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Understanding Deferred Revenue and Its Impact on Your SaaS Business

Subscription Flow

Deferred revenue refers to the income that you have collected, but not yet earned. The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) issued by the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board), inform businesses when their revenue should be recognized. This is where the concept of deferred revenue comes in.

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Managing Deferred Revenue for SaaS Companies: Best Practices for Tracking, Reporting, and Analysis

SaaS Metrics

When a customer pays for a service upfront that won’t be delivered until later in the future, the company does receive the cash. But the revenue generated from the advance payment cannot be marked as earned — at least not until the service has been rendered. This unearned revenue is called deferred.

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Unearned Revenue: What it is and What it Means for Subscription Businesses

Stax

The concept of unearned revenue can easily trip up SaaS companies that offer subscription services and products on a recurring basis. Unlike when selling ordinary products, you cannot recognize the revenue earned from a subscription all at once. So, what differentiates ‘earned’ versus ‘unearned revenue’?

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SaaS Revenue Recognition: Demystifying The Concept of “Earned” Money

Subscription Flow

The idea that a company generates revenue at the time it receives cash is far outdated. Even more so for the businesses in the Software-as-a-Service industry. Instead, the accrual accounting principle known as “revenue recognition” is now under the spotlight. Why does the cash-based accounting lag behind?

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SaaS Balance Sheet Examples

Baremetrics

In the case of a SaaS business, your most valuable assets are the contracts you have with your clients and the platform they use. Speaking of your users, it is important to understand how much revenue they are generating with the best possible estimates of your MRR and ARR. How are balance sheets unique for SaaS? Fixed assets 3.

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The Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO) SaaS Metric

OPEXEngine

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. Thus, RPO equals the sum of Deferred Revenue and Backlog. Now, let’s take a look at an example.

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The top 5 subscription payment services: how to choose the best

ProfitWell

Scheduled payments, aka recurring billing. Scheduled payments have become a core form of revenue collection. Of course, recurring payments vary depending on the business. As the subscription universe continues to expand, you can expect to see even more subscription payment plans. What are subscription payments?