SaaS Accounting
Hundreds of happy SaaS clients - from books to taxes to CFOs.
Vanessa Kruze, CPA
Kruze Consulting Founder
Former
Startup Controller
Hundreds of happy SaaS clients - from books to taxes to CFOs.
Vanessa Kruze, CPA
Kruze Consulting Founder
Former
Startup Controller
Check out Kruze's affordable monthly bookkeeping options.
Monthly costs vary based on your needs and company expenses.
Ideal for angel funded companies
Starting at $275 per month
Great for busy founders
Starting at $375 per month
Ideal for high-growth, well-funded businesses
SaaS Accounting - All you need to know
SaaS has been one of the hottest business models for the past decade, if not more. But accounting for SaaS is anything but simple.
From revenue recognition to understanding R&D vs customer service costs, SaaS business founders rely on tons of metrics to run their business. And VCs look for specialized SaaS ratios and calculations, like LTV to CAC, magic numbers and more.
Here are some of the reasons an high-growth SaaS business needs great accounting:
If you haven’t been keeping track of your books by the time you raise your first outside money, you need to get your books in order.
We generally recommend that businesses move away from spreadsheets and into an accounting software as soon as possible.
SaaS companies can serve enterprises, consumers or anything in between. The size and type of contractual relationship with a client makes enterprise focused Software as a Service companies completely different from consumer apps sold on a recurring revenue stream through an app store. While the LTV to CAC relationship and other metrics matter for both, enterprise-focused companies have to deal with other metrics like book to bill. And consumer focused businesses should be monitoring churn cohorts and other user data very closely.
The good news is that Kruze’s team is familiar with all flavors of Software as Service business models, and we can support your financials and metrics whether you sell to Fortune 500’s or to consumers.
Software as Service companies need to regularly produce three major financial statements. These are the Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement and Balance Sheet. Additionally, SaaS companies have other metrics that may or may not be on the actual financial statements - like bookings, ARR and more. It makes sense to work with an expert bookkeeper or controller who understands how these numbers relate to your business’ GAAP financials.
The income statement shows the company’s:
The cash flow statement shows the company’s:
The balance sheet shows:
Every business needs a chart of accounts - we’ve got a sample chart of accounts for a SaaS company here for you to use if you’d like. Keep in mind that every business is unique - so you may want to modify it to fit your specific business.
If you don’t know what a chart of accounts is you should probably hire a good bookkeeper, but what it does is translates your general ledger entries into your income statement, balance sheet, etc. It’s like the map of where the specific expenses and other accounting items flow to in your financial statements.
Getting the books right for a SaaS business is surprisingly challenging. The biggest issue we see with clients that come to Kruze from another bookkeeper is serious mistakes with revenue recognition and deferred revenue - especially from “bot” bookkeepers and from non-SaaS accountants. Because of the way revenue transactions recur in a subscription business, small errors can become big problems if not caught early - including having to restate the balance sheet and income statement.
At Kruze, we combine automated software with experienced controllers and CFOs. We can work with both enterprise and SMB/consumer focused companies with recurring revenue streams. Our custom-built automated software works directly with QuickBooks Online, saving you money through the labor-savings, while putting your financials into an industry standard, 3rd party software so you can take it to any provider or use it with any potential acquirer or auditor.
We believe that it's our team's job to help save our CEOs time and take care of the basic bookkeeping tasks that other services dump onto their clients. Our SaaS clients have raised billions in venture capital, and former clients have been acquired by massive public companies like Cisco, Apple and others - so we know how to prepare you for due diligence.
Ready to work with a SaaS accounting expert?
Startups are our niche, and our passion. Our clients have raised over $3.5 billion in venture capital financing. We are one of only a few outsourced accounting firms that specialize in funded early-stage companies - we only offer financial and tax services to fast growing startups in the Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C stages.
We know how to de-risk your startup’s next venture capital round. Our team makes sure you are ready to fly through your next VC’s accounting, HR and tax due diligence. And when you use us as your bookkeeper, we set up and keep up-to-date a due diligence folder so you can get that next round of fundraising.
Our practice is built on best of breed cloud accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, Netsuite, Gusto, Zenefits, Expensify, Avalara, Brex iand Bill.com. Technology makes us more efficient, saving our clients money and letting us offer higher value services like FP&A modeling, 409A valuation and venture debt consulting. Startups deserve to work with CPAs using modern software.
