13
5 Comments

Stripe unveils tool to ease SaaS, e-commerce accounting

Stripe has launched a new tool that helps indie hackers eliminate tedious accounting work and organize their finances.

The news: Stripe on Tuesday debuted Revenue Recognition to help companies map their revenue and sync it to the correct date or dates on a balance sheet, a typically arduous and error-ridden process. Revenue Recognition consolidates transactions in one place, categorizes them, and automatically generates auditable reports. The product now is available to millions of Stripe users in 40 countries.

“This is a really big deal for companies. No one wants to slow down for tasks that could be automated, especially leaders at high-growth businesses. In my prior company, which I co-founded, we spent ten cents on every dollar dealing with the operational friction of manual revenue management.” —Vladi Shunturov, Product Lead at Stripe

The problem: If you’re a solopreneur or lead a small team, you know how time-consuming and costly it can be to understand (and not understand) your company’s financial health. For SaaS and subscription companies, grasping your revenue can be especially complicated as it's becoming common to offer flexible payment options.

Accounting headaches: For example, if a customer cancels an annual subscription before hitting 12 months, you may have to provide a refund, credit, or note the revenue as deferred. Or if you're not issuing a refund, you may bring forward the revenue instead of recognizing it each month. Or perhaps a monthly client wants to go annual or a premium client wants to downgrade their service. Whatever the challenge, it complicates accounting and can eat up your time.

Stripe’s solution: Revenue Recognition provides companies with reports like balance sheets, income statements, revenue waterfall tables, and more. It also automatically updates your books with all transactions and allows founders to adjust reports to accurately account for deferred revenue, exclude certain types of revenue, and pass-through fees. Revenue Recognition integrates with Stripe’s payments platform, billing, invoicing, and can import non-Stripe transactions.

GAAP guidelines: If you’re interested in accepting investment, bringing on a partner, or selling your businesses, you’ll need to be in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) — especially with understanding your revenue. Stripe said Revenue Recognition helps founders achieve this regardless of if you’re a CFO or first-time founder.

IH accounting mistakes: Indie hacker @NatalieLuneva hosted a conversation on SaaS founders’ common accounting and finance mistakes. You can also hop into the Legal, Tax, and Accounting group to discuss your experience and challenges.

Up and up: Stripe's revenue grew about nearly 70 percent to about $7.4 billion in 2020, according to The Wall Street Journal.

UnionPay partnership: Stripe recently announced it partnered with China-based UnionPay International, one of the world’s largest payment networks. The integration allows businesses in more than 30 markets — including the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the European Union — to accept payments from billions of UnionPay cardholders globally. The move is likely to add another digit to Stripe’s $95 billion valuation it earned in March.

Do you have a handle on your revenue recognition? Will you try out Stripe’s new tool? Share your thoughts.

  1. 3

    Can this attribute income on a per state or zip code basis? Now that economic nexus is a thing this is a huge pain in the butt.

    1. 1

      Do you need help to spy on someone or something? Are you worried about a cheating partner or spouse? Find out and catch a cheating partner with facts and evidence to back it up, do you need help recover lost or stolen passwords, track and monitor GPS location, etc.; for all your spy and hack related services; find ( wizardbrixton at Gmail dot com ) on the internet for help and solution to all your spy and hack needs, Social media hacks Find them on online using your desktop or PC via your browsers URL box. They are the best, services rendered is 100% guaranteed to contact them on ( wizardbrixton at Gmail dot com ) on WhatsApp +1- 80723 40428

    2. 1

      Good question. Not sure but I'll look into it.

  2. 1

    It’s a privilege to share this to the world. You deserve all the praise that comes to you. DR Amber has been a blessing to me since our encounter on the internet. He alone knows it all. I love him so much for his kindness, care, honesty and his help in the life of everyone that has come in contact with him. If not for DR Amber how would I have been able to survive this hardship. His spell made me a LOTTO MAX winner of 60 Million Dollars making my whole life beautiful and amazing. The numbers he gave me to play the lottery was a life changing number from grass to grace and I want to say I’m forever grateful to him. Thank you sir for being a blessing to the helpless. Anyone reading this that needs help can communicate with DR Amber online for indeed he has no match. Website: amberlottotemple.com OR Email: [email protected]

  3. 1

    Do you need help to spy on someone or something? Are you worried about a cheating partner or spouse? Find out and catch a cheating partner with facts and evidence to back it up, do you need help recover lost or stolen passwords, track and monitor GPS location, etc.; for all your spy and hack related services; find ( wizardbrixton at Gmail dot com ) on the internet for help and solution to all your spy and hack needs, Social media hacks Find them on online using your desktop or PC via your browsers URL box. They are the best, services rendered is 100% guaranteed to contact them on ( wizardbrixton at Gmail dot com ) on WhatsApp +1- 80723 40428

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 16 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments