Kalkulator ekonomije jedinice SaaS

The SaaS Unit Economics Calculator computes the four most-watched financial health metrics for SaaS businesses: LTV/CAC ratio (customer lifetime value vs acquisition cost), CAC Payback Period (months to recover acquisition spend), Magic Number (sales & marketing efficiency), and Burn Multiple (capital efficiency relative to ARR growth). These metrics form the standard framework that VCs use to evaluate SaaS investment readiness and that operators use to gauge whether their go-to-market motion is healthy. Together, they distinguish capital-efficient growth from unprofitable growth. The metrics emerged from research in the 2010s SaaS investment boom. David Skok's 'SaaS Metrics 2.0' established LTV/CAC as the foundational ratio. Scale Venture Partners introduced 'Magic Number' as the quarterly sales efficiency measure. The Burn Multiple was popularized by Craft Ventures in the 2020s as growth-stage capital efficiency became a sharper focus during the post-2021 SaaS valuation correction. Together, these four metrics provide a complete picture: are individual customers profitable (LTV/CAC), are you recovering acquisition costs fast enough (CAC Payback), is sales & marketing capital efficient (Magic Number), and is overall capital efficiency healthy (Burn Multiple)? Understanding these metrics is essential for SaaS operators making decisions about pricing, marketing spend, sales hiring, and fundraising. Each metric reveals a different aspect of business health. A company with LTV/CAC 5x (excellent) but Burn Multiple 4 (poor) is unit-economic but burning capital inefficiently — possibly overhiring beyond what current revenue supports. A company with Magic Number 1.2 (excellent) but CAC Payback 30 months (poor) has efficient sales but expensive customer acquisition relative to monthly revenue. The four metrics together identify exactly where the business needs to focus optimization. This calculator takes the inputs needed for all four metrics: CAC and ARPU for ratio metrics, churn for LTV calculation, and quarterly New ARR, S&M spend, and net burn for Magic Number and Burn Multiple. Output displays each metric with health benchmarks color-coded — excellent (green), good (lime), concerning (orange), poor (red). Use the calculator quarterly to track health trends, before fundraising to assess investor narrative, or when evaluating major strategic shifts (pricing changes, sales hiring waves, marketing channel investments).

Calkulon makes complex calculations simple — built for students and everyday problem-solvers.

1. 1Step 1 — Enter CAC and ARPU: CAC = total fully-loaded sales & marketing spend / new customers acquired in same period. Include all S&M costs: ad spend, marketing tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, ads), payroll for sales and marketing staff, sales commissions, content production. ARPU = total monthly recurring revenue / total customers. Use trailing 3-month average for stability.
2. 2Step 2 — Enter Gross Margin Percentage: Calculate as (Revenue − Cost of Revenue) / Revenue × 100. Cost of revenue for SaaS includes hosting/infrastructure (AWS, GCP), customer support, payment processing fees, third-party software directly serving customers, and customer success team for accounts. Typical SaaS gross margins: 70-85%.
3. 3Step 3 — Enter Monthly Churn Rate: Calculate as (Customers Cancelled in Month / Customers at Start of Month) × 100. For Net Revenue Retention focus: include downgrade revenue impact. For pure logo retention: count only customers leaving entirely. Most SaaS companies report both. SMB SaaS averages 2-5% monthly; enterprise 0.5-1%.
4. 4Step 4 — Compute LTV: LTV = ARPU × Gross Margin / Monthly Churn. For ARPU $50, 80% margin, 3% churn: LTV = $50 × 0.80 / 0.03 = $1,333. This is simple LTV — assumes constant churn and ARPU. Real LTV accounts for expansion (ARPU grows over time) and cohort retention (churn varies by tenure). Use for benchmarking; production financial models use cohort curves.
5. 5Step 5 — Compute LTV/CAC Ratio: LTV/CAC = LTV / CAC. Targets: <1 (unprofitable, fix urgently), 1-2 (concerning), 2-3 (acceptable), 3+ (healthy), 5+ (excellent, possibly under-investing in growth). Most successful SaaS companies target 3-5x. Going much higher often indicates underinvestment in growth that could increase total enterprise value.
6. 6Step 6 — Compute CAC Payback Period: Months = CAC / (ARPU × Gross Margin). Time required for a customer's gross-margin contribution to repay their acquisition cost. Targets: <12 months excellent, 12-18 months good, 18-24 months concerning, >24 months poor. Cash flow critical at growth stage — short payback means each customer becomes profitable quickly enabling faster reinvestment.
7. 7Step 7 — Magic Number and Burn Multiple: Magic Number = (New ARR × 4) / (Prior Quarter S&M × 3). Measures sales efficiency: >1 means each dollar of S&M generates more than $1 in new annualized ARR. Burn Multiple = Quarterly Net Burn / Quarterly Net New ARR. Measures capital efficiency: 1 means $1 burn per $1 of new ARR. Both have clear excellent/good/concerning/poor color-coded benchmarks.

• !Using simple LTV formula when churn is high — formula breaks down above 5% monthly churn; use cohort retention curves for accurate values.
• !Confusing CAC payback months with simple payback — payback months counts only when customer revenue equals CAC, not total revenue.
• !Forgetting to include all S&M costs — must include marketing tools, sales tools, payroll, commissions, ad spend; partial costs understate CAC.
• !Reporting blended CAC instead of paid CAC — organic acquisitions skew CAC artificially low and hide marketing inefficiency.
• !Optimizing one metric in isolation — improving LTV by raising prices may hurt CAC by reducing conversion; track all four metrics together for true health assessment.