5 Features of ERP for SaaS Companies

ERP for SaaS companies, what is it? Which ERP systems are a fit for SaaS companies and software houses? Which modules and features should your ERP for SaaS contain? We explore all of this and more below.

ERP for SaaS Top Features

Let's look at some of the top features and modules we see other Software-as-a-service companies needing from their ERP solutions. 

If you are currently building your ERP requirements for your SaaS company, then make sure you check out our free ERP requirements template.

1. Billing & Accounting

One of the main characteristics of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies is the software subscriptions that they sell to customers around the world. ERP systems for SaaS companies need to be designed to handle this complexity. Different subscriptions may be sold to their customers in different segments.

For example, payment terms may be more or less flexible for larger or smaller customers and there may be different renewal terms for different customers. What's more, customers may be billed not just monthly, but based on product usage or on a variety of other factors. This can become a challenge to manage when you have hundreds or thousands of customers.

This is why SaaS companies need to purchase an ERP which can deal with these scenarios and bill customers with a variety of payment terms and renewals and metrics, account for it compliantly, and manage complex contracts and renewals.

2. Project Management

Many SaaS companies need ERP systems that manage more than just complex billing and accounting scenarios as their business model includes more than just software sales. Many SaaS companies also need to manage implementations of software solutions, as well as large research and development projects as they invest in their product.

We see many software-as-a-service companies, therefore, requiring project management capabilities within their ERP software, so that they can bill time and expenses back to their customers, or simply track it internally.

3. Multi-company & Multicurrency

SaaS companies are often global and have sales and development hubs around the world. To be as productive as possible, they need their ERP systems to reflect that reality too.

ERP for SaaS companies needs to have multi-company capabilities to manage several different legal entities in one system, multi-language capabilities, as well as the ability to handle lots of different currencies so business can be transacted around the world.

4. Scalability

SaaS companies need ERP systems that are scalable, as they will often go through periods of high-speed growth. This can require their ERP systems to grow both vertically and horizontally.

From one perspective, the ERP system will simply need to be able to handle more users, more sales orders, contracts and purchase orders.

From another perspective, it needs to handle these objects in an intelligent way and preferably make use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to reduce administration.

Furthermore, the ERP system may need to expand in terms of reach to provide functionality for different business areas as requirements change.

5. Cloud ERP

Cloud ERP isn't a prerequisite for SaaS companies but typically Cloud ERP systems can be the best fit for SaaS companies. This is often simply because SaaS companies believe in the Cloud from the get-go and because it provides SaaS companies many advantages. 

Firstly, SaaS companies are typically asset-light organizations without any legacy On-Premise servers. Secondly, SaaS companies are generally relatively new organizations and are therefore more open to Cloud ERP solutions. Thirdly, SaaS companies don't typically have extremely complex business processes and are therefore a fit for many off-the-shelf Cloud ERP solutions.

ERP Systems for Saas Companies

Oracle Netsuite

Oracle Netsuite is a commonly used ERP solution for SaaS companies, software vendors and software publishers. Netsuite has some strong functionality for billing and revenue recognition as well as project management and resourcing. This makes it a great fit as an ERP for SaaS companies around the world.

Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a powerful financial management and Cloud ERP solution for Software-as-a-Service companies. It features finance and accounting, project management and billing all in one platform that is scalable and ready for multicompany and multicurrency business scenarios. 

FinancialForce

Many SaaS companies leverage Salesforce as their CRM and marketing automation platform and many Salesforce users also use FinancialForce as their Cloud ERP solution. FinancialForce is a popular solution and includes 

Acumatica

SAP Business ByDesign