In episode #86, I address a student question in my SaaS Metrics Foundation course. ARR is the student’s new North Star metric. If we renew a customer and the price goes up, how do we record that? - What is a booking? - What is a renewal? - How do we record a price increase in our bookings report? Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page...
Oct 07, 2023•3 min
In episode #85, I address churn tracking. Finance and Customer Success like to track churn dates differently. - What is churn? When the customer completely leaves us. - How finance tracks churn - How Customer Success tracks churn Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedI...
Oct 06, 2023•2 min
In episode #84, I address the world of annual and multi-year contracts and reporting. We have to get this right for performance tracking and due diligence. - What is a multi-year contract? - Do I track ARR or TCV or both? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https...
Oct 05, 2023•3 min
In episode #83, I address third-party resold items. In this case, you are reselling someone else’s product. You are doing this because it is probably complimentary to your product or it allows you to go down-market easily. - What is a resold product? - How should we code this revenue? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasac...
Oct 04, 2023•2 min
In episode #82, I address a question that is asked in every one of my live SaaS metrics courses. How do we count price increases? Should we count this as expansion MRR or ARR? - What is a price increase? - Do we count this in expansion and Net Revenue Retention? - Check out Episode 28 covering bookings and price increases ( https://www.thesaasacademy.com/podcasts/saas-metrics-school/episodes/2148061237 ) Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-lan...
Oct 03, 2023•2 min
In episode #81, I address a common question on onboarding expenses. CAC stops at the time of customer acquisition. Should we also including onboarding costs in CAC? - What are onboarding costs? - Is onboarding a sales or COGS cost? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on Linke...
Oct 02, 2023•2 min
In episode #80, I address bonus coding and accruals. Accurate coding of employee-related expenses is critical to an accurate SaaS P&L. - Where should I code bonuses? - Should I accrue bonuses? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/be...
Oct 01, 2023•2 min
Episode 79 – When Should I Implement the Rule of 40 Metric? In episode #79, I address the Rule of 40 metric. It’s back in style but many blog posts say this is a “big” company metric. Should I calculate the Rule of 40 if I’m less than $10M ARR? - What is the Rule of 40? - When should I measure? - When is it a red flag? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS co...
Sep 30, 2023•3 min
Episode 78 – What’s the Difference Between Tech Support and Customer Success In episode #78, I address the blurring of COGS departments in early-stage SaaS. Often, staff wear many hats, and their duties span multiple departments. - What is tech support? - What is customer success? - Importance of expense coding Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community ...
Sep 29, 2023•2 min
In episode #77, I address subscription revenue and discounts. This is a point I really hammer on in my SaaS metrics course. Your MRR schedule must be reported net. We are not talking the whole net versus gross accounting issue. That’s a whole other subject. - Net or gross revenue - Where to record discounts - How to track discounts Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join ...
Sep 28, 2023•3 min
In episode #76, I address the platform fees. In some cases, SaaS companies build on top of other platforms. An example would be an app on ServiceNow. This allows for faster development but introduces platform risk to our company. - Platform fees - Platform risk Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYD...
Sep 27, 2023•3 min
In episode #75, I address the definition of a customer. What’s your prize? This affects how you track data and can completely skew your metrics if defined improperly. - What’s your prize - How to define a customer - Tying customer data together Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow...
Sep 26, 2023•4 min
In episode #74, I address the world of fractional help. I’ll focus on the CFO but also share other fractional roles that I see in SaaS companies with less than $10M ARR. - Fractional CFO - Interim CFO - Other fractional roles Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: h...
Sep 25, 2023•3 min
Episode 73 – Your CPA and Bookkeeper Need to Break Up In episode #73, I address how your early-stage accounting team transitions. I see this over and over and eventually, you need to specialize. - Tax CPA - Bookkeeper Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://w...
Sep 24, 2023•3 min
Episode 72 – How to Run Retention Analysis When You Have Two Revenue Streams In episode #72, I dive into retention and revenue streams. It can be dangerous to run aggregate retention on multiple revenue streams. - What is retention? - What revenue streams? - SMB vs. Enterprise Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.co...
Sep 23, 2023•2 min
Episode 71 – How Do You Measure MRR When It’s Usage with No Minimums? In episode #71, I dive into the wild world of variable revenue. It can be difficult to report. And it makes metrics calculations more difficult. - What is variable revenue? - How do we report MRR? - Considerations with metrics Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://ww...
