Transaction revenue may include usage, consumption, etc. When I post expenses to a department such as technical support, the cost center should be fully burdened. Fully burdened means all expenses that arise from that department should be coded back to that department. For example, wages, taxes, benefits, travel, training, internal use software (ticket tracking, for example), pizza parties, and so on. The department leader must manage and be accountable for all expenses under their control. Therefore, it’s important to be diligent on the monthly coding of expenses. I review all expenses by department with each close cycle to catch errant entries. Don’t let G&A be a dumping ground for department-specific expenses. Next, I’ll cover the common expenses associated with each of these COGS departments. The technical support department manages all inbound customer messages, emails, and calls regarding your product and/or services questions. These questions could be “how-to” or reporting bugs in your software. If you are early stage where employees wear many hats, they may also handle customer onboarding. WHAT THEY DO: inbound phone, chat, and web support for customer requests, issues, and bugs.TYPICAL EXPENSES: wages, payroll taxes, benefits, travel, training, internal software subscriptions (i.e., Zendesk), etc.MARGIN: the support department is included in your recurring gross margin.JOB TITLES: include support manager, technical support specialist handling level 1, 2, and 3 support.WHAT TO LOOK FOR: just tech support or also onboarding? Sizing of the department based on call volume/other stats? Remote or HQ?.BOTTOM LINE: the support department is primarily employee-related expenses.Service departments are critical to the initial success of your customer. If your software requires any configuration, implementation, and training, then you most likely have a services department. However, not every SaaS company has a services department. If you have a lower price point, self-service product, you might not have a services team. If you sell into mid-market and enterprise customers, you are likely very familiar with the services concept (often called PS or Pro Serv). Key metrics for a PS team include billable utilization and backlog. TYPICAL EXPENSES: wages, payroll taxes, benefits, billable travel, travel, training, internal software subscriptions, PSA software, etc.WHAT THEY DO: implement and configure software and train customer on its use.Backlog is contracted services revenue that has not been delivered and invoiced. MARGIN: services is included in your services gross margin.
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