#saas
Saas
SaaS accounting, revenue recognition, and metrics
The Quiet SaaS Leak: How to Audit Your Software Stack and Stop Paying for Tools You Don't Use
The average company runs 106 SaaS apps and leaves 36–53% of licenses unused, and most small teams find 20–35% of their software spend is duplicate, shelfware, zombie, or over-tiered on the first audit. This guide gives a six-step audit — inventory, ownership, real usage, waste hunt, renewal calendar, intake rules — plus negotiation moves that work without enterprise leverage and the ledger structure that keeps the savings from creeping back.
AI Receptionists in 2026: What They Cost, What They Recover, and How to Book Them
Small businesses miss about 27% of inbound calls during business hours and 40-60% after hours, and 85% of first-attempt callers never call back. AI receptionists run $30-$80/month entry-level, $150-$400 for service businesses, and $800-$1,200+ for multi-location deployments. This guide gives the three-number ROI formula (missed calls × close rate × average job value), where the subscription belongs in your chart of accounts, and a monthly recovery tracker that ties AI-booked appointments back to actual invoices.
Why Your SaaS Can Owe State Tax on Sales You Never "Made" Anywhere: The Throwback and Throwout Trap
A throwback rule can push a home-state sales factor from 20% to 60% on the same revenue by adding untaxed 'nowhere' sales back to the numerator; throwout, which shrinks the denominator instead, takes it to 33%. About 20 states plus D.C. still throw back tangible sales, five repealed their rules since 2019, and P.L. 86-272 protects none of your SaaS receipts.
Micro-SaaS and API Bookkeeping: Usage-Based Billing, Processor Reconciliation, and Why 70% Margins Still Need Real Books
Micro-SaaS and API businesses at 70%+ gross margins still need accrual accounting — how to structure hybrid subscription-plus-overage and credit-pack billing, reconcile Stripe and Merchant of Record payouts to gross revenue, and keep deferred revenue, COGS, and processor fees audit-ready.
Maine Started Taxing Netflix and Spotify on January 1, 2026: What Sellers of Digital Audio and Audiovisual Services Must Collect
Maine taxes digital audiovisual and audio services at 5.5% from Jan 1 2026 — streaming, music, podcasts, audiobooks. Who must collect and how to comply.
Sri Lanka's 18% Digital Services VAT: What Foreign SaaS and App Sellers Must Register For
Sri Lanka now charges 18% VAT on digital services sold by non-resident providers once revenue exceeds LKR 36 million a year or LKR 9 million in a quarter, effective July 1, 2026, with quarterly filing and registration due within three months of crossing the threshold.
The AI Coding Bill Comes Due: How Indie Developers Can Track and Cap Runaway Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Spend
GitHub Copilot's 2026 shift to usage-based AI Credits, an 18.6x rise in per-developer token consumption, and $60–$200/month agentic tiers are turning flat AI subscriptions into unpredictable bills. Here is a practical framework for indie developers to cap, track, and reconcile AI coding tool spend.
Revenue Recognition for Usage-Based SaaS Billing: A Founder's Guide to ASC 606
Under ASC 606, usage-based revenue is recognized as customers consume the service — not when they pay. How the stand-ready obligation, variable consideration, and the right-to-invoice practical expedient apply to metered API and SaaS pricing, with journal entries for prepaid credits, overages, and unbilled receivables.
New York's FAIR Business Practices Act: What the 2026 'Unfair and Abusive' Standard Means for Small Businesses
New York's FAIR Business Practices Act, effective February 17, 2026, adds "unfair" and "abusive" conduct standards to GBL Section 349, extends protection to small businesses and non-profits, and carries penalties up to $5,000 per violation — or $15,000 for willful ones. Here is what changed, who enforces it, and a seven-step compliance checklist for any business selling to New York customers.
Washington, D.C. Sales Tax Rises to 7% on October 1, 2026: What It Means for Digital Goods and SaaS Sellers
Washington, D.C.'s general sales tax rate rises from 6% to 7% on October 1, 2026, and the District taxes digital goods and SaaS at the full rate with no B2B exemption. This guide covers the delayed Budget Support Act increase, D.C.'s $100,000/200-transaction economic nexus thresholds, and a five-step compliance checklist for invoices that straddle the rate change.
Vermont's H.211 Data Broker Law: Is Your Small Business a 'Data Broker' Now?
Vermont's H.211 (Act 138), signed June 16, 2026, raises the data broker registration fee from $100 to $900, adds a $20,000 surety bond, and imposes penalties up to $200/day for failing to register by January 1, 2027. Its narrower "direct relationship" test can classify loyalty programs, payment facilitators, SaaS platforms, and affiliate marketers as data brokers.
WordPress Plugin & Theme Bookkeeping: License Renewals, Merchant-of-Record Tax, and Reconciling Envato, Freemius, and Stripe Payouts
Envato's July 1, 2026 move to a flat 50% author revenue share replaces tiered rates that ran as high as 87.5%, and it exposes a deeper bookkeeping gap for WordPress plugin and theme businesses selling across Envato, Freemius, and direct Stripe checkout — gross revenue, marketplace fees, and license-renewal deferred revenue all need separate tracking, not one blended bank-deposit number.