Investors do not read your P&L. They read your cohort behaviour.
Accounting, MRR and deferred revenue reporting, burn and runway control, and investor-ready financials for Dubai and UAE technology and SaaS businesses.
Technology businesses have a specific accounting problem: the numbers investors care about — MRR, net revenue retention, CAC payback, magic number, runway — do not appear anywhere in a standard set of accounts. So founders maintain them in a spreadsheet that does not reconcile to the ledger, and at the first serious diligence process the two versions diverge in front of the investor.
The second problem is revenue recognition. Annual contracts billed upfront are cash today and revenue over twelve months. Businesses that treat the cash as revenue overstate performance, understate deferred revenue on the balance sheet, and produce a growth curve that does not survive review.
The reporting this sector actually needs.
Standard accounting produces a compliant P&L. These are the views that change decisions, and they require the underlying data to be structured for them from the start.
MRR movement, not just MRR
New, expansion, contraction and churn broken out separately every month. Flat MRR can mean a stable business or heavy new sales offsetting heavy churn — completely different situations requiring opposite responses, and indistinguishable from the headline number.
Deferred revenue done properly
Annual and multi-year contracts recognised over the service period, with the deferred revenue balance on the balance sheet reconciled monthly and agreeing to the contract schedule. This is the first thing diligence checks and one of the most common sources of restatement.
Burn and runway
Net monthly burn and months of runway at current and planned spend, updated every month and modelled against the hiring plan. Runway is a board-level number and it should never be more than a month stale.
Cohort retention and net revenue retention
Retention by signup cohort rather than a blended average, and net revenue retention including expansion. A blended churn number flatters a business with a growing customer base and conceals whether the product actually retains.
CAC payback and unit economics
Fully loaded acquisition cost — including sales salaries, not just ad spend — against gross-margin-adjusted contribution, giving a payback period in months. Investors ask for this specific construction, and a business that has to build it during diligence signals it has not been managing to it.
Capitalisation of development costs
Whether internal development is expensed or capitalised is a judgement with real effects on reported profit and on the balance sheet. It has to be applied consistently, documented, and defensible under both audit and Corporate Tax.
The diagnostic, then the layer you need.
Most clients in this sector begin with the AED 4,500 Finance Health Diagnostic — a two-week fixed-fee review ending in a written findings note you own. It tells you what is broken, what it is costing, and what to fix first.
Commonly engaged services
- Accounting & bookkeeping — the foundation
- Management accounting — the reporting layer
- Corporate Tax & VAT — compliance
- Cash & working capital — 13-week control
- Cost & margin optimisation — where the leaks are
- Virtual CFO — senior judgement on top
How should SaaS companies recognise annual contracts?
Over the service period, not on receipt. Cash collected upfront for a twelve-month contract creates a deferred revenue liability that unwinds monthly. Recognising it all at billing overstates revenue, understates liabilities, and is a routine diligence finding.
What is net revenue retention and why do investors focus on it?
Net revenue retention measures revenue from an existing cohort a year later, including expansion, contraction and churn. Above 100 percent means the existing base grows without any new customers, which is the strongest signal in a SaaS business. It is more informative than headline growth because it cannot be bought with acquisition spend.
How often should we update runway?
Monthly, and it should be a standing board number. Runway calculated quarterly is stale enough to be misleading, particularly for a company hiring or scaling spend.
Can you produce investor-ready financials?
That is a large part of what we do for technology clients: reconciled MRR reporting that ties to the ledger, correct deferred revenue, cohort analysis, burn and runway, and a data room that survives diligence without adjustment. Note that we do not provide regulated investment or corporate finance advice or introduce investors.
Should we capitalise our development costs?
It depends on the nature of the expenditure and the applicable criteria under the reporting framework you use. It is a judgement with real consequences for reported profit, balance sheet strength and tax, and it should be documented and applied consistently rather than decided differently each year.
Tell us where the numbers stop being useful.
Describe the current setup, the systems you run and what you cannot currently see. We aim to reply within one business day with a scoped next step and an indicative fee range.