SaaS Metrics & Benchmarks
In this episode of the Metrics that Measure Up podcast, William Cordes, Founder and CEO of KPI Sense share the insights and perspectives gained from providing CFO and finance advisory services to SaaS companies. One interesting insight was when William shared that Days Sales Outstanding - the time from invoice to payment is the financial metric that has been impacted the most at B2B SaaS companies since COVID. Other key insights discussed include why detailed monthly financial reviews have increased in importance due to the impact of delayed cash receipts, decreased new ARR, and increased cash burn, how multiple scenario analysis + dynamic planning should be used for 2021 planning. We also discussed why the B2B SaaS industry needs more consistent KPI calculation and reporting for public and private SaaS companies - but not currently covered by SEC, FINRA, FASB or GAAP regulations.
Lastly, William shares the core KPI foundation that is required for an early stage B2B SaaS company needs to have in place to successfully scale including:
-a solid financial data infrastructure & data structure
-standard rules to ingest transaction data for analysis
-scalable process that works at $5M ARR and $50M ARR
-quality data that is consistently maintained