In episode #46, I dive into the sometimes ambiguous world of churn. Seems like this should be easy.

- What is churn?

- When should churn be counted in our reports?

- This will impact our retention metrics

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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In episode #45, I dive into SaaS metrics lingo. TCV, ACV, and ARR are common terms in SaaS that mean many different things. Let’s not confuse this in our bookings reports.

- What is ARR?

- What is ACV?

- What is TCV?

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

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In episode #44, I dive into one of the biggest data mistakes that I see in SaaS. It’s your closed won opportunity data. Opp data drives reporting, analysis, and invoicing.

- Why this matters?

- Biggest mistakes

- Bookings drive revenue forecasts

- Downline impact on S&M metrics

CRM Opportunity replay in my No Fluff course: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/zz3ZR2WL/checkout

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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In episode #43, I dive into forecasts and reality. I’ve seen a lot of SaaS P&Ls and forecasts. There is a simple way to call BS on a forecast. And to help size up your sales and marketing investment needed to hit sales forecasts.

- What metric do we use to call BS

- How to size sales and marketing investment

- Benchmarks vary

Blog post on the Cost of ARR: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-cac-ratio/

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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In episode #42, I dive into the structure of your SaaS P&L. After improving your chart of accounts, this is the second step in improving your SaaS finance foundation. There is a specific structure we need in a SaaS P&L.

- Your out-of-the-box P&L is wrong

- What are the revenue categories

- What are the COGS categories

- What are the OpEx categories

SaaS P&L Structure Blog Post: https://www.thesaascfo.com/how-to-structure-your-saas-pl/

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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In episode #41, I dive into R&D investment efficiency. When I was researching episode 40 on the R&D Payback Ratio, I stumbled upon an article by Boston Consulting Group.

- What is the R&D Index?

- What are the inputs?

- What does this measure?

- What are the benchmarks?

Boston Consulting Group post: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2019/software-companies-using-research-and-development-more

R&D Investment Efficiency Blog Post: https://www.thesaascfo.com/how-to-calculate-your-saas-rd-investment-efficiency/

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

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In episode #40, I dive into R&D efficiency. I think this has always been a hard one. The correlation between R&D investment and growth. A reader brought this metric to my attention so I did a little digging.

- What is the R&D Payback Ratio

- What are the inputs

- What are the drawbacks

Credit: https://www.opexengine.com/are-we-any-good-at-rd-investment-in-the-software-and-saas-world/

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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In episode #39, I address COGS and usage-based revenue. It’s so important to track COGS correctly for your SaaS. Your COGS area is often dictated by your revenue streams. That’s the case when you have any type of variable revenue streams.

- What is COGS for pure play SaaS

- What if we have usage-based revenue

- Why is this setup so important to manage SaaS

SaaS Metrics courses here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/

Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

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In episode #38, I address the “bottom half” of your SaaS P&L. This is your OpEx area, or operating expenses. There is a common way to analyze this area for efficiency.

- What is SaaS OpEx

- How do we analyze OpEx

- Sales and marketing need not apply

Download my SaaS P&L structure template here: https://www.thesaascfo.com/how-to-structure-your-saas-pl/

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

Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

In episode #37, I address the top three SaaS metrics. And I’m sorry that this will really disappoint you.

- Are there really top 3 metrics?

- Top metrics according to my SaaS founder interviews

- Your SaaS metrics framework

Download my 5 Pillar SaaS Metrics Framework here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ahm6BxeweIsNgbt-cX-iaRehn4EVuw?e=XeNZoB

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

Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page