Accounting software for SaaS startups in UAE, from first invoice to investor pack

SaaS metrics start from clean revenue and cost lines. HelloBooks gives software companies a chart that maps easily to MRR, gross margin and burn.

• Subscription revenue by plan, plus implementation and services revenue
• Deferred revenue for annual and multi-year prepayments
• Hosting and third-party API costs as cost of revenue
• Payment gateway fees and chargebacks
• Research and development salaries, sales and marketing, general and admin

Subscriptions sold to UAE customers are standard-rated at 5%. Services supplied to customers outside the UAE may be zero-rated as exports where the FTA’s conditions are met, which usually depends on where the customer is and where the service is used. Cloud hosting and tools billed by overseas providers are generally imported services subject to the reverse charge once you are registered.

For corporate tax, a resident startup with revenue up to AED 3 million can elect small business relief, now available for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029. Qualifying free zone persons cannot elect it, so a free zone startup should check which regime suits it with a tax agent.

Upload the payment processor’s payout report and the agent records gross subscriptions, fees and refunds, then matches the net payout to your bank statement upload. Annual plans are posted to deferred revenue and released monthly. Hosting invoices in USD are converted and posted with the reverse charge.

Ask “what was MRR at the end of September?” or “how many months of runway do we have at current burn?” The answers come from the ledger. Founders still approve refunds, check the revenue schedule and review the VAT 201 draft before the accountant files it.

Founders typically need monthly P&L, cash runway, deferred revenue and gross margin after hosting. A startup with AED 140,000 of monthly subscriptions and AED 28,000 of hosting and API costs runs an 80% gross margin.

If your board wants a custom investor pack, cohort revenue by plan or approval rules on spending above a set amount, the HelloBooks team can configure them. Email hello@hellobooks.ai or book at /book-a-demo.