The runway chart spans the next 90 days. Time is on the X-axis, weeks of runway on the Y-axis. The line moves up when income lands and slowly down as essential expenses tick by. Understanding the visual conventions makes it readable in two seconds.
The two lines
- Solid line — the truth. Built only from cash on hand + Confirmed income. This is the line to make decisions against.
- Dashed line — the projection. Adds Likely and Speculative income at their confidence weights. This is the optimistic path.
The gap between solid and dashed is the size of your hopeful pipeline. A wide gap means you have a lot of unconfirmed deals. A narrow gap means almost everything in your forecast is locked in.
The colored bands
Three horizontal bands in the background:
- Red band — under 4 weeks. Danger zone. If the line dips here, ReservWise nudges you to consider Lean Month Mode and surfaces the largest discretionary expenses for review.
- Yellow band — 4 to 12 weeks. Operating range. Most variable-income operators live here. The system stops nagging — the trend matters more than the absolute number.
- Green band — 12+ weeks. Comfortable. The system stops worrying and starts asking if you should be deploying more into Wealth Building or Growth.
The bands are tunable. Some operators have higher essential burn and want their yellow zone to start at 6 weeks. Some have stable retainers and want green to start at 8. Open Settings → Forecasting → Runway zones to adjust.
The 30 / 60 / 90 day pillars
Three vertical lines mark the 30-, 60-, and 90-day horizons. Hover any pillar and you see:
- Projected runway at that date (both solid and dashed).
- Cumulative Confirmed income arriving by then.
- Cumulative Likely + Speculative income arriving by then (weighted).
- Cumulative essential expenses through that date.
The 30-day pillar is the most actionable — it shows you whether you can absorb a slow month without dipping into reserves. The 90-day pillar is the strategic one — useful when deciding whether to take on a new fixed cost or invest in growth.
Event markers on the line
Small dots on the solid line mark significant events:
- Green dot — Confirmed income deposit. Hover to see source and amount.
- Orange dot — Large essential expense (rent, payroll, quarterly tax estimate).
- Blue dot — A reserve floor crossing. Useful for catching when Survival is about to go below floor.
- Red dot — A modeled shortfall. The forecast believes you will run out of cash on this date if no new income lands.
Reading the trend, not the snapshot
The single most useful comparison is week-over-week. Open the chart, then click Compare to last week. A faint ghost line appears showing where the runway chart sat 7 days ago. Three useful patterns:
- Ghost above current. Runway dropped this week. Was it a one-off expense or a trend? Click the dot that diverged most.
- Ghost below current. Runway grew. Usually a Confirmed deposit landed or a Likely line was promoted. Worth confirming the right thing happened.
- Ghost overlapping current. Steady week. The system is working as intended.
Overlaying What If scenarios
Click Run What If on the chart to overlay a scenario. The What If line draws as a third color and lets you see how a hypothetical change (a delayed payment, a new monthly cost, a hire) reshapes the next 90 days. Read more in What If Simulator.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Reading the dashed line as the answer. Make decisions against the solid line. The dashed line is the upside, not the baseline.
- Reacting to a single dip. One bad week can be a quarterly insurance payment, not a trend. Look at the previous 4 weeks before reacting.
- Adjusting the bands to feel better. Moving the red band down to "under 2 weeks" so the chart looks calmer is self-deception. Adjust bands when your real burn changes, not when you want a different color.
- Ignoring the red dot. A modeled shortfall is the system telling you to act. It is not always right (a Likely deal might land), but it is always worth checking.
- Not customizing the zones. The defaults are starting points. Operators with a $3,500 / week burn and operators with a $900 / week burn should not be using the same zones.
What to do next
- Open the dashboard and hover the 30-day pillar. Get a feel for the breakdown.
- Click Compare to last week and look at the ghost. What changed?
- Read How runway is calculated for the formula behind the line.
- If the chart feels noisy, open Settings → Forecasting → Runway zones and tune the bands to your real burn.
A chart you understand at a glance becomes a tool. A chart you have to interpret becomes wallpaper.