Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 12, 2014

This post is part of a continuing series evaluating the S-1s of publicly traded SaaS companies in order to better understand the core business and build a library of benchmarks that might be useful to founders. Today, we’ll explore one of the enterprise behemoths, both in market cap and average revenue per customer: WorkDay.

Benchmarks 113

Benchmarks Deferred Revenue Venture Capital Outsourced Development 113

OPEXEngine

MAY 22, 2020

And I’d point out that you need to benchmark both the performance metrics and the underlying individual metrics to diagnose exactly where to focus on improvement. Operators like looking at individual metrics but to understand them, you need good benchmarks to identify those metrics that are out of whack for your model.

Metrics 52

Metrics SaaS Deferred Revenue Benchmarks 52

ProfitWell

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

Simplify accounting: Accounting can be a far bigger pain in the SaaS industry than other businesses, due to deferred revenue and other delayed revenue forms being common. Accounting software will keep all revenue assets organized. This will serve as a benchmark when gauging Retain’s performance. Quickbooks.

Retention 56

Retention Pricing SaaS Payments Payment Methods 56

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 14, 2020

For SaaS companies, the investment is not recouped until after years of initial SaaS revenues. Deferred Revenue = Deferred Profits. SaaS companies have similar up-front revenue acquisition expenses as product sale companies, but these up-front investments coupled with long-term returns delays the revenue and profits.

SaaS Payments 59

SaaS Payments SaaS Scale Customer Lifetime Value 59

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

For more established companies, the standard and widely-understood method for forecasting cash from annual payments is to forecast Deferred Revenue. The challenge is that I have never met a CEO or a founder who “gets” the deferred revenue upon first walk-through. We already know what the revenue forecast is.

Deferred Revenue 111

Deferred Revenue SaaS Payments Sales Hiring Payment Services 111

OPEXEngine

MAY 3, 2022

This SaaS metric is defined as the sum of Deferred Revenue and Backlog. Deferred Revenue for SaaS companies is the contractual obligation to deliver the SaaS product for the period invoiced. The former amount resides on the balance sheet as Deferred Revenue and has always been reported as required by GAAP.

Deferred Revenue 59

Deferred Revenue Metrics SaaS Payments Payment Features 59

Chart Mogul

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Benchmarks across the PLG user journey The hardest part of PLG might actually be… marketing?! Guide to SaaS Revenue Recognition and Deferred Revenue in SaaS by Ben Murray, The SaaS CFO SaaS revenue recognition is an ongoing priority for SaaS accounting teams. Forget about Threads. What’s your TikTok strategy?

Scale 52

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring SaaS 52