THE SHORT ANSWER
Prepare a SaaS sale with a metric dictionary and a reconciliation from actual subscriptions to invoices, accounts and collections. Document customer terms, code/IP and vendor rights, permanent engineering/support costs and outstanding prepaid service. Recurring-revenue dashboards, a repository and a product roadmap do not independently establish recognized income, lawful transfer, security clearance or company value.
Prepare subscription definitions and reconciliation
Define monthly/annual recurring measures, date, period, currency, discounts, trials, usage, delinquency and service scope. Separate subscriptions, implementation, custom development and other services. Record opening cohorts, cancellations, contractions, expansion, new sales and reactivation explicitly. A run rate based on a current month is separate from a full year of achieved income.
Stripe documents configurable metrics and monthly-normalized subscriptions that can include past-due accounts.
(Stripe: subscription analytics and metric definitions)This is a product-specific illustration. Record actual provider settings and reconcile the company’s metric definitions to contracts, invoices, accounting and collections with the accountant. A dashboard total does not independently establish realized cash or a universal accounting measure. Use the financial guide for scope and arithmetic limits.
Prepare customer, code and dependency rights
Use the consent register for customer agreements, hosting, API/data providers, software libraries, licenses and contractors. Review actual term, renewal, termination, assignment/change-of-control, service, privacy and access conditions with counsel. A customer count or annual prepayment is separate from guaranteed renewal or unrestricted future income.
Document actual code ownership, employee/contractor assignments, repositories, domains, trademarks, third-party components and licensed data. Identify open questions and restrictions rather than assuming all IP belongs to the seller. With qualified technical and legal people, assess source/build/deployment records and dependencies; a repository export or escrow label does not settle every ownership, continuity or licensing issue.
Show permanent engineering, support and security work
Map development, maintenance, deployment, infrastructure, incident response, support, customer success, sales and management through the coverage worksheet. Confirm actual permanent people, compensation, knowledge and responsible coverage beyond seller help. Include hosting, API/usage charges, support, ordinary development, insurance and administration in continuing costs; do not remove work required to maintain the product.
FTC guidance addresses necessary access and secure personal-information handling.
(FTC: protecting personal information in business)Use approved protected evidence and have qualified people assess actual architecture, access, vendor obligations, incidents, backups and recovery evidence. Review lawful customer-data transfer and retention with counsel. Neither a certification label nor a clean-looking dashboard independently establishes complete security or privacy-law clearance.
Allocate prepaid service and handover responsibilities
SBA sale guidance describes defining transaction assets and liabilities.
(SBA: closing or selling a business)Reconcile prepaid subscriptions, unperformed implementation, service credits, refund rights, disputes, receivables and vendor commitments through the delivery guide. Agree who performs and funds continuing service, controls authorized accounts and communicates across closing. Cash received for future service is separate from cost-free sale proceeds.
Document actual IP, systems, customer/authority conditions, permanent costs and necessary investment in the sale scope. Compare closing cash, continuing seller duties and any contingent terms without universal ARR multiples, premium thresholds or required certification promises. Use the founder evidence and offer guide when an actual investment buyer’s requirements become concrete.
Owner questions
What should I prepare before selling SaaS?
Defined subscription metrics reconciled to contracts/accounts/collections, actual customer/IP/vendor rights, permanent operations and funded prepaid-service duties.
Is dashboard MRR proof of cash received?
Check actual definitions, status, settings, invoices and collections; monthly normalization and delinquency treatment can differ.
Does code escrow prove all IP transfers?
Review actual ownership, assignments, third-party licenses, access and service continuity with legal/technical professionals.
Sources and review scope
Source review completed . The sources below support the identified concepts or rules; they do not validate hypothetical amounts or a valuation of your business.
- Stripe: subscription analytics and metric definitions
First-party product documentation actually read October 10, 2026. Configurable recurring-revenue/subscriber definitions, monthly-normalized subscriptions and cohort/event reporting; its MRR can include past-due subscriptions. Stripe-specific illustration of definition and reconciliation limits, not a universal accounting standard, realized collections, ARR valuation benchmark, software recommendation or this company's metric configuration.
- FTC: protecting personal information in business
Information inventory, necessary access, authentication, encryption, service-provider oversight, retention and incident planning. General security guidance; not an M&A privacy-law compliance certification.
- SBA: closing or selling a business
Valuation approaches, sale agreements, assets and ownership transfer.
Confirm tax, legal, accounting and lending applications with the relevant professionals. Historical market observations describe the stated period and reported sample.
This is educational material. Industry figures and program rules can change; check the original sources and your advisors before applying them to a transaction. Calculator scenarios are not appraisals, lending decisions, or offers.
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