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Metric Tree

Consulting Metric Tree

Gross profit from engagements: utilization, bill rates and collections. 73 metrics, each with its definition and formula, mapped from the north star Gross Profit and the survival metric Cash Runway down to the operating drivers you can act on.

Growth & revenueProfit & efficiencyCash & capitalOperating drivers/driver pushes up or downappears elsewhere in the tree

Growth trunk

What you are building: the north-star metric and what it is made of.

Survival trunk

How long you can keep building: runway and the cash, burn and revenue behind it.

Supporting metrics

Also part of the Consulting tree in ClariFi: the ratios and diagnostics you read alongside the two trunks.

Growth
Customers
Contracts
Retention
Pipeline
Expenses
Profitability
Unit economics
Workforce
Efficiency
Working capital
Cash

All 73 metrics in the Consulting tree

Definitions and formulas as ClariFi uses them. Metric names in formulas refer to other entries on this page.

Growth and revenue

24 metrics

Contracts

Contracted ARR
Annual value of the customer contracts in force at the month end, from the contract register. A renewal is never counted twice. Shown with its coverage of MRR × 12 (or trailing-12-month revenue).
Customer Concentration Index (HHI)
Herfindahl-Hirschman index of customers' shares of contracted annual value.
Remaining Performance Obligations
Contracted revenue not yet recognised, from the contract register. Open-ended contracts are reported separately.
Revenue Concentration
The largest customer's share of contracted annual value, customers grouped by normalised name.

Customers

Active Clients
Paying customers at the end of the month. For a marketplace, demand-side active users only.
Churned Clients
Customers lost in the month.
Client Growth Rate
Month-over-month change in total customers.
Formula: Active Clients ÷ Active Clients (last month) − 1
Customer CMGR
Compound monthly growth rate of customers over the last twelve months.
Formula: pow(Active Clients ÷ Active Clients (12 months ago), 1 ÷ 12) − 1
Gross Client Churn Rate
Customers lost in the month as a share of the customers at the start of it. Where customers are not under contract, the company defines what counts as a churned customer and the figure is recorded directly.
Formula: Churned Clients ÷ Active Clients (last month)
Net Customers
New customers less churned customers.
Formula: New Clients − Churned Clients
New Clients
Customers acquired in the month. Reactivated customers are not new: counting them would understate CAC.
Retained Customers
Customers at the start of the month less those who churned.
Formula: Active Clients (last month) − Churned Clients

Growth

Revenue Growth Rate (MoM)
Month-over-month change in net revenue. Over a period it stays a MONTHLY rate, compounded, so the monthly bands still apply.
Formula: Net Revenue ÷ Net Revenue (last month) − 1
Revenue Growth Rate (YoY)
Change in net revenue against the same month a year earlier. Seasonality cancels.
Formula: Net Revenue ÷ Net Revenue (12 months ago) − 1

Pipeline

Average ACV
Average annual contract value of valued, active contracts.
Sales Cycle
Average days from opening a deal to closing it, over deals closed in the window.
Weighted Pipeline
Pipeline deals' annual value × their win probability; a deal with no probability contributes zero.
Win Rate
Closed deals won as a share of deals closed in the window, renewals included.

Pricing

Average Hours per Client / Month
Billable hours per client per month.
Blended Hourly Rate
Average billed rate per hour across the team.
Utilization Rate
Billable hours as a share of available hours.

Retention

Cohort Net Dollar Retention (TTM)
Contract value in force at this month end of customers whose contracts were in force twelve months earlier, over their value then. Biased downward: an expansion recorded by editing a contract changes both ends of the year and is not counted, while churn always is. No benchmark band until register history exists.
Cohort Retention
Retention by acquisition cohort from the client's cohort tables, each cohort divided by its own base.

Revenue

Net Revenue
Revenue recognised in the month from every source, recurring and one-time, net of credits and refunds booked as contra-revenue.

