Smarter finance planing starts here

AI spending without the surprises: a CFO's guide to controlling AI token costs

8 min

How I run a year-end close anyone can defend

Mavin Kaur, CPA

Senior Manager, Strategic Finance

The ultimate guide to business budgeting for finance leaders

22 min

Why a balanced multi-currency consolidation still might be wrong

16 min

AI for budgeting: 6 ways to make budget season less painful

Planning

15 min

Jaco Schoeman

Associate Director, Strategic Finance

Top 10 alternatives to Excel for FP&A: Comparison and buyer’s guide

Jason Patraj

Solutions Architect - EPM Software

Finance Metrics

Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue

Contracted ARR measures total recurring revenue under contract, both active and signed-but-not-yet-live, normalized to an annual value. It gives SaaS companies a forward-looking view of committed revenue.

Pass-through Costs

Pass-through costs are expenses you incur on behalf of customers and pass them along at the time of billing, typically at or near the actual cost. In most cases, these costs are associated with third-party goods or services that are tied to a specific client or project. The primary goal of pass-through costs is reimbursement rather than value creation. While pass-through costs are typically billed at or near cost, companies may charge an explicit and separately disclosed markup or handling fee depending on contract terms.

Sales Cycle Length (SCL)

Sales Cycle Length (SCL) is the number of days it takes to close an individual deal from the first meaningful prospect interaction to a signed contract.

Days Payable Outstanding (DPO)

Days payable outstanding (DPO), also known as days creditors outstanding, measures how long a company takes to pay its vendors and suppliers.

Customer Retention Cost (CRC)

Customer retention costs (CRC) measures the money a SaaS business spends to keep its existing customers. It includes all expenses related to ensuring customer success and satisfaction.

Customer Engagement Score (CES)

Customer engagement score (CES), also known as engagement score, is a single quantitative metric that measures how actively customers interact with a company's products or services based on their usage patterns and behaviors.

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

General and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue (G&A%) measures how much of a company’s revenue is spent on overhead costs required to keep the business operational.

Sales and Marketing as a Percentage of Revenue (S&M%)

S&M% shows how much a company spends to acquire and retain clients. It's a metric SaaS companies use to track the efficiency of their sales and marketing strategies for driving growth.

Billable Utilization

Billable utilization, also known as utilization rate, measures the percentage of an employee's available time spent on revenue-generating activities.

Guides & Whitepapers

4 signs it’s time to switch to a strategic finance platform

Is it time for you to make the switch to a purpose-built Strategic Finance Platform from a combination of Excel spreadsheets and BI tools? This eBook will help you figure that out.

How to calculate ramp-up time to improve your sales capacity planning

This eBook explains what ramp-up time is, why it's important, the best way to calculate it and a few ideas to shorten ramp-up time to generate revenues faster.

Sales capacity planning for your SaaS business: How to develop a plan for faster growth

This ebook will guide you through the entire process step-by-step and tell you all the factors you need to consider so you can build a reliable plan for growth.

A step-by-step guide to creating a new business ARR plan

Check if your business is well-positioned to focus on New ARR growth and learn how to build a top-down New Business ARR plan that is aligned with overall business objectives and targets.

The state of AI in FP&A: What’s working, what’s next

Discover how FP&A teams are adopting AI, from tools and skills to policies and gaps. Get data-backed insights to stay ahead in the era of AI-driven finance. Learn from real use cases shared by 150+ finance professionals.

2025 SaaS performance metrics benchmarks report

Benchmarkit and Drivetrain bring you the most comprehensive SaaS performance benchmarking data for 2025. Benchmark your performance against nearly a thousand B2B SaaS companies segmented by stage, go-to-market motion, and growth rate.

Templates & Cheatsheets

SaaS metrics based planning: A template for top-down revenue planning

Fast-growing SaaS companies are using a new, proven approach to modeling revenue with just five core SaaS metrics and the Rule of 40. This template will show you how to use it to shorten the planning cycle and drive greater efficiency in your business.

