported is the job that still works with only email. The quarterly version, read against the board minutes, is board meeting prep.

How is this different from a portfolio dashboard?

A dashboard has a Runway Months column you paste a number into, which is where the three distortions enter. This restates first and stores a date. The dashboards are better at charts. Neither is a substitute for the investment committee memo written when the position was taken.

Does it mark positions or produce fund performance?

No, and the boundary is deliberate. It normalises operating reporting and names who to call. Marks, capital accounts and performance figures are a different discipline with its own audit trail, which is what the quarterly LP reporting pack is for, and reserve calls get priced in follow-on and reserve analysis. Whether a specific piece of help worked is tracked in the portfolio company support pack.

What format are the downloaded files?

Word documents for the reporting standard, escalation criteria and review note, and CSV for the three sheets. The documents open in Word, Pages and Google Docs. The sheets open in Excel, Numbers and Sheets with the columns intact, and no conversion step in between.

Sources

  1. eCFR17 CFR 229.303 (opens in a new tab)
  2. PCAOBSupport for significant assumptions (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedInGitHubX

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedInX

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Find out which of your companies runs out of cash first

Send the last few months of founder updates. The first pass restates burn onto one definition and gives you a cash-out date per company.

Normalise my portfolio