Profit and efficiency

27 metrics

Efficiency

Revenue Burn Multiple
A year's net burn over the annual run-rate revenue added over the year (year-on-year, so seasonality cancels); quarter-on-quarter, badged, with fewer than 15 months.
Formula: (Total Expenses summed over the last 12 months − Net Revenue summed over the last 12 months) ÷ ((Net Revenue summed over the last 3 months − sum(Net Revenue (12 months ago), 3)) × 4)
Rule of 40
Annualised revenue growth plus net margin, in points.
Formula: pow(1 + Revenue Growth Rate (MoM), 12) − 1 + Net Margin

Expenses

COGS
Direct costs of delivering the product or service: hosting, infrastructure, support and payment processing. A ledger's Cost of Revenue line maps here; sales and marketing are operating expenses, not COGS.
G&A Expenses
General and administrative costs: rent, legal, accounting, HR and office.
Operating Expenses
Costs other than COGS: salaries, marketing, rent, software and professional services.
R&D Expenses
Research and development costs: engineering salaries, tools and infrastructure.
Sales and Marketing Spend
Cost of the sales team, marketing campaigns, advertising and other customer acquisition.
Total Expenses
Every cost of the month, operating and non-operating. ClariFi computes it from COGS, operating expenses and the source's own below-the-line amount unless a person entered it.

Profitability

EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation: net income plus D&A, interest expense and income tax, less interest income, built from identified ledger lines.
EBITDA Margin
EBITDA as a share of net revenue.
Formula: EBITDA ÷ Net Revenue
Expense Ratio
Total expenses as a share of net revenue.
Formula: Total Expenses ÷ Net Revenue
Gross Margin
Gross profit as a share of net revenue. For a marketplace that reports gross merchandise value (GMV) as its revenue, this is the margin on GMV and is not compared with a benchmark.
Formula: (Net Revenue − COGS) ÷ Net Revenue
Gross Profit
Net revenue less COGS.
Formula: Net Revenue − COGS
Net Income
Net revenue less total expenses.
Formula: Net Revenue − Total Expenses
Net Margin
Net income (net revenue less total expenses) as a share of net revenue.
Formula: (Net Revenue − Total Expenses) ÷ Net Revenue

Unit economics

CAC (same month)
Same-period CAC: this month's sales and marketing spend per new customer this month. Shown beside ClariFi's trailing-three-month CAC.
Formula: Sales and Marketing Spend ÷ New Clients
Client Acquisition Cost
Sales and marketing spend per new customer over the trailing three months. With spend and no new customers it is not meaningful and is shown as such, never as a figure.
Formula: Sales and Marketing Spend summed over the last 3 months ÷ New Clients summed over the last 3 months
Client Lifetime Value
Gross-margin lifetime value per customer: monthly revenue per customer × trailing-12-month gross margin × lifetime, where lifetime is 1 ÷ the trailing-12-month churn rate, capped at 60 months and blank with fewer than 3 churned customers in the year.
Formula: Monthly Revenue per Client × Gross Margin (trailing 12 months) × Customer Lifetime (months)
Client LTV:CAC Ratio
Gross-margin LTV divided by CAC: how many times a customer repays what it cost to acquire.
Formula: Client Lifetime Value ÷ Client Acquisition Cost
Cost to Serve
COGS per customer, over the average customers of the month.
Formula: COGS ÷ ((Active Clients (last month) + Active Clients) ÷ 2)
Customer Lifetime (months)
1 ÷ the trailing-12-month churn rate, capped at 60 months; blank with fewer than 3 churned customers in the year.
Formula: min(1 ÷ (Churned Clients summed over the last 12 months ÷ sum(Active Clients (last month), 12)), 60)
Gross Margin (trailing 12 months)
Gross profit over the trailing twelve months as a share of revenue over the same months, used by LTV and Payback; the month's own gross margin, badged, when fewer months exist.
Formula: Gross Profit summed over the last 12 months ÷ Net Revenue summed over the last 12 months
Monthly Revenue per Client
What an acquired customer pays each month, used by Payback and LTV: ARPA for subscription clients; net revenue over the month's average customers for contractual clients (marketplaces: per demand-side user, GMV on the principal basis); not defined for charities, biotechs, or clients whose customers are not contractual without a confirmed churn definition.
Payback Period
Months of gross profit per customer needed to repay CAC: CAC ÷ (monthly revenue per customer × trailing-12-month gross margin).
Formula: Client Acquisition Cost ÷ (Monthly Revenue per Client × Gross Margin (trailing 12 months))
Revenue Payback
CAC ÷ monthly revenue per customer: payback on revenue rather than gross profit. Shown beside Payback Period, never stored or targeted.
Formula: Client Acquisition Cost ÷ Monthly Revenue per Client

Workforce

Headcount
Full-time-equivalent employees at month end.
Revenue per Employee
Net revenue in the month divided by headcount.
Formula: Net Revenue ÷ Headcount

