Opcelerate Neural Inc. · HQ ledger 01 / 20

Sherwood Park, Alberta · opcelerateneural.ca

The ratios that decide if the studio lives.

A local paper ledger of LTV, CAC, ARR, margins, cash, and working capital. One idea per sheet. No production deploy. Figures only when a file on this Mini can stand behind them.

The firm

Opcelerate Neural Inc.
201 Kaska Rd #143
Sherwood Park AB T8A 2J6
Incorporated 23 Feb 2026

What we sell

Projects, retainers, Academy seats, Mac mini private-AI setups, Neural Scout. Cash arrives as deposits, invoices, and (someday) repeating licenses.

This file

HQ Mini only. Keyboard or click to turn the sheet. Print makes one landscape page per folio.

Alberta registry #2027920723 · public address from about.html · not a balance sheet

How to read

Three stamps. An em dash is a fact.

If a ratio has no booked number, the sheet shows a dash. That is the honest close. Mixing list prices, bid quotes, and cash is how studios lie to themselves.

Booked

On an invoice or payment record in HQ. ProShield kickoff and SagePrint invoice lines live here.

Public offer

List prices on academy, offer-menu, Mac mini, pricing, Neural Scout pages. Not ARR. Not LTV.

Proposal

Rate cards and bid packs. Strathcona 26.0060 hours are a quote. They are not revenue.

← → or click the sheet to advance · Shift-click or ← for previous · Home / End · Google Ads ~$12.88 was not found on disk this pass, so it is not stamped.

01 · Customer

LTV

Plain English

What one customer is worth over the whole relationship, after the cost to serve them — not the first invoice, the whole stay.

LTV ≈ (ARPU × gross margin %) ÷ logo churn
or average monthly profit per account × months they stay

Why it matters here

A Sherwood Park studio mixes one-off projects (website rebuilds, Mac mini setups, corporate sprints) with things that can repeat (retainers, Academy, Neural Scout licenses). LTV is only real once someone stays. A $3,500 rebuild without a care plan is a job, not a lifetime.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No completed customer lifetime on file. Do not back into LTV from list prices.

Public offers exist ($25 group, $50 private, $2,500 corporate sprint, $3,500 rebuild, $3,000 Mac mini setup) — those are price tags, not LTV.

02 · Customer

CAC

Plain English

What it costs, in sales and marketing cash, to win one new paying customer.

CAC = sales & marketing spend in the period
÷ new customers acquired in that period

Why it matters here

Academy seats and Mac mini jobs can be cheap to close in person in Strathcona County. Neural Scout and municipal work are slow hunts. If ads spend and founder time go out and no one pays, CAC is infinite — not zero.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No closed CAC period. Historical Google Ads ~$12.88 (Jul 16–Aug 12 2026) was not found in HQ files this pass, so it is not used.

Searched HQ HTML/CSV/MD/JSON for “12.88”; only a site-map node radius matched. ads-pmax-assets holds creatives, not spend.

03 · Revenue

ARR

Plain English

The annual value of revenue that is contracted to repeat — retainers, licenses, memberships. Not a pile of one-time projects annualized after the fact.

ARR = sum of recurring contracts × 12
if they are monthly. Exclude one-time projects, deposits, and unpaid invoices.

Why it matters here

Neural Scout as a yearly license, a $350/mo care retainer, Academy memberships — those could become ARR. A ProShield kickoff deposit cannot. A Strathcona rate card cannot. A $2,500/mo Starter tile on pricing.html is a public offer, not a booked subscription.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
SagePrint $350/mo lines exist and are unpaid. Unpaid is not ARR. Scout $96k/yr is a list price.

sageprint-invoices.html · pricing.html · neural-scout.html · generate_strathcona_260060.py (proposal, not ARR)

04 · Margin

Gross margin

Plain English

What is left of revenue after the direct cost of delivering the work — hardware, contractors, usage, the hours that had to be there.

Gross margin % = (revenue − COGS) ÷ revenue

Why it matters here

Mac mini jobs have a hardware line (at cost) plus a $3,000 setup offer. Academy is mostly time. Neural Scout is mostly time and compute. If founder hours are not counted, the margin is a vanity number. Count them or say you did not.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No COGS ledger on HQ. Do not invent a percentage from list prices.

mac-mini-ai-agent.html states hardware at cost + $3,000 CAD starting setup — an offer, not a posted margin.

05 · Margin

Contribution margin

Plain English

What is left after every cost that moves with that customer — delivery, plus the sales cost that only exists because they exist. The money that can pay rent and keep the Mini on.

Contribution = revenue − variable costs
Contribution margin % = contribution ÷ revenue

Why it matters here

A $25 group lab can show a high gross margin and still contribute nothing if it eats an evening that could have closed a retainer. Contribution is how you choose Academy vs Scout vs a website rebuild.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No variable-cost book. Formula stays; ratio waits.

No P&L folder found under HQ. invoices/ contains ProShield PDFs only.

