SaaS accounting, reported the way your board reads it.

Identify the contract, identify the performance obligations, set the transaction price, allocate that price to each obligation, and recognize revenue as each one is delivered. For most SaaS subscriptions, access to the platform is one obligation delivered evenly over the term, so revenue is recognized ratably, month by month.

Deferred revenue is money you billed or collected for service you have not delivered yet. It is a liability, not income. Each month the earned part moves from deferred revenue to revenue. We keep a roll-forward (beginning balance, billings, revenue recognized, ending balance) that ties to your balance sheet every month.

Onboarding that is not useful to the customer without the subscription is not a separate performance obligation. The fee is then recognized over the subscription term, not when you bill it, and over a longer period if it gives the customer a material right, such as renewing without paying it again. We read the contract and document the call.

An upgrade is a contract modification. If the added seats or features are distinct and priced at their standalone selling price, they are treated as a separate contract and recognized over the time left. If not, the remaining revenue is reallocated across the rest of the term. Either way, we update the schedule in the month it happens.

Take the recurring revenue from the customers you had 12 months ago, add their expansion, subtract contraction and churn, and divide by the starting amount. New customers stay out. Gross revenue retention (GRR) is the same math without expansion, so it can never pass 100%.

Burn multiple is net burn divided by net new ARR for the same period. Under 1x is efficient; above 2x usually draws questions from investors. Runway is cash on hand divided by average monthly net burn. We report both every month on the same basis, so the trend means something.

Yes. In your books, we test development cost against the internal-use software rules (ASC 350-40) and amortize what qualifies. For taxes, domestic research costs can again be deducted in the year paid or incurred for tax years starting in 2025 or later (section 174A); foreign research is still amortized over 15 years. Smaller businesses could reopen 2022 to 2024 returns until July 2026; that window has closed. Research costs from 2022 to 2024 that were still being amortized are recovered on the 2025 return, in one year or split across 2025 and 2026. We also document R&D credit activity during the year, and qualified small businesses can apply up to $500,000 of the credit against payroll tax.

It depends on contract volume, billing complexity, payroll and how much of the finance function we run. After a free 30-minute review you get a fixed-fee proposal with one monthly fee, before any work starts. No hourly billing.