Hiring Cost & Runway Impact Calculator — Free Google Sheets Template
See exactly how each hire changes your burn rate and runway before you make the offer.
Preview of the Hiring Cost Calculator showing salary inputs, total cost, and runway impact
Your next hire costs more than their salary. This free spreadsheet helps you calculate the total cost of a hire — salary, benefits, equipment, tools, and overhead — and shows how that cost affects your runway.
Enter your current cash and burn rate, then add planned hires with their expected salaries and start dates. The calculator shows your current runway, adjusted runway after each hire, and the total runway impact in months.
For founders planning multiple hires with staggered start dates, RunwayCal's Hiring Impact feature does this automatically with a visual burn trajectory chart.
What's included
- Current financial inputs: cash balance, monthly burn, monthly revenue
- Hire details: role name, base salary, benefits multiplier, equipment cost, tool subscriptions
- Total monthly cost per hire (salary + benefits + tools)
- Total annual cost per hire
- Current runway (before hire)
- Adjusted runway (after hire)
- Runway impact in months lost
- Multi-hire section: add up to 5 planned hires and see cumulative runway impact
- Start date column for staggered hire modeling
How to use this template
Make a copy
Click "Use this template" to create your own copy.
Enter your current financials
Add your current cash balance, monthly burn rate, and monthly revenue.
Add planned hires
Enter each planned hire: role, salary, expected benefits cost (or use the default 1.25x multiplier), equipment, and monthly tool subscriptions.
See the runway impact
The calculator shows your current runway, your adjusted runway after the hire(s), and exactly how many months of runway each hire costs.
What this template can't do
- Static calculation — doesn't update when your actual burn rate changes
- Can't visualize the burn trajectory over time with hires factored in
- Doesn't connect to your actual team data — you re-enter everything
- Can't compare hiring scenarios side-by-side (e.g. hire now vs. wait 3 months)
RunwayCal shows hiring impact on your real runway — automatically
Add planned team members with start dates and salaries in RunwayCal. The Hiring Impact card instantly shows current vs adjusted runway, monthly burn increase, 12-month cash impact, and a stacked burn trajectory chart. Compare hiring scenarios on the scenario overlay.
- Hiring Impact card with current vs adjusted runway
- Staggered start date modeling — each hire enters at the right month
- Stacked burn trajectory chart showing planned hires
- Scenario overlay — compare "hire now" vs "hire later" vs "contractors"