What a SaaS startup's finance stack costs, by stage

Key findings

• The finance stack is under 2% of burn. Choosing the middle published option in each category costs $7,519 a year at pre-seed (1.7% of gross burn), $25,325 at seed (1.3%) and $65,294 at Series A (0.9%). The cheapest stack is under 1% at every stage; the most expensive tops out at 6.0%.
• Idle cash can pay for all of it. At seed, $2,500,000 parked in Mercury's treasury product earns about $85,750 a year at the published rate, 3.4 times the middle stack. Where the cash sits matters more than which tools you pick.
• From seed on, two choices make most of the spread. A merchant of record for billing ($126,000 a year at Series A for Stripe Managed Payments vs $18,000 for Stripe Billing) and a PEO for payroll (up to $60,000 vs $3,300). Both buy real work: sales-tax filing and benefits administration.
• The most expensive line can be a tax notice. Delaware bills $85,165 by default for 10 million authorized shares; the alternative method Delaware allows comes to $1,600 at seed.

Cheapest, middle and most expensive = the lowest, median and highest published price in each of the eight categories at that stage, summed. Quote-only plans are left out. Gross burn from our stage scenarios (methodology below). Yield is not netted off.

Cost per category, by stage

Pre-seed: 3 people, $10,000 MRR, $500,000 in the bank

Seed: 12 people, $50,000 MRR, $3,000,000 in the bank

Series A: 40 people, $250,000 MRR, $12,000,000 in the bank

Prices read on each vendor's pricing page between October 10, 2026 and October 13, 2026; billed-monthly price where the vendor offers one. Category definitions: payroll = software fees for the US team (not wages or taxes); banking = plan, wire, FX and card FX fees for accounts that publish every fee our activity needs; billing = what the tool costs above Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢ card processing; bookkeeping = monthly service or software, tax return not included; cap table includes the 409A valuations the stage needs; data room = one 3-month raise a year. Each category links to its full comparison.

Build your own stack

Pick your stage, then swap the tool in any category. Defaults are the middle option.

What the numbers say

Software is small next to people

At seed, our 12-person company burns about $1,954,418 a year on salaries, employer taxes, benefits and other spend. The middle finance stack is $25,325 of that. Cutting the finance stack to the cheapest option in every category saves $10,978 a year, about 2 days of runway. Pick tools for the work they save, not the fee. Our payroll cost calculator shows where most of the rest goes.

Yield is bigger than every fee

Once a round is in the bank, the difference between accounts is the yield on idle cash, not the fees. At seed, accounts that publish every fee charge $3,600 to $6,600 a year for our activity, while idle cash earns from nothing at Chase and Novo to about $92,750 in a money market fund. Deposits at Relay, Bluevine and Ramp Checking are FDIC-insured through partner banks, up to each provider's stated limit; Mercury, Rho and Brex treasury products are money market funds, which are not FDIC-insured. Details in startup banking compared.

Billing: merchant of record vs billing platform

A billing platform (Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Recurly) runs subscriptions on top of your payment processor; you register for and file sales tax and VAT yourself. A merchant of record (Paddle, Polar, Stripe Managed Payments) resells your product and takes that work on, for a share of revenue. At $250,000 MRR Stripe Managed Payments costs $126,000 a year on top of card processing, against $18,000 for Stripe Billing on its cheapest plan at that volume. Compare it with what a sales-tax tool plus filing would cost you; see Paddle vs Stripe and the billing fees calculator.

Payroll: PEO or not

Payroll-only services run $3,300 to $13,920 a year for 40 US employees in two states. A PEO (Justworks, Deel) costs $37,920 to $60,000 because it becomes co-employer and runs benefits, workers' comp and HR compliance. Gusto Simple covers one state only, so it drops out once you hire in a second state. See payroll and EOR compared.

Bookkeeping jumps when you move to accrual

At pre-seed, cash-basis books cost $1,188 a year at Pilot (Essentials) or $480 in software you run yourself. At seed, Pilot's accrual plan is priced by monthly expenses and comes to $14,388 a year at our $162,868 monthly burn; above $200,000 a month it is quote only. At our Series A burn Pilot is quote only, and the cheap end of the Series A row is software you run yourself or a "from" price, so treat it as a floor. More in startup bookkeeping cost.

