Sage for SaaS and Technology: truly frictionless accounting software

For SaaS companies and tech startups, seamless growth is an essential ingredient in winning your market.

As a CFO, it’s your job to set your company up for smooth long-term growth, and that means ensuring your accounting software can take you from your pre-seed funding round all the way through IPO and beyond.

Otherwise, you’ll run into operational problems that could cost you customers, disrupt cash flow, and make it hard to keep growing.

Going from pre-seed to IPO with a single accounting suite is a tall order, but we’re going to show you how to make it happen.

In this post, we’ll be exploring:

1. The value of frictionless scaling for tech startups
2. The connection between smooth growth and your accounting software
3. How Sage’s new software bundle, Sage for SaaS and Technology, enables pain-free growth through IPO and beyond.

If you’re tired of startup growing pains, this post is for you.

Here’s what we’ll cover

What makes seamless growth particularly important for tech startups?

When we say “seamless growth,” we’re referring to a startup’s ability to continuously grow without encountering operational problems like revenue recognition issues, billing errors, or inaccurate financial reports. 

As your organization expands, you need to prioritize seamless growth for the following strategic reasons:

• Smooth and consistent growth makes it easier to attract venture capital.
• Efficient growth will help you keep your customer acquisition costs low.
• If a growth-related issue slows you down, your competitors will gladly steal market share while you get things sorted out.
• Many startups operate in brand new markets, so they need to grow quickly and build momentum while competition is at a minimum.

For tech CFOs, “growth at all costs” is no longer the right mindset.

You need to plan ahead in order to achieve smooth and sustainable growth, and that starts with your accounting software.

How does frictionless accounting software contribute to seamless startup growth?

Unless you’re using cloud-native accounting software that can grow alongside your company, you’ll hit a point where growth strains your accounting suite’s performance.

Billing workflows are a common source of startup growing pains for this reason, as is ASC 606 compliance.

Everything steadily becomes more complex as you feed larger and larger amounts of data into your system, and eventually you run into problems:

• Keeping up with the demands of ASC 606 becomes a logistical challenge, and you could get hit with stiff non-compliance fines.
• Unless you’re using touchless invoicing, billing errors could cause customers to unsubscribe as your growth outstrips your billing system.
• As your company matures, manual forecasting becomes impractical due to the sheer volume of data involved. Without automation, forecast errors can weaken your financial planning and make it hard to hit revenue targets.

Frictionless accounting software can help SaaS CFOs avoid these common startup growing pains and achieve seamless growth.

Sage for SaaS and Technology is frictionless and scalable

Sage’s software bundle, Sage for SaaS and Technology, can help your startup eliminate growing pains by scaling right along with you.

Whether you’re seeking your Series A funding or gearing up to go public, the software offers a truly frictionless experience that meets you where you’re at.

Start small with just the basics

If you’re the CFO of a newer startup, you need to manage your resources effectively, establish product-market-fit, and have the forecast data necessary for early-stage fundraising.

Sage for SaaS and Technology equips younger startups with the tools they need to build momentum and sway investors:

• AI cash flow reporting to help startups prove product-market-fit.
• Automated forecasts that can alert you to financial threats or growth opportunities and show investors your company’s trajectory.
• Role-based dashboards to track your data, streamline financial planning, and make board presentations more engaging.

Sage for Technology also gives finance leaders the key metrics early-stage SaaS investors need to see:

• customer acquisition cost (CAC),
• customer lifetime value (CLTV),
• annual and monthly recurring revenue,
• and more.

As you grow, leverage robust accounting AI

Once your startup earns $5 million or more in annual revenue, you’ll be in the growth stage of your business lifecycle.

At this point, many CFOs find themselves researching new accounting software that better suits their scaling company.

Not only is an accounting software upgrade expensive, but it can distract you from growth initiatives at a critical phase in your startup’s development.

With Sage for Technology, everything you need to step into the next phase of your company’s lifecycle is already included:

Frictionless subscription billing

At this stage, fine-tuning your billing strategy is crucial.

Sage’s software bundle supports 300+ frictionless SaaS billing models, giving startups the flexibility they need to find their ideal pricing structure.

Automated ASC 606 compliance

For growth stage startups, manual revenue recognition often leads to revenue leakage.

It can even large non-compliance fines if you’re not careful.

Sage for Technology uses AI to recognize contract revenue at the press of a button.

Real-time SaaS business intelligence

Growth stage startups handle a massive amount of financial data.

Sage for SaaS and Technology gives you a single source of truth (SSOT) that puts all of your company’s data right at your fingertips.

Sage’s software bundle also supplies all the metrics growth stage investors will want to see during fundraising meetings: net change in CMRR, renewals, upsells, revenue and customer churn, net dollar retention, and other crucial KPIs.

Thrive as a global enterprise

When you’ve arrived at the pre-IPO or pre-sale stage of your startup’s lifecycle, the stakes get much higher.

Mature tech startups are usually operating internationally, which can significantly complicate their corporate accounting — not to mention the additional regulatory rigors you’ll be put through at this stage. 

As with growth stage startups, CFOs at late-stage startups often need to overhaul their accounting suite to get the functionality they need.

But Sage for Technology sets the stage for smooth international growth and a successful IPO:

• Global FX to keep your subscription payments running smoothly.
• International tax automation and multi-entity accounting to simplify key workflows.
• SOX compliance automation, including the corporate governance mandates in section 302.
• All the metrics late-stage startup investors want to see, from gross margin to international currencies and more.

Sage’s software bundle also allows startups to map their recurring revenue and subscription activity across 25 different revenue categories — New, Add-on, Uplift, Churn, and more.

This provides a much fuller financial picture, laying the groundwork for effective strategic planning as you approach your IPO.

Enjoy a seamless software rollout with Sage for Technology

On top of having everything startups need to scale from pre-seed to IPO and beyond, Sage for SaaS and Technology includes a guided implementation process.

Built on decades of experience and thousands of enterprise software deployments, our guided rollout makes it easy to hit the ground running and see immediate value from the software.

Say goodbye to startup growing pains

Whether you’re the CFO of an early-stage startup or you’re preparing for an IPO, Sage for Technology can take you to the next stage in your company’s growth journey.

The software bundle costs up to 40% less than buying the components individually, and provides a truly frictionless accounting experience.

To learn more, click here.