06 · Retention

Churn

Plain English

Who left. Count logos (customers) and dollars (revenue) separately. A $350/mo retainer leaving is not the same as a $25 lab seat not coming back.

Logo churn = customers lost in the period ÷ customers at start
Revenue churn = recurring $ lost ÷ recurring $ at start

Why it matters here

Projects end on purpose. That is not churn. Churn starts when a retainer, Academy habit, or Scout license was supposed to continue and did not. Until a cohort exists, there is nothing to churn.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No customer cohort file. One deposit is not a retained logo.

Do not treat ProShield kickoff or unpaid SagePrint lines as churned or retained.

07 · Retention

Net dollar retention

Plain English

The same logos, a year later: did they pay more, less, or leave? Expansion (Scout add-on, more Academy, a care plan on a rebuild) can push NDR over 100% even if a few logos leave.

NDR = (starting ARR + expansion − contraction − churned ARR)
÷ starting ARR

Why it matters here

The studio’s actual strategy is expansion: scan → project → retainer → private AI on a Mac mini → Scout. NDR is how you know that ladder is real. Without starting ARR, NDR is undefined — not 0%.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No starting ARR cohort. Undefined, not zero.

ARR sheet in this ledger is also a dash. NDR cannot be computed from offers.

08 · Payback

CAC payback

Plain English

How many months until that new customer’s contribution has paid back what it cost to win them.

Payback months = CAC ÷ monthly contribution profit per new customer

Why it matters here

A $3,000 Mac mini setup paid on invoice can pay back CAC the same week. A Scout license billed yearly should pay back inside the year or the hunt was too expensive. Municipal work with a long quiet period after the bid is a different clock — do not average them into one fake month-count.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
CAC is a dash. Payback cannot be shorter or longer than a number we do not have.

Needs booked CAC and booked contribution. Both absent.

09 · Working capital

Cash conversion cycle

Plain English

How many days cash is stuck between doing the work and being able to spend the money. Shorter is freer. Negative means customers fund the work before you pay suppliers.

CCC = DSO + DIO − DPO
For this studio, inventory days (DIO) are usually ~0, so CCC ≈ DSO − DPO

Why it matters here

ProShield-style deposits pull cash in before delivery. SagePrint-style unpaid invoices trap cash after delivery. The studio can look busy and still be tight if AR sits. Do not average a deposit job with an unpaid retainer into one pretty CCC.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
DSO, DIO, and DPO are all dashes. Pattern is visible; a day-count is not.

See DSO (SagePrint AR on file) and deferred revenue (ProShield deposit on file).

10 · Working capital · you wrote ESO

DSO (you wrote ESO)

Plain English

Days Sales Outstanding: how long, on average, it takes to collect an invoice. In a working-capital list, ESO is this number — not an equity metric.

DSO = (accounts receivable ÷ credit sales in the period) × days in the period

Why it matters here

Retainers and extra-hours settlements that sit unpaid are the studio’s real credit risk. A Mac mini or Academy seat paid by Interac the same week barely touches DSO. The unpaid stack is where a one-person shop runs out of cash.

Opcelerate figure

days

Booked AR, not DSO
SagePrint INV-SP-2026-08 · issued 28 Aug 2026 · $10,696.88 CAD GST-in · every line Unpaid. Days outstanding not computed — no closed sales figure for a period.

sageprint-invoices.html: $1,837.50 retainers Apr–Aug at $350/mo + $8,859.38 extra-hours settlement. MSA ON-MSA-2026-001. Not collected.

11 · Working capital

DPO

Plain English

Days Payable Outstanding: how long we keep other people’s cash before paying suppliers — hardware vendors, contractors, ads, tools.

DPO = (accounts payable ÷ COGS or purchases) × days in the period

Why it matters here

Mac mini hardware bought then billed “at cost” only helps if the client pays before the card bill. Stretching DPO on purpose is a bank; stretching it because we forgot is a hole. No AP book means we cannot claim either.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No accounts-payable ledger in HQ invoices/ or reports/.

invoices/ holds ProShield customer PDFs only. Supplier bills not filed there.

12 · Working capital

Working capital

Plain English

The cash cushion: current assets minus current liabilities. Receivables, cash, and deposits we hold, minus bills we owe and revenue we have not earned yet.

Working capital = current assets − current liabilities

Why it matters here

A studio can have a large ProShield deposit in the bank and still have thin working capital if that cash is deferred revenue (a liability) and SagePrint AR is slow. The Mini does not run on invoices. It runs on cash that is actually ours.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No balance sheet on disk. Pieces exist (AR, a deposit); the subtraction does not.

Do not net $8,880 and $10,696.88 into a fake WC figure. Different customers, different stamps.

13 · Efficiency

Burn multiple

Plain English

How many dollars of cash we burn to buy one dollar of new ARR. Lower is better. A services shop that does not yet have ARR should not pretend this is 0.