Streamline your workforce planning with our free headcount and payroll model template

With the ever-changing nature of the typical workforce, tracking your company’s headcount requirements, payroll expenses, and labor costs can be pretty complex. Whether you’re developing strategic hiring plans or evaluating cost-saving opportunities, our free and flexible headcount and payroll model template will make it easier.

Cash Flow Projection Model Excel Template

Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. Purpose built for SaaS, our cash flow projection model template makes it fast and easy to get a granular view of how money moves in your business so you can more fully optimize your working capital management.

A revenue projection template tailor-made for businesses with a PLG motion

Accurate revenue forecast template for PLG businesses. Build models in Excel or Sheets using your actuals, no complex formulas needed.

14 essential ChatGPT prompts for finance

A curation of the best ChatGPT prompts to speed up investor update emails and decks, transaction reconciliation, financial dashboarding, custom GPTs for Excel assistance, bank transaction categorization, and more.

3 KPIs to track to improve revenue efficiency in FY25

Across startups and scaleups, growth continues to be weighted higher, and expected to be achieved in a capital-efficient fashion—meaning the cost structure driving your revenue growth has to be sustainable.

Blogs

AI spending without the surprises: a CFO's guide to controlling AI token costs

8 min

How I run a year-end close anyone can defend

Mavin Kaur, CPA

Senior Manager, Strategic Finance

The ultimate guide to business budgeting for finance leaders

22 min

Why a balanced multi-currency consolidation still might be wrong

16 min

AI for budgeting: 6 ways to make budget season less painful

Planning

15 min

Jaco Schoeman

Associate Director, Strategic Finance

Top 10 alternatives to Excel for FP&A: Comparison and buyer’s guide

Jason Patraj

Solutions Architect - EPM Software

Finance Metrics

Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue

Pass-through Costs

Sales Cycle Length (SCL)

Sales Cycle Length (SCL) is the number of days it takes to close an individual deal from the first meaningful prospect interaction to a signed contract.

Days Payable Outstanding (DPO)

Days payable outstanding (DPO), also known as days creditors outstanding, measures how long a company takes to pay its vendors and suppliers.

Customer Retention Cost (CRC)

Customer retention costs (CRC) measures the money a SaaS business spends to keep its existing customers. It includes all expenses related to ensuring customer success and satisfaction.

Customer Engagement Score (CES)

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

General and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue (G&A%) measures how much of a company’s revenue is spent on overhead costs required to keep the business operational.

Sales and Marketing as a Percentage of Revenue (S&M%)

S&M% shows how much a company spends to acquire and retain clients. It's a metric SaaS companies use to track the efficiency of their sales and marketing strategies for driving growth.

Billable Utilization

Billable utilization, also known as utilization rate, measures the percentage of an employee's available time spent on revenue-generating activities.

Guides & Whitepapers

4 signs it’s time to switch to a strategic finance platform

Is it time for you to make the switch to a purpose-built Strategic Finance Platform from a combination of Excel spreadsheets and BI tools? This eBook will help you figure that out.

How to calculate ramp-up time to improve your sales capacity planning

This eBook explains what ramp-up time is, why it's important, the best way to calculate it and a few ideas to shorten ramp-up time to generate revenues faster.

Sales capacity planning for your SaaS business: How to develop a plan for faster growth

This ebook will guide you through the entire process step-by-step and tell you all the factors you need to consider so you can build a reliable plan for growth.

A step-by-step guide to creating a new business ARR plan

Check if your business is well-positioned to focus on New ARR growth and learn how to build a top-down New Business ARR plan that is aligned with overall business objectives and targets.

The state of AI in FP&A: What’s working, what’s next

2025 SaaS performance metrics benchmarks report

Templates & Cheatsheets

SaaS metrics based planning: A template for top-down revenue planning

Streamline your workforce planning with our free headcount and payroll model template

Cash Flow Projection Model Excel Template

14 essential ChatGPT prompts for finance

A revenue projection template tailor-made for businesses with a PLG motion

Accurate revenue forecast template for PLG businesses. Build models in Excel or Sheets using your actuals, no complex formulas needed.