SaaS Metrics School

In episode #121, I cover internal use software and software embedded in our SaaS app. It’s easy to confuse where this spend should be posted to our SaaS P&L - Internal use software - Software embedded in our SaaS app 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 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

In episode #120, I cover a somewhat debated topic on ARR. Of course, this is debated between buyers and sellers. If I’m trying to achieve a specific ARR multiple, what ARR number should I use? - Trailing revenue? - Exit ARR? - CARR? 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 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

In episode #119, I cover committed annual recurring revenue (CARR). Yet, another SaaS metric. It can also be called contracted annual recurring revenue. It was an obscure metric, but now it is widely used even if you don’t call it CARR. - What is CARR? - What are the components of CARR? - SaaS valuations

In episode #118, I cover an important sales and marketing efficiency metric, the Cost of ARR. As our GTM team scales, it usually splits into new business hunters and the “farmers,” or our expansion team. We can calculate the cost of ARR expansion and benchmark our performance. - Fully-burdened sales and marketing expense - Allocate between new and existing - Pick your time period and average sales cycle - Benchmark your performance Cost of ARR blog post: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-cac-ratio/ 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 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  

In episode #117, I provide an overview of the all-important utilization metric for professional services teams. Not calculating it? Then you don’t know if your team is burning out or if they have capacity to take on more customer projects. - What is an FTE? - What is billable utilization? - Interaction between utilization and backlog 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 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

In episode #116, I provide an overview of professional services backlog in SaaS. Your professional services team play an important role in early customer satisfaction and retention. When we sign up a customer for a subscription and professional services, this creates a services backlog number. - What is backlog? - How do we measure backlog? - Backlog vs billable headcount 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 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

In episode #115, I provide an overview of professional services in SaaS. Your professional services team plays an important role in early customer satisfaction and retention. - What is PS? - COGS vs OpEx - Backlog and utilization 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 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

In episode #114, I address the power of SaaS metrics in context. Two metrics that should be viewed together? CAC Payback Period and revenue retention. - do you have balance? - CAC Payback Period - Gross Revenue Retention 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 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  

In episode #113, I address cash burn from the front lines. If you are still pivoting on product market fit, it can be very dangerous to scale your go-to-market (GTM) team and investment. - product market fit and ICP - scaling your GTM team - S&M efficiency with minimal spend 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 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

In episode #112, I address Dev Ops expenses in our COGS area of the SaaS P&L. Let’s discuss the details of Dev Ops expenses. - hosting - 3rd party software - ongoing security and testing - dev ops staff - amortization of capitalized software development 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 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

In episode #111, I address human powered versus product powered revenue. It’s so important to categorize your revenue and COGS correctly on your P&L. You don’t want to confuse potential investors and stakeholders. - Human powered revenue - Product powered revenue - Define your revenue categories - Define your COGS 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 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

In episode #110, I address the core system in our financial process, our accounting software. I am in the midst of my 5th annual tech stack survey. I’ll share the top five accounting systems for SaaS. - Accounting software is our financial tracking engine - We don’t always stay with the same software - Top 5 software according to my survey Enter your tech stack at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwVmsrkm81TGANxd17ev3WuuDVX-5zRHXVwrtBCHiRmoyaww/viewform?usp=sf_link 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 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

In episode #109, I address sales compensation planning and how you can design your plans for maximum effectiveness. QuotaPath joined me on a webinar to my SaaS community. There were some eye-openers on how to design your compensation plans. - What is your north star metric that you are trying to solve for? - 3 common comp plans to drive to your metric - example levers Watch the replay in my No Fluff course series: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/zz3ZR2WL/checkout Head to the Demo section.

In episode #109, I address bookings, downgrades, and reporting. We may or may not want to include downgrades in our net ARR number. This is an important decision. - What is a downgrade? - Should I include this in my bookings report? - Should downgrades impact my sales and marketing efficiency metrics? 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 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

In episode #107, I address debt financing as a source of growth capital. Debt financing for SaaS companies is a hot space right now. We must assess first if we can absorb the payment schedule. - Step 1 – do you have your finances in order? - Step 2 – what are the basic terms of the debt? - Step 3 – can our cash flows support the payment schedule? - Step 4 - Cost of ARR 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 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

In episode #106, I address early stage financial infrastructure. I was just talking to a SaaS founder who spent some consulting money to properly configure QBO. What’s next? - The progression in data - 4 key sources of data 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 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

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 monthly 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

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://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

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 consultants - What are contractors - How to code on your SaaS P&L - ROSE Metric (https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-rose-metric/) 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 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

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://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

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’s SaaS monthly 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

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.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

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 to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

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 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

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://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

 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 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

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: 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

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/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  

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 Ben’s daily metrics newsletter: https://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribeSubscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-pageSaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkoutFollow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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/subscribeSubscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-pageSaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkoutFollow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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 Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

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: 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

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: 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

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://saasmetricsschool.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS monthly 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

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-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

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 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

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 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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-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

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 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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/benrmurray  

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 community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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 here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray  

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 Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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 Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray

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.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray