General and Administrative as a Percentage of Revenue (G&A%)

General and administrative (G&A) expenses are a category of expenses that are largely invisible to everyone except the finance team. They never show up in a board deck or a highlight reel. Yet tracking them is mission-critical, because they shape your ability to grow efficiently and maintain healthy margins.

Companies track G&A expenses as a percentage of revenue, among other metrics, to ensure cost discipline and operational maturity. In this guide, we explain what this means and how you can use the G&A number to extract insights about your business.

You’ll learn how to calculate G&A%, what costs are included in G&A expenses, and why this metric matters to businesses. We also look at the most efficient ways to collect data required to track G&A% in real time. 

We’ll explore the topic through the lens of a SaaS business, however the information here is broadly applicable to businesses in almost any industry.

How is G&A as a percentage of revenue calculated?

G&A% is calculated by dividing total general and administrative expenses by total revenue, then multiplying it by 100.

For example, if a company with $4.5 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) spends $405,000 on G&A, its G&A as a percentage of revenue is 9%:

While S&M and R&D tend to increase as revenue grows, G&A should ideally go down, exhibiting operational leverage.

You’ve probably heard that leverage is a two-edged sword. It amplifies both profits and losses. Let’s look at this in the context of G&A.

Suppose your revenue last month was $10,000, and gross profit was $5,000. Assume you have no other expenses except paying two employees a monthly salary of $3,000 ($1,500 each). In this case, your G&A as a percentage of revenue is 30% ($10,000 / $3,000).

Next month, your revenue and gross profit are $15,000 and $7,500, respectively. Your G&A as a percentage of revenue now stands at 20% ($3,000 / $15,000). A lower G&A as a percentage of revenue, therefore, behaves like operational leverage—it increases your profit when revenue grows and decreases it when revenue shrinks.

For more context on G&A, you can also track other metrics like:

• G&A per employee: Shows how administrative costs scale with headcount
• G&A growth rate vs. revenue growth rate: Highlights whether overhead is expanding too quickly or staying under control

G&A costs can be of two types:

• Fixed costs: Rent, insurance, and staff salaries, which don’t change much with revenue fluctuations. These are the costs from which most of your operational leverage comes.
• Discretionary (semi-variable) costs: Consulting, IT upgrades, and extra administrative support, which can be dialed up or down based on growth, cash flow, or strategic priorities.

Note: SaaS businesses typically don’t have variable G&A expenses that scale directly with business activity.

Understanding your G&A cost mix is critical. Fixed costs offer continuity, stability, and economies of scale. But the discretionary layer is where you have room to optimize spend, preserve margins, and respond to market conditions.

What are the industry benchmarks for G&A spending?

This is a tough question to answer. If you look for benchmarks for G&A expenses for any business other than SaaS, you're probably going to have a hard time finding them. The reason for this boils down to the differences between how public and private companies do their financial reporting. 

Public companies report selling, general, and administrative costs as a single SG&A line, with no requirement to break out the G&A portion, so it simply isn't in the filings. Because private companies aren’t required to file, benchmarks would have to come from surveys sponsored and paid for by an organization of some kind. 

While there are plenty of those available for SaaS companies, funded by investors and lenders who need the data for diligence, there are comparatively few available for other industries and most are behind a paywall. 

If you look for benchmarks for G&A expenses for any business other than SaaS, you're probably going to have a hard time finding them. The reason comes down to how public and private companies report.

Public companies report selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs as a single line, with no requirement to break out the G&A portion. So it simply isn't in the filings. Private companies don't file at all, which means any benchmark has to come from a survey someone paid to run. The SaaS industry has several, funded by the investors and lenders who need the data for diligence. There are comparatively few studies available for other industries, and most are behind a paywall. 

Here’s what G&A as a percentage of revenue looks like for SaaS businesses, since that’s the data that’s most readily available. 

SaaS Capital’s 2026 Spending Benchmarks for Private B2B Companies report shows that median G&A as a percentage of revenue is 15%, up from 14% the previous year.
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Here’s how those percentages break out across SaaS companies of different sizes in terms of dollars spent.  

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In addition to the size of your business, in SaaS, G&A spend also varies based on your target market. According to a recent report from ICONIQ, median R&D expenses as a percentage ARR for SaaS companies targeting SMB to mid-market sector is 35%, while median R&D spend for those targeting the mid-market to enterprise sector is 47%.  

Another study by Benckmarkit shows that G&A expenses are considerably higher for private B2B SaaS companies than their publicly-traded counterparts. 

Benchmarking G&A expenses as a percentage of revenue in your business against similar-sized companies is still worthwhile no matter what industry you’re in because it can help you identify where you may be spending inefficiently or in excess. 

It can also help you spot areas of your business where your spending isn’t sufficient to provide the operational resilience or foundation you need to support growth.

If you see significant variations between your G&A as a percentage of revenue and relevant, reputable benchmarks, that’s a good sign that you might need to take a closer look at the expenses driving that.  

How to track, monitor, and control G&A expenses

There are several effective ways to track, control, and optimize G&A expenses, such as:

• FP&A tools: FP&A software is the most effective way to gain real-time visibility into your G&A spending. It enables proactive cost control, faster decision-making, and early detection of budget overruns and anomalies. Analytical capabilities also help you identify ways to optimize your G&A spend.
• Cost audits: Perform quarterly or semiannual reviews of G&A categories to find overruns or underutilized services. Look for trends across departments and use zero-based budgets where possible to hit reset on every team’s spending expectations.
• Expense approval workflows: Implement approval workflows to control discretionary spending in areas like travel, software, and consulting. These controls improve accountability and ensure all spending aligns with current priorities and budget thresholds.
• Outsourcing: Outsourcing helps reduce operating leverage. If you expect an economically volatile period in the near future or are otherwise struggling to protect margins, consider outsourcing non-core functions like payroll, bookkeeping, IT help desk, or legal admin to specialized vendors. This provides cost flexibility, access to expert talent, and frees up internal resources.
• Prevent uncontrolled ad hoc spending: Standardize remote work stipends and equipment reimbursements to control ad hoc spending. A clear policy helps align employee expectations with your budget.
• Benchmarking: Compare G&A as a percentage of revenue and per employee against comparable companies in your industry and region. Use industry benchmarks to set internal targets and justify both cost-cutting decisions and strategic investments.
• Contract negotiations: Renegotiate vendor and SaaS contracts, especially for professional services, when you have reason to believe you can get a better deal. Consolidating vendors or committing to longer terms can often unlock volume discounts and other more favorable terms.

Tracking is easier with Drivetrain

G&A expenses don’t directly drive revenue, but they’re fundamental to scaling your business with discipline and control. They support growth and help preserve operating margins.

Understanding the importance of G&A is easy. The hard part is what follows—consolidating and tracking G&A expense data in real time. Technology plays a critical role in this process. It gives your team real-time visibility into spend, automates workflows, flags inefficiencies, and supports scenario planning.

A tool like Drivetrain can empower your team to track and manage G&A alongside revenue growth and other critical metrics—automatically, in real time, and in sync with your goals. If you’re looking for a tool that can track G&A as a percentage of revenue and other critical metrics, take some time to explore Drivetrain today!