You’re steering on ARR. But are you steering blind?

ARR is the heartbeat of every SaaS business. It shows up in board meetings, investor decks, and monthly reports. It’s how you measure growth and how you prove you’re on track.

But here’s what we’ve seen after working with dozens of SaaS companies: Most businesses think they’re steering on solid data until we ask just a few basic questions. ‘What counts as new revenue?’ ‘What counts as churn?’ ‘How do you define upsell?’ ‘Where is contract data actually stored?’

And then it becomes clear: behind that confident ARR figure lies a web of fuzzy definitions, outdated assumptions, and data that lives in five different places. What starts as a simple question opens up a deeper investigation: one that reveals why your ARR might not be telling the whole story. 

Starting with the right questions

A lot of companies come to us asking, “Can you build us a dashboard?” Of course, we can. But first, we ask questions. Because without clear definitions, every dashboard is just a pretty castle built on sand.

"We ask questions that even make the CFO pause," Rajeev, our BI consultant focused on SaaS, says.

We always start with a process deep dive:

• Where are your contracts stored?
• What does your invoicing process look like?
• How do you apply indexation?
• What exactly do you define as a 'new customer'?

And that’s where the cracks start to show.

When one number means different things

These questions don’t just expose a little confusion. They reveal structural blind spots: cracks in the foundation of your reporting. If a customer cancels in February, does that count as churn in February or March? How do you deal with indexation? What do you consider an upsell at product level?

When we dig into the details, the answers are often inconsistent or even missing altogether. One department might calculate churn at customer level, another at product level. Discounts might be applied differently depending on who’s entering the data. Contract data often lives across three different systems.

Your ARR might look solid at first glance, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll often find murky definitions, disconnected systems, and outdated assumptions.

The power of a simple waterfall

What we build next isn’t flashy or complex: an ARR waterfall. From starting value to ending value, including upsell, downsell, churn, and new customers.

The real power lies in the simplicity. "Once we deliver that first ARR waterfall, that’s when it clicks. That’s when they finally see what’s really going on," Rajeev explains.

For the first time, our clients can clearly see:

• What’s actually churning
• Where the growth is coming from
• How one specific discount or customer segment impacts performance

And that’s when it gets fun.

What we find along the way

Sometimes we uncover things no one expected, yet turn out to be crucial. These are some examples we’ve come across in SaaS projects:

• A hidden €900,000 discount scheduled years ahead, invisible in the standard reports.
• A manual reporting process that took two full days each month, which could be easily reduced to one hour with the right setup.
• Revenue from the same customer counted more than once, simply because no one had clearly mapped how product data flows between systems.

These aren’t small details. They’re the foundation for your most important decisions.

"You don't always need the fanciest solution," says Rajeev. "Sometimes something simple just works. And that’s enough to make a real difference. It’s about creating clarity, not complexity."

ARR only means something if the foundation is solid

This is where Rajeev sees the real value:

"In traditional consultancy, you’re always looking back. In SaaS, you look forward. That’s what makes it so exciting. You’re forecasting, not just reporting."

It’s a mindset shift: from explaining the past to shaping the future. And without a solid foundation—clean logic, consistent definitions, and aligned systems—you’re steering blind. "There’s no market standard or best practice here," Rajeev adds. "It’s always custom work. Always about getting the logic right."

That’s why we say, “Don’t start with the dashboard.” Start with the conversation. Ask the questions no one’s asking. Define your logic on paper. Only then can your ARR reflect what’s actually happening and help guide what’s coming next.