Cap table: cheap until your first 409A

Cap table tools are free or close to it while only founders and SAFE investors are on the table. Before the first employee option grant, most companies buy a 409A valuation to set a defensible strike price, and that is where the money goes: $1,500 to $2,500 a year at seed. Carta's paid plans are quote only, so Carta appears only where its free Launch plan applies. Pulley is left out: it shuts down on December 8, 2026 (Pulley alternatives).

Delaware: file the right method

Delaware corporations pay franchise tax every year, plus a $50 annual report fee and a registered agent. The state's notice uses the Authorized Shares method: $85,165 for 10 million authorized shares. Under the Assumed Par Value Capital method, using gross assets, the same company owes $400 at pre-seed, $1,600 at seed, $5,600 at Series A in our scenarios (gross assets = cash in the bank). Run yours in the Delaware franchise tax calculator.

Methodology

• Prices: read on each vendor's own pricing page, fee schedule or help center and stored with the date (October 10, 2026 to October 13, 2026). Billed-monthly price where offered; annual where the vendor sells annual plans only. Quote-only plans are left out, never estimated; the only third-party figures on our comparison pages are labelled as such and are not used here.
• Cheapest, middle, most expensive: the lowest, the median (lower of the two middle values when the count is even) and the highest published price among the tools we cover in each category at that stage. These are not recommendations, and a tool's place can change with your own numbers.
• Burn: salaries ($110K / $120K / $135K), 2026 employer taxes and single health cover per US employee, plus other spend of $5K / $25K / $120K a month, from our payroll cost model.
• Not covered yet: CRM, sales-tax software, insurance, legal fees, productivity and cloud tools, and FP&A software. FP&A is Adlega's own category; ranking ourselves in a cost table would be a conflict of interest, so it is left out.
• Not hands-on tested: these totals use published prices only. Discounts, annual commitments and negotiated prices can be lower; usage overages and add-ons can be higher.
• Updates: vendor pages are re-read by our weekly price monitor where the page allows it, and changes are logged on price changes. This report is re-issued once a year as a new edition; the 2026 edition stays linked.

Cite this report

Free to quote with a link. Suggested citation:

Adlega, "What a SaaS startup's finance stack costs by stage", 2026 edition, https://adlega.com/compare/startup-stack-cost/ (prices verified October 10, 2026 to October 13, 2026).

Frequently asked questions

How much does a startup spend on finance and back-office software?

On published list prices, the eight categories we cover cost $3,235 to $26,474 a year at pre-seed, $14,347 to $73,010 at seed and $53,612 to $243,640 at Series A, between 0.7% and 6.0% of gross burn. The rest of burn is people and other spend. The figures leave out CRM, sales-tax software, insurance, legal fees and general tools such as email and cloud hosting.

Which finance tool costs a startup the most?

At Series A, subscription billing: a merchant of record charges a share of revenue, so Stripe Managed Payments comes to $126,000 a year and Paddle $82,200 on top of what plain card processing would cost, against $18,000 for Stripe Billing. In exchange they file sales tax and VAT for you. Next is a PEO: up to $60,000 a year for 40 US employees, against $3,300 for the cheapest payroll-only service.

Why did I get an $85,000 Delaware franchise tax bill?

Delaware's notice uses the Authorized Shares method by default, which for a typical 10 million authorized shares comes to $85,165. Filing with the Assumed Par Value Capital method and your gross assets usually brings it down to a few hundred or thousand dollars: $400 at pre-seed, $1,600 at seed, $5,600 at Series A in our scenarios. Check yours with our Delaware franchise tax calculator.

Does treasury yield really cover the stack?

At today's published rates, yes, by a wide margin once you have raised: at seed, $2,500,000 of idle cash in Mercury's treasury product would earn about $85,750 a year, more than the middle stack ($25,325). Rates move every month, money market funds are not FDIC-insured, and yield is income, not a discount, so we show it next to the stack rather than netting it off.

A finance stack is a set of budget lines; to see them next to hiring, revenue and runway, model it in Adlega.