SaaS & subscription
Gross margin, nightly, without a spreadsheet
Subscription revenue arrives net of processing fees, and infrastructure bills land at the same hour. Owwyl books both to their own accounts so the margin is real rather than reconstructed.
What the close has to get right
01
Processing fees never net against revenue
A payout lands net. Booked as revenue, the top line is understated and the fee disappears — the single most common way subscription books go quietly wrong.
02
Subscription, usage and services stay apart
Three revenue accounts. Recurring, variable and one-off behave differently enough that combining them makes every retention number unreliable.
03
Infrastructure is cost of revenue
Hosting and third-party APIs sit in cost of sales, not in software subscriptions. Filed as overhead, gross margin reads several points better than it is.
04
Payroll splits by function
Engineering, go-to-market and G&A are separate accounts, because a single payroll line cannot answer the only question anyone asks about burn.
When it is not sure
It holds the row.
A new infrastructure charge, or a bill that jumps outside its own pattern, is surfaced the same night rather than after the quarter closes on it.
The template
19 accounts, ready on the first night
This is the actual chart of accounts Owwyl creates for saas & subscription — not an example. Rename anything, add anything, delete what you do not use. The ledger is yours.
Revenue
Cost and expense
Owwyl also closes the books for
Close tonight on your own numbers.
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