ClariFi · Cash Sentinel
Catch a burn spike before it costs you runway
Runway alerts tell you when it is already late. ClariFi's Cash Sentinel checks your burn every day and alerts you and your finance team the moment it runs more than 20% above your recent average, while you still have room to act.
Alerts on every plan. CFO support from $349/mo. No long-term commitment.
How it works
- 1
The alert reaches you and your finance team
One plain-language notice, for example: monthly burn rose to $142,000 against a $110,000 recent average, leaving 13 months of runway. (Illustrative figures.)
- 2
Your team finds the driver
Your accountant traces the spike to its source: new hires, a vendor prepayment, a one-off. On Foundation and Growth, your CFO weighs in on whether it changes the plan.
- 3
You decide with the numbers in front of you
The alert links straight to your Runway & Burn view, with Spend Guardrails and a 13-week cash forecast alongside on Foundation, and the Runway Modeler and Hiring Impact tools on Growth.
What the AI does, and what people do
AI proposes; people approve. That split is built into the product, not left to a policy.
The AI drafts
- Checks burn against its recent baseline every day
- Flags runway as it crosses 12, 9, 6, and 3 months
- Writes a plain-language alert with the numbers behind it
Your team decides
- Trace the spike to its driver
- Decide whether it changes the plan
- Adjust the budget, hiring plan, or fundraising timeline
The AI never
- Moves money or changes your budget
- Treats unreconciled bank data as your burn: alerts come from your closed books
- Stays quiet about a spike because runway still looks long
What Cash Sentinel watches
Burn spikes
Cash Sentinel compares your latest monthly burn with the average of the months before it. If burn runs more than 20% above that baseline, you get an alert, even while runway still looks healthy. The current month is left out of the baseline, so a spike cannot hide inside its own average, and very small baselines (under $1,000 a month) are ignored as noise.
Runway thresholds
Separate alerts fire as runway crosses 12, 9, 6, and 3 months, each with context on what changed. These are the milestones that set your fundraising clock.
KPI anomalies
The same daily run watches your KPIs for unusual moves and raises warning or critical notices, so a sudden change in revenue or margin does not wait for the next board meeting.
Want to check your own numbers first? Try the burn rate calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is a burn rate alert?
A burn rate alert tells you when your monthly cash burn jumps above its recent pattern. ClariFi's Cash Sentinel alerts you and your finance team when the latest month's burn runs more than 20% above the average of the prior months, so you can act before the change shows up as lost runway.
How is a burn spike alert different from a runway alert?
A runway alert fires when runway crosses a fixed line, such as 12, 9, 6, or 3 months. By then the decision is often already urgent. A burn spike alert fires when burn accelerates, which can happen while runway still looks comfortable, so it gives you an earlier warning. ClariFi runs both.
Does it watch my bank account in real time?
No. Burn is measured from your monthly financials, which come from your closed books, so the numbers behind each alert have been reconciled. The check runs every day, so an alert fires as soon as a new month's numbers land.
Which plan includes burn rate alerts?
Alerts run for every client. The Runway & Burn view the alert links to, along with Spend Guardrails and the 13-week cash forecast, is on Foundation ($349/mo) and Growth ($799/mo). Growth adds the Runway Modeler and Hiring Impact tools and a full fractional CFO.
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Your Own Agent
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Know about a burn spike before your board does
30 minutes with a CPA. We'll look at your burn and runway and show you what the alerts would have caught.
