The Situation

A B2B SaaS company at $4M ARR came to us with a familiar problem: strong revenue growth (45% YoY) but declining cash reserves. Their bank balance had dropped from $1.2M to $400K over 6 months despite increasing revenue every month.

"We keep growing but the bank account keeps shrinking. Something doesn't add up." — CEO

The Diagnosis

After a full financial assessment, we identified three cash leaks that were compounding each other:

Leak #1: Unclaimed R&D Tax Credits ($85K/year)

The company had 12 engineers and had never filed for R&D tax credits. Two years of amended returns plus the current year yielded $170K in immediate credits and an ongoing $85K annual benefit.

Leak #2: Suboptimal Payment Terms ($110K cash flow impact)

Their enterprise contracts were on Net-60 but they hadn't negotiated early payment discounts or implemented automated dunning. Reducing DSO from 58 days to 34 days freed up $110K in working capital.

Leak #3: Benefits & Payroll Structure ($40K/year)

A restructure of their benefits enrollment timing and payroll tax optimization (proper state allocations for remote workers) saved $40K annually.

The Results

Area	Annual Savings	One-Time Recovery
R&D Tax Credits	$85K	$170K (amended returns)
Collections Optimization	—	$110K (freed working capital)
Payroll & Benefits	$40K	—
Total	$125K/year	$280K one-time

Timeline

Week 1-2: Financial assessment and diagnostic
Week 3-6: R&D credit study and amended returns filed
Week 4-8: Collections process overhaul and dunning automation
Week 6-12: Payroll restructure and benefits re-enrollment

Key Takeaway

This company didn't have a revenue problem — they had a financial operations problem. The fixes weren't complex, but they required someone looking at the full picture instead of just the P&L.

How a $4M SaaS Company Saved $320K in 90 Days

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