What is a SaaS balance sheet? A balance sheet for a SaaS company is simply a report that displays the company’s assets, liabilities, and equity as of a specific date.  For non SaaS businesses you may want to check out our generic balance sheet template.

How is a balance sheet for a SaaS startup different from other types of businesses?  There are a few unique components to a balance sheet for a SaaS startup that make it a bit tricky to produce.  SaaS companies will typically have intangible assets on the balance sheet which could include software, copyrights, patents, and other intellectual property.  For a comprehensive list of intangible assets for a SaaS company check out this list by Baremetrics. 

Another item that is unique to SaaS balance sheets is deferred revenue.  

What is deferred revenue?  Deferred revenue is actually a liability.  Deferred revenue is created when a customer pays you in advance for a product or service that you have not fulfilled yet.  In SaaS companies it is common to charge customers on an annual basis.  If you sell a customer a $1,000 annual contract for your software and you are 6 months through the contract, you will have $500 of deferred revenue.  You will have earned $500 in revenue for the first 6 months, but $500 will remain as a deferred revenue liability. 

How should deferred revenue be calculated for a SaaS balance sheet?  In order to calculate your deferred revenue as a SaaS company you need to know how much of your customer payments on contracts have not yet been earned.  For example, you might sell a 2 year contract and get paid up front for the full two years.  If you are 6 months through the contract, you still have 18 months of the contract that is unearned revenue.  Since you hope to have many contracts as a SaaS company you can see how difficult it is to calculate the deferred revenue manually because you would need to do it for each individual customer contract.  Tools like Baremetrics help SaaS companies calculate deferred revenue. 

What is the difference between a SaaS balance sheet and SaaS financial model?  If you have been asked for a financial model for your SaaS company, you probably need more than just a balance sheet. As described in our blog post SaaS Financial Modeling 101 you will see that a full financial model includes a projected income statement, cash flow projections and balance sheet.

How to create a projected balance sheet for a SaaS business?  In order to create a balance sheet forecast for a SaaS business you will need to create a full set of financial projections.  We have a number of SaaS financial projection templates that will allow you to create up to 5 years of financial forecasts including a projected balance sheet, cash flow statement, and income statement. 

What is included on a SaaS balance sheet?  A SaaS company balance sheet will have the following items:

Current Assets

Cash in bank

Accounts receivable

Prepaid expenses

Other current assets

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Fixed Assets

Machinery & equipment

Furniture & fixtures

Leasehold improvements

Land & buildings

Other fixed assets

(LESS accumulated depreciation on all fixed assets)

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Other Assets

Intangibles

Deposits

Goodwill

Other

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Current Liabilities

Accounts payable

Taxes payable

Notes, short-term (due within 12 months)

Current part, long-term debt

Deferred Revenue

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Long-term Debt

Bank loans payable

Notes payable to stockholders

LESS: Short-term portion

Other long term debt

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Owners' Equity

Invested capital

Retained earnings - beginning

Retained earnings - current