Revenue accounts
Separate subscription revenue from usage fees, setup and onboarding fees and professional services. Each behaves differently, and a lender or investor will ask which part recurs. Splitting subscription revenue by plan is optional. Do it only if someone will use the split.
Add a refunds and credits account that reduces revenue, rather than recording refunds as an expense.
Liability accounts
Deferred revenue belongs in its own account, split into current and long-term if you sell multi-year plans. Add a processor clearing account for each payment processor, and a sales tax payable account if you collect it. Each of these should return to a known balance every month.
Cost of delivering the service
Hosting and infrastructure, customer support, payment processing fees and third-party software that is part of the product each get a cost-of-delivery account. Keeping them together makes gross margin readable. Costs that exist whether or not you have customers, such as sales, research, administration, belong lower in the statement.
Operating expenses
Group them into sales and marketing, research and development, and general and administrative. If your accounting plan supports classes or departments, use them instead of making a separate account for every team. Keep the account list short enough that every transaction has an obvious home.
Questions to settle early
Some software development costs may be treated as an asset instead of an expense, and some sales commissions may be spread over a contract. These calls depend on facts and rules you should confirm with your CPA before the first close, so your accounts and reports are built for the answer.
Review the chart every year. Unused accounts can be hidden, and accounts that hold a mix of things can be split. Do not renumber or delete accounts that have history without asking your CPA.
A sample structure
Revenue: subscription revenue, usage fees, setup fees, services, and refunds and credits. Cost of delivery: hosting and infrastructure, customer support, payment processing fees, and embedded third-party software. Operating expenses: sales and marketing, research and development, and general and administrative, with sub-accounts only where someone will read them. Liabilities: current and long-term deferred revenue, one clearing account per processor, and sales tax payable.
Name accounts for what they hold, not for who uses them. A name like Hosting and infrastructure still makes sense in three years, and a name like Dev stuff does not.
Processor accounts
Record gross charges as revenue or as money owed to you, and record the processor's fees and any refunds separately. If the clearing account holds the net payout instead, you lose sight of fees and refunds, and your margin looks better than it is. Reconcile each clearing account to zero against bank deposits every month.
Common questions
How many accounts does a small SaaS company need?
Fewer than you think. Start with the revenue, liability and cost-of-delivery accounts here and add only when someone will use the new detail.
Should every plan have its own revenue account?
Only if you will report on it. Plan-level detail is often better kept in the billing system and tied to the ledger in total.
Where do refunds go?
In a refunds and credits account that reduces revenue, so gross and net revenue are both visible.
This guide is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules, fees and due dates change; check with the IRS, the NJ Division of Taxation or a licensed professional for your situation.