Small Business Finance Blog

SaaS metrics are more than cookie-cutter formulas for tracking high-level KPIs. They are dynamic growth tools that should inform the decisions your leadership team, management, and board make on a routine basis. Used well, they highlight trends,...

Identifying the right SaaS subscription management platform is one of the most important decisions a growth-minded SaaS firm will make. There are plenty of options to consider, from entry-level subscription billing software to full-scale ERP...

For a SaaS business, knowing exactly when and how much to invest in growth is critical to success. Overspending in areas like sales and marketing will cause a SaaS firm to burn through cash too quickly. While it’s tempting to pile on sales reps in...

Every SaaS founder wants to maximize their company’s value—a goal that requires high performance in two key areas: growth and profitability. In fact, the more you can demonstrate a combination of revenue growth and operational efficiency, the better...

One of the most critical decisions a SaaS founder or CEO must make is when to invest in scaling the business. When the timing is right, a strategic investment in sales and marketing will fuel exponential revenue growth. But, when the timing is off,...

Two of the primary forms of SaaS capital—debt and equity financing—are often defined by their drawbacks. Debt financing, as the name implies, requires taking on a loan and repaying principal with interest. Equity financing avoids the need for...

As a SaaS founder, CEO, or key stakeholder, you need a clear picture of the day-to-day health of your business. In theory, SaaS metrics can satisfy this need with basic formulas for calculating a variety of performance data. In practice, however,...

Picture this: you walk into your monthly board meeting, exchange hellos, and then you get hit with this question — “what did we book last month?”

Both your CEO and Head of Sales each give different answers, and it becomes clear to your board and...

Your SaaS business is poised for rapid growth. As you scale, solid financials are the key to growing efficiently and maximizing valuation—but your finance department is already getting stretched thin. You’ll need more resources, more expertise, and...

The financial priorities of your SaaS business will change as you move through each growth stage. In the initial phases, you’ll likely be working toward product/market fit, with a strong focus on bringing in customers, regardless of the acquisition...

Your SaaS business is gaining traction and you’re outgrowing the basic accounting software that’s gotten you this far. With recurring and non-recurring revenue streams, varying contract terms, and higher volume, revenue recognition has become a real...

Lifetime Value (LTV) seems like a straightforward SaaS metric. Its job is to simply measure the amount of revenue generated over the duration of a customer relationship. But, as is the case with many other SaaS metrics, there’s more to it. A lot...

When it comes to key SaaS metrics, Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the one every stakeholder has their eyes on. When a SaaS company is experiencing ARR growth, it’s a signal to founders, CEOs, investors, and others that the business is building...

For early stage SaaS companies, simple, easy-to-use accounting software makes sense. Many startups combine an accounting platform like QuickBooks Online with a subscription billing tool like SaaSOptics. This can be an effective solution—up to a...

As your SaaS business grows, your finance and accounting capabilities are being stretched thin. Frequent errors, omissions, and inconsistencies point to the need for more experienced SaaS financial leadership, and that means adding or replacing a...

One of the most powerful ways to monitor the operational health of your SaaS business is through SaaS dashboards. Dashboards bring together your most important SaaS KPIs and present them in a clear and concise way that allows for data-driven...

Valuing SaaS companies is complicated. Every business is unique, every deal is nuanced, and markets are constantly evolving. With so many factors involved, it’s no wonder that buyers, investors, and sellers often arrive at very different numbers....

For most SaaS businesses, recurring revenue generated from subscriptions is the primary driver of growth … and of enterprise value. But, while the business model is conceptually simple, the financial reporting behind it can be quite complex. With...

Your SaaS business is growing, and each stage brings new finance and accounting (F&A) challenges. As your focus shifts from achieving product/market fit, to building a repeatable sales process, to scaling the business, F&A roles and responsibilities...

The CEO of a high-growth SaaS company has plenty of things to worry about on a daily basis. One of their biggest anxieties, however, can simply be the fear of running out of money. One successful client SaaS CEO recently characterized that sense of...

As your SaaS firm evolves from an early stage startup and reaches key milestones, your finance and accounting inevitably need to change. Leveling up to a new stage of SaaS growth can be the right time to assess those needs – whether you’ve just...

Your SaaS business is going from strength to strength. You’re bringing in more customers, building your ARR (annual recurring revenue), and positioning your firm to tackle the next stage of growth. 

Why do startups flop? In 2011, the team at Startup Genome found a common thread. A survey of 3,200 startups showed that, of the companies which crumbled, 70% of them tried to scale too quickly.

Spreadsheet SaaS financial models stink, whether built in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. There, we've said it.

That doesn't mean that spreadsheet models don't provide some value in the very beginning stages of a SaaS company or that the talented...

SaaS metrics software - also known as subscription billing management software or recurring billing software - should be one of the most powerful weapons in a SaaS CEO's arsenal. The complexities of managing subscriptions are real and the costs of...

Let's face it, the vast majority of small business CEOs and nonprofit executive directors are flying blind when it comes to having sound, data driven insights upon which they can base their decisions. For a variety of reasons, the finance functions...

Let’s face it: As the CEO or leader of a growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firm, you have your hands full. Whether you’re busy onboarding new customers, retaining existing customers, hiring to meet anticipated demand, managing your board or...