
Last version published: 09/06/2017 09:29
Publication number: ELQ-53458-3
View all versions & Certificate

SaaS Revenue Forecasting Model
Full-packed revenue forecasting model to help SaaS founders take better decisions with key indicators.
Description
If my sales team is growing, where do I expect the revenue of my SaaS to be at the end of the year? And whats the number for leads needed for the business? How will the prediction for the end of the year change given the monthly changes in actual sales numbers?
To answer such type of questions, I built a model for a friend's firm and thought that maybe it could be recycled for you guys to use it as well.
These type of models are not exactly easy to build, specially to answer such questions. I will admit that forecasting revenue must be the most complicated part of making a model for a SaaS business, specially if it is a growing business.
SaaS businesses should be easy to model but when it comes to revenue and cashflow, they really are not (in regards to cashflow, the payment terms have a significant impact as explained in Tomasz Tunguz's Post: http://tomtunguz.com/cash-collections/); gladly you've got this model to facilitate things for you.
There are other important aspects such as salaries, that tend to grow based on your hiring plans, some sales commissions that are calculated by bringing together revenue along with some assumptions, a little AWS cost that grows in a linear trend with revenue growth... But the rest of the P&L is likely to be flat (think of rent) or it may increase linearly when its basis is some already-existing metric. (think of cost of healthcare that grows linearly with employee numbers)
I began this project to prove a concept, but now its for you to make it your own!
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
- Noah Barr, 2014, LinkedIn Pulse
Do take note that the key of this model is its assumptions. And of course assumptions differ between firms. Businesses manage their operations with different indicators or maybe even the same indicators that just happen to be defined in a whole different way. I took an approach related to my previous experience with one enterprise SaaS product. However, if you want to take a different direction given your startup's nature and you want to go deeper into your own firm's structure, then simply use my model as a starting point. Enjoy!
This Best Practice includes
1 Excel Model
Reviews
4.5 / 5 (22 votes)- 50%
- 45%
- 5%
- -
- -
- Rate this Downloadable Best Practice
Write a review
Franklin Peña Beras Official(last updated: 07/09/2020 01:07)
Debbie Ang(last updated: 07/05/2020 17:25)
Tibor Rusiňák(last updated: 08/04/2020 17:13)
Jacob Mukwapa(last updated: 15/10/2019 14:14)
Charles.HA. Chen(last updated: 26/09/2019 11:19)
Alberto Muñoz Waissen(last updated: 21/07/2019 14:53)
Guze(last updated: 07/07/2019 21:07)
Arindam Das(last updated: 18/06/2019 05:42)
Vinoth Sairam, CMA(USA) MBA(last updated: 05/06/2019 05:04)
Alejandro Hughes Stefani(last updated: 20/05/2019 08:08)
Zacharie Luzolo(last updated: 04/04/2019 14:54)
Marlina Abdul Jalil(last updated: 08/01/2019 01:31)
Quan Quach(last updated: 30/11/2018 02:37)
jayblue(last updated: 01/11/2018 12:43)
Edward Mini(last updated: 19/10/2018 19:48)
Jai Cafe LKW(last updated: 30/09/2018 14:08)
Nat Sunan(last updated: 26/09/2018 21:09)
Gaurav Sandhya(last updated: 28/05/2018 10:06)
Estelle Padeloup(last updated: 01/03/2018 20:52)
Sajid Mirza(last updated: 19/01/2018 07:38)
Dennis Onono(last updated: 27/10/2017 20:58)
InsightfulReally helped me visualise my costsMamadou Dr. Bass(last updated: 29/09/2017 09:43)
People using this Best Practice also downloaded
The Economics of SaaS - Gearing up a SaaS salesforce
Using a salesforce for CEOs, VP’s of Sales to understand the economics of a SaaS business.key performance indicatorscash flowstartupssaasmetrics1,775Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby David Skok
SaaS Cohort Analysis Template
Conduct a Cohort Analysis with this SaaS Cohort Analysis Templatestartupssaassoftware as a servicecohort analysiscohort analysis template532Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby Ben Murray
Saas Budget Template
Try Saas Financial Projection. This well-tested, robust, and powerful template is your solid foundationfinancial modelstartupsraising capitalsaassoftware as a service3,059Discussadd_shopping_cart$129.00by Henry Sheykin
B2B SaaS Revenue Recognition Excel Template
A simple tool for managing supporting revenue recognition for SaaS businesses.financeaccountingstartupssaassoftware as a service1,389Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby Brian Weisberg
SaaS Metrics Dashboard
A simple KPI sheet for early-stage SaaS startups with a low-touch sales model.startupsventure capitalsaaskpismetrics13,7212add_shopping_cartfreeby Christoph Janz
SaaS Financial Plan
A financial plan template for SaaS startups based on a model created for Zendeskroadmapsalesmarketingfinancemodel9,966Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby Christoph Janz
SaaS Metrics 2.0 Dashboard
A dashboard to help founders manage their SaaS businesskey performance indicatorsstartupsventure capitalsaasmetrics11,310Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby David Skok
SaaS Cohort Analysis Model
A simple cohort analysis spreadsheet to understand how you are doing on your KPIs (Churn, Customer Lifetime etc.)startupssaasconversionsoftware as a servicechurn3,357Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby Christoph Janz
Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) Explained
In this short video, learn how to calculate and apply the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) formula.financestartupssaassoftware as a servicecac251Discussfreeby Ben Murray
SaaS Venture Dashboard
An operational dashboard to help drive your SaaS business and the associated methodologykey performance indicatorsstartupsventure capitalsaasdashboard703Discussadd_shopping_cartfreeby Jon Sonnenschein
Related categories
Discussion feed for SaaS Revenue Forecasting Model
The user community and author are here to help. Go ahead!
- Hi Noah, Are there instructions to go along with the revenue forecasting spreadsheet