Free Resource
The startup metric tree, by industry
Pick your industry and see how your north star and your cash runway break down into the metrics that drive them. Every metric comes with its definition, its formula, its peer range by stage, and the operating levers beneath it, exactly as ClariFi tracks them.
- 371defined metrics
- 15industry trees
- 11with peer benchmarks
- SOMAevery metric mapped to it
Choose your industry
Each tree starts from that industry’s north star. Where the revenue model changes the root (subscription or not, agent or principal), the tree lets you switch between them.
AI Software
188 metricsARR like SaaS, with inference cost inside COGS and the GPU and model-routing KPIs that lead it.
SaaS
178 metricsRecurring revenue, built up from MRR movements, with retention and unit economics alongside.
E-commerce
153 metricsGross profit, driven by traffic, conversion, order value and returns.
Professional Services
153 metricsGross profit from billable work: utilization, rates and collections.
Consulting
153 metricsGross profit from engagements: utilization, bill rates and collections.
Legal
153 metricsGross profit from matters: billable hours, realization and collections.
Healthcare
153 metricsGross profit from patient volume, payer mix and collections.
Nonprofit
156 metricsTotal support and revenue, program spend and months of cash.
Biotech
153 metricsRunway first: cash, burn and the clinical and regulatory milestones behind them.
Technology
178 metricsRevenue or ARR, with operating spend and EBITDA close behind.
Fintech
177 metricsRecurring or transaction revenue, retention and account growth.
Marketplace
154 metricsNet revenue or gross profit depending on whether you act as agent or principal.
Manufacturing
153 metricsGross profit from output, yield, input costs and collections.
Food & Beverage
153 metricsGross profit from volume, pricing, input costs and repeat customers.
General
176 metricsA general startup tree: ARR or revenue at the top, with margins, EBITDA and cash beneath.
How to read a metric tree
Four kinds of connection, each drawn differently in the diagram. Click any metric in a tree for its full definition.
Three trunks
Every tree has a growth trunk, rooted at the industry's north star (ARR, gross profit or revenue); a profitability trunk, rooted at operating income; and a survival trunk, rooted at cash runway. What you are building, whether it earns money, and how long you can keep building it. ClariFi added the profitability trunk so the same trees fit established companies as well as startups. For pre-revenue biotech, runway is the whole story.
Components
A component is part of the parent's formula, so the parent is calculated from it exactly. Gross profit is net revenue minus COGS; ARR is total MRR times 12.
Movements
Some balances roll forward month to month. Total MRR is last month's MRR plus new and expansion MRR, minus contraction and churned MRR, so each movement explains the change.
KPIs and drivers
A KPI is an operating measure that leads a financial metric without being in its formula: pipeline, activation, utilization, return rate. A driver sits one level below and moves the KPI, the way demos booked move pipeline. Arrows show the direction, not a guaranteed effect. The levers, the actions that move them, are yours to choose.
Supporting metrics
Ratios and diagnostics that belong to the industry but do not sit on either trunk, such as margins, retention, CAC payback, burn multiple and working-capital days. They are listed under each tree, grouped by theme, and clicking one opens the same definition panel.
How we took the metric tree further
A metric tree shows how a company's numbers fit together. We built on the idea in two ways: the trees on this page go further than a standard tree, and in ClariFi the same tree runs on a company's own numbers.
In this reference
A third trunk: profitability
Most startup trees stop at growth and survival. We added a profitability trunk rooted at operating income, so the same tree still works once a company is past burning cash.
Trees built per industry
Not one SaaS tree stretched to fit everyone: 15 industries and 21 tree variants, each with its own north star and costs. AI software tracks inference cost and GPU utilisation; a nonprofit runs on operating surplus and months of cash; biotech's north star is runway itself.
KPIs and drivers kept out of the arithmetic
Operating KPIs and the drivers beneath them sit beside the metric they lead, never inside its formula, so an assumption can never pass for a calculation. Each link says which way it moves and whether it is a stated assumption or a relationship measured in a company's own data.