Sep 22, 2023•2 min
In episode #70, I dive into services revenue. Managed services is not professional services and must be reported separately. What is managed services? How do we report managed services? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray...
Sep 21, 2023•3 min
In episode #69, I dive into bookings and renewals. Not all renewals are a software booking. But a software booking can come from a renewal. - What is a renewal? - When does a renewal become a booking? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/i...
Sep 20, 2023•3 min
In episode #68, I dive into revenue reporting and variable revenue. If we offer subscription pricing tiers that cover usage levels, how do we track excess? - Pricing scenarios - How to track excess over minimums? - Unique product ID’s / SKU’s / general ledger accounts Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/...
Sep 19, 2023•3 min
In episode #67, I dive into churn reporting. This is a very common question. What month do we report churn? Finance and Customer Success like to report two different ways. - What is churn? - How should we report this? - What systems track this? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow...
Sep 18, 2023•2 min
In episode #66, I dive into expansion lingo. It’s important to track expansion correctly but you may have multiple product lines and multiple sales teams. Let’s get detailed in our reporting. - What is a cross-sell? - What is an upsell? - Why does this matter? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx...
Sep 17, 2023•2 min
In episode #65, I dive into the world bookings reports. It’s important that we have a common basis for reporting software bookings. This affects analysis, due diligence, and revenue forecasting. - What is a booking? - Should we use ARR or TCV? - What if there is a step up in price each year? Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.th...
Sep 16, 2023•2 min
In episode #64, I dive into the world of SaaS benchmarks and reports. I’ll cover my favorite benchmark data sources and reports. And how I benchmark my SaaS clients. - The danger of aggregate benchmarks - How I benchmark SaaS companies - Benchmark data sources Check out: https://www.benchmarkit.ai/ Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https:/...
Sep 15, 2023•4 min
Episode 63 – Timing Mismatch Between Bookings Date and CAC In episode #63, I dive into how our bookings date may affect our sales and marketing efficiency metrics. There are two main camps when it comes to what date we used for our closed own opportunity. - Two main camps for bookings date - How does this impact S&M efficiency metrics Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com...
Sep 14, 2023•4 min
In episode #62, I dive into revenue and COGS when we have usage-based revenue. Or really any type of variable revenue. Our revenue streams dictate the setup of our COGS section on our SaaS P&L. - Variable revenue - COGS for variable revenue - Margins by revenue stream Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/off...
Sep 13, 2023•3 min
In episode #61, I dive into retention math. Gross revenue retention and net revenue retention are “must-have” metrics. But it gets confusing on how to properly annualize monthly retention numbers. - Don’t x 12 - To the power of - Annualize monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual How to create your MRR schedule lesson: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/gmbMDsYN/checkout Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page SaaS Metrics courses here:...
Sep 12, 2023•3 min
In episode #60, I dive into Net Revenue Retention. It is a “must-have” metric and required when going through due diligence. It relies on a clean MRR schedule. - What is NRR - Expansion - Contraction - Churn - Time period to measure - Net revenue retention benchmarks How to create your MRR schedule lesson: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/gmbMDsYN/checkout SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYD...
Sep 11, 2023•3 min
In episode #59, I dive into Gross Revenue Retention. It is a “must-have” metric and required when going through due diligence. It relies on a clean MRR schedule. - What is GRR? - Contraction - Churn - Gross revenue retention benchmarks How to create your MRR schedule lesson: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/gmbMDsYN/checkout SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedI...
Sep 10, 2023•3 min
In episode #58, I dive into the proper SaaS P&L setup. This is fundamental to good SaaS financial management. There is a progression to our financial maturity. And clear signals that we don't have our financials set up correctly. - The SaaS P&L setup - COGS vs. OpEx - What are best-in-class margins? SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin...
Sep 09, 2023•3 min
In episode #57, I dive into my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework. There is a progression to our financial maturity and our metrics. Today, let’s talk about Pillar 5 which is usually everyone’s favorite pillar. - CAC - CAC Payback Period - Cost of ARR - SaaS Magic Number - Rev per FTE - ROSE Metric - R&D Investment Efficiency Download my framework here: https://www.thesaascfo.com/downloads/five-pillar-metrics-framework/ SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ Join Ben’s SaaS ...
Sep 08, 2023•3 min