Burn multiple = net burn ÷ net new ARR
Net burn = cash out − cash in from operations

Why it matters here

Founder time, ads, hardware, and the Academy calendar are burn. A kickoff deposit is not new ARR. Until retainers and Scout licenses collect, the multiple is “spending to find the first repeating dollar,” not a SaaS scoreboard.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
No net-burn close, no net-new ARR. Undefined.

ARR in this ledger is a dash. Burn multiple needs both sides.

14 · Accrual

Deferred revenue flow

Plain English

Cash we already hold for work we have not delivered. It walks in as a deposit, sits as a liability, and leaves the liability (becomes earned revenue) when the work is done.

Ending deferred = beginning deferred + new billings collected early − revenue recognized

Why it matters here

Capture kickoffs, corporate sprints prepaid, Scout billed annually up front — these are the studio’s deferred-revenue machine. Spending the deposit as if it were profit is how a project goes underwater before week two.

Opcelerate figure

$8,880

Booked deposit
ProShield × CK Condo kickoff, GST included. Invoice index 28 Aug 2026: received $8,880, remaining $0. Two 28 Aug Interacs noted as claim-in-RBC by 26 Sep 2026. Not earned revenue until capture work is delivered.

invoices/proshield/ON-PS-2026-0825-01, 0826-02, 0828-03, 0828-04 · proshield-invoices.html · $2,500 + $3,000 + $2,500 + $880

15 · Working capital

Negative working capital

Plain English

When current liabilities exceed current assets. Often a sign of distress. Sometimes a sign that customers pay before we do the work — deferred revenue sitting as a liability while cash sits in the bank.

Negative WC when current liabilities > current assets
Prepaid / deferred revenue is a current liability

Why it matters here

A healthy version for this studio: deposits collected, hardware not yet bought, work not yet delivered. An unhealthy version: unpaid SagePrint-scale AR, no cash, and a deposit already spent. Same label, opposite lives. Need a balance sheet to tell them apart.

Opcelerate figure

Not booked yet
The ProShield deposit would land as a liability if books were on accrual. That is not a WC total.

No statement of financial position in HQ. Do not call the studio “negative WC” from one deposit.

16 · Basis of books

Cash basis

Plain English

Count money when it moves. Invoice sent? Silent. Interac lands? Revenue (or a deposit in the bank). Bill unpaid? It does not exist yet.

Cash revenue = collections in the period
Cash expense = amounts actually paid in the period

Why it matters here

A one-person Sherwood Park shop eats on cash basis whether CRA gets an accrual package or not. SagePrint’s $10,696.88 is nothing on this clock until it lands. ProShield is something on this clock when the Interacs are claimed.

Opcelerate figure

$8,880

Recorded received
Invoice index stamps the kickoff received. Aug 25 $2,500 and Aug 26 $3,000 described as Interac received; Aug 28 $2,500 + $880 described as sent, claim in RBC. SagePrint $10,696.88 is $0 on cash basis (unpaid).

proshield-invoices.html · sageprint-invoices.html. Not a bank-statement close.

17 · Basis of books

Accrual basis

Plain English

Count money when it is earned or owed, not when it moves. Work delivered → revenue, even if unpaid. Deposit collected → liability, even if the bank is full.

Accrual revenue = earned in the period
AR = invoiced, not yet collected · Deferred revenue = collected, not yet earned

Why it matters here

This is how you see whether the studio is working for free (SagePrint-shaped AR) or holding someone else’s project money (ProShield-shaped deferred). CRA, lenders, and a future partner will ask for this clock. The cash clock still pays RBC.

Opcelerate figure

Pieces only
Deposit on file $8,880 (likely deferred until delivery). Invoiced unpaid $10,696.88 (AR if the invoice is for delivered work). No revenue-recognition memo on disk, so earned revenue stays a dash.

Without a delivery/acceptance record, do not recognize the kickoff as earned. Without collection, do not call SagePrint cash.

Closer

Cash vs accrual — the same week, two clocks.

Cash clock

ProShield kickoff $8,880 CAD recorded received on the 28 Aug invoice index. That is bank-shaped, with two Interacs still to claim.

SagePrint INV-SP-2026-08 $10,696.88 CAD does not appear. Unpaid is silence on this clock.

Public offers ($25 / $50 / $2,500 / $3,500 / $3,000) do not appear. Quotes do not appear.

You can eat. You cannot yet say you earned it.

Accrual clock

The same $8,880 sits as deferred revenue until capture work is delivered. Spending it as profit is the error.

The same $10,696.88 sits as AR if that invoice is for work already done — and as nothing until a bookkeeper says so.

ARR, LTV, churn, NDR, margins, DSO days, DPO, WC, burn multiple: still dashes. Formula first. Stamp later.

You can see the shape. You cannot close the books from this folder alone.

Opcelerate Neural Inc. · 201 Kaska Rd #143, Sherwood Park AB T8A 2J6 · opcelerateneural.ca · local HQ file · 31 Aug 2026