The path to financial transparency requires a strict, monthly data routine. One of the reports that contributes to this routine is the software bookings report. And it’s one of the biggest data mistakes that I see in SaaS. Without solid bookings data, we cannot track the performance of our sales team, forecast revenue accurately, and […]
Author: Ben Murray
Quantifying Investments in Customer Success and Retention
CFO’s like to analyze and quantify as much as possible. Our utopia is data-driven decisions while avoiding analysis paralysis. We are known for saying “no” a lot, but really, we want to enable. So when it comes to the Customer Success function, how do we quantify this investment? Or general investments in retention programs? In […]
How to Calculate Your SaaS R&D Investment Efficiency
We make constant capital tradeoffs in our SaaS business. Even if we have a ton of cash in the bank, we still need to prioritize the investments in our business. Investment in our product roadmap is a constant discussion. Are we fixing technical debt, responding to whimsical feature requests, or investing in features and modules […]
How to Create Your MRR Schedule
MRR, or monthly recurring revenue, is the life of a SaaS business. It’s essential data to manage and improve your business. And the MRR schedule is one of the most requested data items in due diligence. The SaaS MRR schedule, or sometimes called the MRR waterfall, is the source of key SaaS metrics. It’s also […]
The ROSE Metric | The Return on Your Most Important SaaS Asset
There are a ton of SaaS metrics measuring sales efficiency, margins, revenue, and more. These are all important metrics (depending on the stage of your business) that you should be constantly monitoring in your SaaS organization. But I have a gut feeling that we are missing an important metric around organizational efficiency. Something that will […]
Average Cost of Service and Economies of Scale
Average Cost of Service (ACS) is an important but obscure SaaS metric for SaaS finance. I reference this metric when speaking with SaaS founders and finance teams about the balance between their cost structure and pricing plans. It’s also a component of my SaaS Scalability Index (SSI). Average cost of service helps us determine if […]
The Pitch | Top Fundraising Lessons from SaaS Founders
As a host of my own podcast where I interview SaaS founders, I have had the privilege of tapping into the wealth of knowledge and experience founders possess when it comes to SaaS fundraising. I ask each founder what they learned from their recent fundraise. There is always a smile on their face when I […]
Understanding Remaining Performance Obligations in SaaS
Metrics that provide forward-looking visibility are golden in SaaS companies. Remaining performance obligations (RPO) is a relatively new revenue metric, but it’s a fascinating combination of important SaaS concepts. RPO’s are a required disclosure for US public companies, and I believe it’s popularity will gain in private SaaS. Let’s dive into the importance of deferred […]
Why Churn is a SaaS Killer
We know churn is bad for our SaaS company. Yes, we are losing customers and revenue. This impacts growth, metrics, and cash to name a few. I’d like to dive into the financial details as to why churn is a SaaS killer. We hear a lot of rules of thumb in SaaS. Those can be […]
How to Calculate Customer Retention Cost
The focus has shifted! Capital markets are tight. Economic conditions are unknown. New customer growth may be slowing down. Time to focus on customer retention and the health of our recurring revenue. What does it cost to retain a customer? It’s somewhat ambiguous when we try quantify our customer retention costs. We know that we […]