SaaS Metrics School

In episode #105, I address growing pains. If you are experiencing high growth, don’t let your financial infrastructure lapse. High growth can cause financial confusion if we don’t have our numbers set up properly. - Focus on SaaS COGS - Who really does what in your SaaS company Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS mont...

In episode #104, I address a common issue that wreaks havoc on your MRR schedule. And it will create pain for you in due diligence and retention reporting. - What is an anniversary date? - Gaps in your customer MRR schedule - Impact on retention and due diligence - MRR schedule resources ( https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/zz3ZR2WL/checkout ) Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https:...

In episode #103, I address consultant and contractor coding. It’s important to get this right in your chart of accounts. SaaS companies often supplement staffing with full or part-time contractors. For efficiency purposes, we need to treat this expense just like employees. Always consult with your HR professional on your labor classifications. That's a whole separate subject. - What are consultant...

In episode #102, I address a common dumping ground for expenses, your G&A cost center. There are many activities and roles within G&A. We must manage it like any area in our business. - What is G&A? - What sub-departments are located in G&A? - What’s a good spend target for G&A? - Should I allocate shared services? Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetric...

In episode #101, I address a common student question in my SaaS metrics course. We may have large spikes in S&M expenses due to events, conferences, or maybe, a major consulting project. - Should we ever exclude expenses? - How should I calculate S&M metrics with spikes in expense Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’...

In episode #100, I thought it would be appropriate to address SaaS metrics at a high level. Where do I start with metrics? - Right metrics for the right stage of your business - Use my 5 Pillar SaaS Metris Framework ( https://www.thesaascfo.com/downloads/five-pillar-metrics-framework/ ) - 4 key data sources for SaaS metrics Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.bee...

In episode #99, I address a very common question in SaaS finance. What should be included in COGS? It’s so important to get this right. If you don’t, you will mismanage your business. - Pure-play SaaS COGS departments - COGS dictated by your revenue streams - My test to determine COGS functions Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe t...

In episode #98, I address the major functions that we see in Sales. Should these be coded to Sales or somewhere else? - Fully-burdened expenses - Common expenses in sales and marketing 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 SaaS Metrics...

In episode #97, I address churn and LTV. We think SaaS metrics are completely objective, but it is very easy to influence the result of a metrics calculation. Period of measurement is major factor in SaaS metrics calculations. - What churn number should we use? - What time period represents our churn? - LTV is a point-in-time metric! Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetrics...

 In episode #96, I address our core CAC calculation when we have different product lines and different go-to-market (GTM) strategies. We can’t blend these together when calculating customer acquisition costs. - What is CAC? - What is GTM - How do I calculate CAC? Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsle...

In episode #95, I address the major data source we need to calculate the complete SaaS metrics picture. It’s important to have clean and repeatable data that we can pull every month. - CRM / MRR schedule - Financial data - HRIS data - Operational/Revenue data Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter: htt...

In episode #94, I address a variation of the traditional CAC Payback Period. This is a great supplement to your traditional SaaS metrics. - What is CAC Payback Period? - What is Dollar-based CAC Payback - When should I use these? Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/t...

In episode #93, I address a student question from my live SaaS metrics foundation course. This is a great question and one that must be answered by all SaaS companies as they scale. - First, let’s understand your financial profile - Let’s review my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework ( https://www.thesaascfo.com/downloads/five-pillar-metrics-framework/ ) - Right metrics at the right stage Subscribe to...

In episode #92, I address a student question from my SaaS metrics foundation course. It actually caught me off guard, because I talk a lot about fully-burdened cost centers. We can’t forget the foundational components. - Full-burdened expenses - Split Sales from Marketing Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly ne...

In episode #91, I address investments in the OpEx section of our SaaS P&L. We must monitor our spend in sales and marketing. We expect efficiency over time in our OpEx area. - What is OpEx? - What are the S&M benchmarks? - Careful with this benchmark - Benchmarkit.ai is your source for benchmarks Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe S...

In episode #90, I address investments in the OpEx section of our SaaS P&L. We must monitor our spend in G&A. We expect efficiency over time in our OpEx area. - What is OpEx? - What are the G&A benchmarks? - Benchmarkit.ai is your source for benchmarks Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter:...

In episode #89, I address investments in the OpEx section of our SaaS P&L. We must monitor our spend in R&D. We expect efficiency over time in our OpEx area. - What is OpEx? - What are the R&D benchmarks? - Benchmarkit.ai is your source for benchmarks Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter:...

In episode #88, I address revenue mix and one-time revenue when considering SaaS valuations. It your product requires professional services for customer onboarding, we must be aware of our current revenue mix and how that mix will play out in the future. - Revenue mix - Professional services - PS revenue mix over time - SaaS valuations Subscribe to Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetri...

In episode #87, I address advisors and first-time SaaS founders. It’s important to have the right team from the beginning to avoid mistakes down the road. - Accounting - Tax Accounting - Corporate Attorney - Fractional CFO 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...

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...

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’...

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 c...

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...

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/21480...

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 Be...