Definitions you can check
Every metric has a written definition and formula, follows QuickBooks' definition where bookkeeping products differ, and is mapped to the open SOMA library, with every departure explained on the metric.
On your own numbers, in ClariFi
Every change attributed exactly
Each change is split into what each part contributed, to the dollar. When the recorded parts do not explain all of it, the gap gets its own line instead of being spread across the rest.
What went wrong, diagnosed
Against a named reference, such as your budget, a goal, a target or last period, the gap is measured both ways and walked down the tree until the pieces add up exactly. Data problems come first, and anything unexplained stays on its own line.
Runway explained
A cash bridge from opening to closing cash, with financing on its own line, and the change in the month you would run out of cash split into cash level, burn rate and time passing.
A tree you can question
Change an input and every metric built from it recalculates with the tree's own formulas. Or name a target, such as $2M of ARR, and work back to what the input would have to be. Only formula inputs move the numbers.
Options evaluated, you decide
For each real problem, options against your own limits with doing nothing as the baseline: what each closes, costs and leaves unmodelled. Never ranked or recommended; your decision-maker makes the call.
Outcomes checked
The forecast behind each decision is kept and compared with what actually happened at every close, so you learn which assumptions held.
Owners, targets and levers agreed
The metrics that matter get an owner and a target with a pace line, and a note of the levers agreed for each, so the next review starts from what was promised.
One explanation, everywhere
The same attribution feeds the monthly CFO memo, the board pack and your own AI assistant, so every report explains a change the same way.
For the full idea with a worked example, read what a metric tree is and how to use one.
Where the definitions come from
Every metric, formula and tree on these pages is generated from the metric catalogue inside ClariFi, the platform our finance team runs every client on. A definition here is the one your metric tree in ClariFi uses, not a separate marketing copy.
Each metric is mapped to SOMA, an open metric library from Levers Labs: 21 match it exactly, 15 are equivalent, 10 depart from it on purpose (the reason is shown on the metric), and 325 are extensions SOMA does not cover, mostly industry operating KPIs and drivers. The wording of each definition is ClariFi’s own.
Peer ranges are the indicative bands ClariFi uses to compare a company with its industry and stage. Treat them as direction, not as survey results. Last synced 2026-10-27.
See this tree run on your own books
In ClariFi, the tree fills with your figures every day. See exactly what moved each number and why, change an input and watch every metric built from it recalculate, and give each target an owner. Our experts set it up and sign off on the numbers.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a metric tree?
- A metric tree breaks one top-level outcome into the metrics that produce it, so you can see what moves the result. Formula components sit directly under the metric they calculate, and operating KPIs hang off the metric they lead. This resource shows ClariFi's default tree for 15 industries.
- What are the three trunks of a metric tree?
- The growth trunk ends in the north star, the outcome you are building toward, such as ARR for a subscription business or gross profit for e-commerce. The profitability trunk ends in operating income: gross profit minus operating expenses, the line EBITDA is built from. The survival trunk ends in cash runway: how many months the company can operate at its current burn. ClariFi added the profitability trunk so the trees work for established, profitable companies as well as startups. Pre-revenue biotech has no profitability trunk, and runway is both its goal and its constraint.
- Are these metric definitions standard?
- Every metric is mapped to SOMA, an open metric library from Levers Labs: 21 match SOMA exactly, 15 are equivalent, 10 depart from SOMA deliberately with the reason stated, and 325 are ClariFi extensions SOMA does not cover. The definitions shown are ClariFi's own wording.
- Where do the benchmarks come from?
- 11 metrics carry peer ranges (25th percentile, median, 75th percentile and top 10%) by industry and company stage. They are the indicative ranges ClariFi uses to compare companies, useful for direction rather than as survey data.
- How often is the metric tree updated?
- The content is generated directly from ClariFi's metric catalogue, so a definition here always matches the product. It was last synced on 2026-10-27.
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GlossaryARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
Annualized value of your subscription revenue at a point in time.
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See how many months of runway your cash and burn give you.
