What’s a Healthy G&A Budget for SaaS? Benchmarks by ARR Stage

In episode #285 of SaaS Metrics School, Ben Murray dives into one of the most overlooked levers in SaaS financial performance—G&A (General & Administrative) spend. How much should you really be spending on back office functions like finance, HR, legal, and IT?

Using data from Benchmarkit.AI, Ben walks through G&A as a percent of revenue across ARR stages—from startups under $1M to companies exceeding $100M. He also explains how operating leverage is created through back office efficiency and why using benchmarks segmented by ARR is crucial in SaaS metrics analysis.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why aggregate SaaS benchmarks are dangerous

• G&A benchmarks by ARR segment (top quartile vs. median)

• The role of operating leverage in SaaS profitability

• How to evaluate your own back office spend using metrics

• Actionable targets for G&A as a percent of revenue

SaaS Metrics Covered:

• G&A % of Revenue

• Operating Leverage

• Opex Profile by ARR

• Benchmarking by ARR vs. ACV

Resources Mentioned:

• Benchmarkit.ai

• Join Ben’s SaaS Metrics community for webinars, templates, and live sessions: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

• Subscribe to Ben's SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

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