Finance Metrics Quickref
Look up SaaS revenue, unit-economics, and growth metric formulas and benchmarks during reviews without opening a full finance course.
Overview
finance-metrics-quickref is an agent skill most often used in Validate (also Grow, Operate) that supplies fast SaaS finance metric formulas, benchmarks, and decision-rule reminders during analysis.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/deanpeters/product-manager-skills --skill finance-metrics-quickrefWhat is this skill?
- Four metric families: revenue & growth, unit economics, efficiency, and health benchmarks
- Speed-optimized cheat sheet—not a teaching skill; scan, find formula, apply
- Covers MRR/ARR, churn, NRR, CAC, LTV, payback, margins, and decision-framework reminders
- Pairs with deeper product-manager finance skills when you need worked examples
- Built for product and finance review meetings and business reviews
- 4 metric families: revenue & growth, unit economics, efficiency, and health
Adoption & trust: 1.2k installs on skills.sh; 5k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are in a review or pricing conversation and need the correct SaaS formula or benchmark without reading a long explainer.
Who is it for?
Solo founders and indie PMs running business reviews, pricing discussions, or metric sanity checks who already know what metric they need.
Skip if: First-time learners who need step-by-step calculations, full financial models, or non-SaaS business models without standard SaaS metric families.
When should I use this skill?
You need a quick metric definition, formula, or benchmark during product or finance analysis without a long teaching pass.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get an authoritative quick lookup across revenue, unit economics, and health metrics so analysis and narrative stay aligned with standard SaaS definitions.
- Metric definition with formula
- Benchmark or decision-rule reminder
- Pointers to deeper explainer skills when needed
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Pricing and unit-economics validation is the natural first shelf for SaaS metric cheat sheets before and during commitment to a business model. Scope and pricing decisions need NRR, CAC payback, Rule of 40, and churn benchmarks on demand—this subphase is where those lookups happen most often.
Where it fits
Check NRR and payback benchmarks before locking a tier change in a one-person SaaS.
Refresh churn and expansion definitions while scoping MVP metrics for a board update.
Align dashboard labels with standard ARPA and efficiency metrics during a monthly review.
Recall margin and health decision rules when deciding whether to cut a low-ROI feature.
How it compares
Use as a cheat sheet lookup instead of prompting the model to invent benchmarks from memory.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is finance-metrics-quickref for?
Solo builders, indie product managers, and small teams shipping SaaS who need metric definitions and benchmarks during reviews without a finance textbook.
When should I use finance-metrics-quickref?
During Validate pricing and scope work, Grow analytics and lifecycle reporting, and Operate iteration when you refresh unit economics—any time you need “formula + benchmark” in one pass.
Is finance-metrics-quickref safe to install?
It is reference-only prose with no shell or API calls; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing any skill from the repo.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Finance Metrics Quickref
## Purpose Quick reference for any SaaS finance metric without deep teaching. Use this when you need a fast formula lookup, benchmark check, or decision framework reminder. For detailed explanations, calculations, and examples, see the related deep-dive skills. This is not a teaching tool—it's a cheat sheet optimized for speed. Scan, find, apply. ## Key Concepts ### Metric Categories Metrics are organized into four families: 1. **Revenue & Growth** — Top-line money (revenue, ARPU, ARPA, MRR/ARR, churn, NRR, expansion) 2. **Unit Economics** — Customer-level profitability (CAC, LTV, payback, margins) 3. **Capital Efficiency** — Cash management (burn rate, runway, OpEx, net income) 4. **Efficiency Ratios** — Growth vs. profitability balance (Rule of 40, magic number) ### When to Use This Skill **Use this when:** - You need a quick formula or benchmark - You're preparing for a board meeting or investor call - You're evaluating a decision and need to check which metrics matter - You want to identify red flags quickly **Don't use this when:** - You need detailed calculation guidance (use `saas-revenue-growth-metrics` or `saas-economics-efficiency-metrics`) - You're learning these metrics for the first time (start with deep-dive skills) - You need examples and common pitfalls (covered in related skills) --- ## Application ### All Metrics Reference Table | **Metric** | **Formula** | **What It Measures** | **Good Benchmark** | **Red Flag** | |------------|-------------|----------------------|-------------------|--------------| | **Revenue** | Total sales before expenses | Top-line money earned | Growth rate >20% YoY (varies by stage) | Revenue growing slower than costs | | **ARPU** | Total Revenue / Total Users | Revenue per individual user | Varies by model; track trend | ARPU declining cohort-over-cohort | | **ARPA** | MRR / Active Accounts | Revenue per customer account | SMB: $100-$1K; Mid: $1K-$10K; Ent: $10K+ | High ARPA + low ARPU (undermonetized seats) | | **ACV** | Annual Recurring Revenue per Contract | Annualized contract value | SMB: $5K-$25K; Mid: $25K-$100K; Ent: $100K+ | ACV declining (moving downmarket unintentionally) | | **MRR/ARR** | MRR × 12 = ARR | Predictable recurring revenue | Growth + quality matter; track components | New MRR declining while churn stable/growing | | **Churn Rate** | Customers Lost / Starting Customers | % of customers who cancel | Monthly <2% great, <5% ok; Annual <10% great | Churn increasing cohort-over-cohort | | **NRR** | (Start ARR + Expansion - Churn - Contraction) / Start ARR × 100 | Revenue retention + expansion | >120% excellent; 100-120% good; 90-100% ok | NRR <100% (base is contracting) | | **Expansion Revenue** | Upsells + Cross-sells + Usage Growth | Additional revenue from existing customers | 20-30% of total revenue | Expansion <10% of MRR | | **Quick Ratio** | (New MRR + Expansion MRR) / (Churned MRR + Contraction) | Revenue gains vs. losses | >4 excellent; 2-4 healthy; <2 leaky bucket | Quick Ratio <2 (leaky bucket) | | **Gross Margin** | (Revenue - COGS) / Revenue × 100 | % of revenue after direct