Top angel investors and VCs refer Kruze because they trust us to give the right advice. Our clients are portfolio companies of top technology and Silicon Valley investors, including Y-Combinator, Kleiner, Sequoia, Khsola, Launch, Techstars and more. With us, your books and taxes are in order when it’s time to raise another round of venture financing.
Kruze Consulting works with a variety of funded Delaware C-Corps, but the majority of our companies have secured Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C. We look to partner with our clients, going beyond the typical outsourced accounting relationship and seeking to provide a higher level advisory role. We feel honored to be a part of making the world a better place, even if it’s one debit and credit at a time.
Startup CFO services, startup accounting and bookkeeping services, startup annual taxes, expense reports, payroll, benefits: we've got you covered. Our software provides custom tailored dashboards that can be provided weekly or monthly, depending on your preference and plan. Founders are often so busy building their company that they don’t have time to take care of their finances. Traditionally, these companies have had to work with a basket of people to get their work done, including bookkeepers, accountants, AP clerks, CFOs, consultants, and tax accountants. At Kruze Consulting, our founders have one point person, saving time and money.
Client testimonials
We're huge fans of Vanessa and the folks at Kruze Consulting. They set up our books, finances, and other operations, and are constantly organized and on top of things. As a startup, you have to focus on your product and customers, and Kruze takes care of everything else (which is a massive sigh of relief). I highly highly highly recommend working with Vanessa and her team.
Vivek Sodera
Co-Founder @ Superhuman
As a startup, moving quickly is a top priority for us and we just needed to get our tax return done. After we uploaded our docs, we got our tax return in 3 days! E-filing was confirmed by Day 4. Super responsive and helpful!
Casey McKerchie
VP, Operations of Calm.com
Avochato has been growing rapidly in the past year – in fact, too quickly for us to keep up with books, taxes, and budgeting for growth. Partnering with Kruze Consulting has been fantastic to manage, track, and analyze our finances while we continue focusing on building our customer base. Kruze’s team knows what startups need.
Alex De Simone
CEO @ Avochato
I had a great experience working with Kruze Consulting when we raised Series A. They know what VCs need to see, and how to present a startup’s books and finances. If you are going to raise venture capital, you need experts like Kruze.
Chris Mansi
CEO @ Viz.ai
Kruze Consulting is the perfect Accounting, Finance and Tax partner for Los Angeles Startups. Kruze delivers exceptional monthly reporting and financial projections. When we need help with benefits or payroll, Kruze solves our problems. Kruze does our taxes for a fraction of what previous accountants have charged. Thank you Kruze for being a great partner.
Brett O'Brien
CEO @ FLYR
Being a repeat tech entrepreneur, I know how challenging it is to find the ideal CFO - not only is it often expensive to find the right one, but CFOs who combine expertise with scrappiness, market vision and perspective with detail orientation and 'roll up your sleeves' execution is near impossible for an early stage company. So I've been thrilled to work with Kruze Consulting, who not only provide all the ideal characteristics of a top-tier tech CFO, but also live and breathe entrepreneurship themselves. I've known Scott and Vanessa for many years and their deep personal integrity and strong reputation in the industry and made it an easy decision to work with them again.
Tina Fitch
CEO @ HobNob
NIH, NSF, and SBIR grant compliance can add a lot of overhead for a start-up. The Kruze team makes it easy, so we can spend our time growing the business instead of shoveling paperwork.
Charlie Silver
CEO @ Mission Bio
As a startup, it’s incredibly important to keep track of where our money is coming from and where it’s being spent. Kruze Consulting really helps keep our books and taxes in order so that we can focus on the core business. Extremely responsive and very professional, the accountants at Kruze Consulting are a pleasure to work with. We’d highly recommend their services.
Peter Lai
CEO @ Emburse
Financial Consulting
| Staff Accountant | $85 |
| Senior Staff Accountant | $110 |
| Controller | $140 |
| Financial Modeling | $300 |
| Venture Debt | $300 |
| CFO | $300 |
| Tax Advisory | $395 |
Startup Tax Return
Custom Quote Tool
Kruze's calculator tells you how much it will cost to prepare your startup's tax return.
R&D Tax Credit
Estimation Tool
Save on payroll taxes this year
We charge a fixed fee of 15% of the anticipated captured credit amount with a minimum fee of $2,000
Startup 409A Valuation
| Seed | $1,500 |
| Seed A | $2,000 |
| Seed B | $2,500 |
| Seed C | $3,000 |
Contact Us for a Free Consultation