Cash and capital

18 metrics

Cash

Cash Balance
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the month. May be negative (overdrawn).
Cash Runway
Months of cash left: the latest balance, projected forward with the burns recorded since, divided by the larger of the average net burn of the months that burned among the last three (the last four when fewer than two of the last three burned) and the net burn of the most recent month that burned; when fewer than two of the last four months burned, divided by the plain three-month average net burn. A month with no recorded figures counts as burning, at no less than the largest net burn recorded in the last twelve months (more when the balances on either side imply more). Blank when not burning, when the latest balance is more than three months old, or when the projected cash ran out before this month; shown as 120 months when longer; "Out of cash" when the latest recorded balance and the cash projected from it are both zero or negative.
Months of Cash
Cash balance ÷ the average monthly total expenses over up to twelve months (at least three recorded). Includes donor-restricted cash; never blank for a break-even organisation.
Net Burn
Net cash consumed by operations in the month: total expenses less net revenue, floored at zero. Over a period it is rebuilt from the components and shown as a monthly figure.
Formula: max(Total Expenses − Net Revenue, 0)

Working capital

AR 31-60 Days
Receivables overdue by 31-60 days.
AR 61-90 Days
Receivables overdue by 61-90 days.
AR Current (0-30 days)
Receivables within payment terms (0-30 days).
AR Over 30 Days %
Receivables more than 30 days overdue as a share of all receivables.
Formula: (AR 31-60 Days + AR 61-90 Days + AR Over 90 Days) ÷ Total Accounts Receivable
AR Over 90 Days
Receivables overdue by more than 90 days.
AR Over 90 Days %
Receivables more than 90 days overdue as a share of all receivables.
Formula: AR Over 90 Days ÷ Total Accounts Receivable
Cash Conversion Cycle
Days sales outstanding less days payable outstanding.
Formula: Days Sales Outstanding − Days Payable Outstanding
Cash Ratio
Cash ÷ accounts payable.
Formula: Cash Balance ÷ Total Accounts Payable
Current Ratio
(Cash + accounts receivable) ÷ accounts payable. ClariFi records no inventory or other current items, so today this is the same formula as the Quick Ratio.
Formula: (Cash Balance + Total Accounts Receivable) ÷ Total Accounts Payable
Days Payable Outstanding
Average days taken to pay bills: accounts payable ÷ COGS × 30.
Formula: Total Accounts Payable ÷ COGS × 30
Days Sales Outstanding
Average days to collect payment: accounts receivable ÷ net revenue × 30.
Formula: Total Accounts Receivable ÷ Net Revenue × 30
Quick Ratio
(Cash + accounts receivable) ÷ accounts payable. Identical to the Current Ratio until inventory is recorded.
Formula: (Cash Balance + Total Accounts Receivable) ÷ Total Accounts Payable
Total Accounts Payable
Bills the company owes vendors and suppliers, at month end.
Total Accounts Receivable
Invoices owed to the company and not yet paid, at month end.

Operating drivers

4 metrics

Capacity

Bench Days
Consultant days with no client assignment during the month.
Billable Utilisation
Percentage of fee-earner available hours recorded as billable.

Conversion

Proposal Win Rate
Percentage of decided proposals won during the month.

Demand

Proposals Outstanding
Total fee value of proposals issued and awaiting a client decision.

Questions about the Consulting tree

What is the north star metric for a Consulting company?
In ClariFi's default Consulting tree the growth trunk is rooted at Gross Profit. Net revenue less COGS. The survival trunk is rooted at Cash Runway, which tells you how long you can keep building.
What metrics should a Consulting startup track?
This tree defines 73 metrics for Consulting: the two trunks (Gross Profit and Cash Runway) with the formula components and operating drivers under them, plus supporting ratios such as margins, retention, unit economics and working capital. Start with the two roots and the first level beneath each, then add drivers as you can measure them.
What is the difference between a component and a driver?
A component is part of a metric's formula, so the parent is calculated from it exactly (gross profit is revenue minus COGS). A driver is an operating metric that tends to move the parent but is not part of its formula, for example pipeline or activation rate. Drivers show direction, not a guaranteed effect.
How is Gross Profit calculated?
Gross Profit = Net Revenue − COGS.

Source: ClariFi metric catalogue, synced 2026-10-08 (catalogue version b47ea3aa).

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