Advanced - Custom Formulas | support.carta.com

Custom Formulas

Calculate custom metrics from KPI values or default Fund Forecasting reporting fields.

What is a Custom Formula?

Custom Formulas are a powerful way to create custom calculations for each portfolio company using variables from:

• KPI metrics (such as Revenue, Cash Balance)

• Default Fund Forecasting Reporting Fields (such as Current MOIC, Invested to Date, Current Post-Money Valuation)

These variables can be combined into a custom formula (or "equation") to generate a new calculated variable. Some potential use cases are calculating:

• Burn rates from collected cash balances

• Calculating revenue growth rates over the past X months or years

• Calculating revenue multiples such as Current Post-Money Valuation / Latest Revenue

Creating Formula

Step 1: Create Variables

• Go to Formulas from the sidebar

• Select a Variable Type (this could be either a KPI or a Fund Forecasting Reporting Field)

• Specify a Timeframe:

• If the variable is a KPI, you can set a timeframe for this KPI value:

• Reporting Type: Whether to use Actual or Projected KPI value

• As Of: The relative period in months from today for the KPI value. For e.g., if you want to use the Revenue from 12 months ago, this should be entered as 12

• Timeframe: Whether the relative period is in the past or the future

  • If the variable is a Fund Forecasting Reporting Field, by default, the timeframe value will be as of today

• Variable Name: The name of the variable to be used in the formula

• Click Add Variable

• Repeat the process for any other variables you intend to use in the formula

Step 2: Create Formula

Next, we need to create a formula using the available variables. Let's say we want to calculate the Revenue Growth Rate using the following formula:

Revenue Growth = Revenue Today / Revenue 12 Months Ago - 1

We've defined 2 different variables:

• Revenue Today

• Revenue 12 Months Ago

In the Formula Editor, we can then define the formula using curly braces for variables as follows:

• We’ve also specified the result format to be a percentage for the calculated growth rate

• Click Calculate to have Fund Forecasting calculate the formula results

Step 3: Calculation Results

If the formula and variables are valid, Fund Forecasting will produce a downloadable table of the formula calculation for each portfolio company.

Saving Formulas

To save this formula for easy reference in the future, click on Save Formula on the top right. You can either save the formula as a new formula with a custom name (such as "Revenue Growth").

Loading Formulas

To load a saved formula from a prior session, click on Saved Formulas and Load Formula for the selected formula.