--- title: "How do I verify Stripe revenue before buying a SaaS?" url: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-verify-stripe-revenue-before-buying-a-saas/ updated: 2026-10-07 publisher: FirstPass Memo (hello@firstpassmemo.com) --- Answers # How do I verify Stripe revenue before buying a SaaS? Short answer: Ask the seller to add you to Stripe with the View Only role, or to share their screen while you click through it yourself. Export 12 to 24 months of charges, refunds and payouts, match payouts to bank deposits, and check that stated MRR equals revenue actually collected. Screenshots and PDFs prove nothing. Updated 7 October 2026 · Figures checked against their sources on 7 October 2026 ## What Stripe access should I ask the seller for? Ask the seller to invite you to their Stripe account with the View Only role, which, according to Stripe's documentation on user roles (read 7 October 2026), can see payments, balances, payouts, disputes and customers and download financial reports and bulk exports, but cannot refund, pay out or change settings. If the seller will not add a user, a live screen share where you choose what to click is the next best option. Screenshots, PDFs and spreadsheets exported by the seller are easy to edit and prove nothing on their own. Use them only to know what to look for once you have access. ## What five checks prove Stripe revenue is real? Five reconciliations cover most Stripe revenue checks for a small SaaS: charges to payouts to bank deposits, stated MRR against revenue actually collected, refunds and disputes, the top customer's share, and the effect of coupons and annual plans. Export 12 to 24 months before starting. - Charges to payouts to bank. Payouts in Stripe should match deposits on the business bank statement, month by month. - MRR against collected revenue. Stated MRR should be close to what was actually charged last month. Our checker flags MRR above revenue collected (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/mrr-above-revenue-collected/). - Refunds and disputes. A rising refund or dispute rate can hide behind steady gross charges. - Top customer share. Sort customers by lifetime payments; one customer above a quarter of revenue is a concentration risk (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/top-customer-over-25-percent/). - Coupons and annual plans. Annual prepayments inflate one month; heavy discounts mean MRR may fall when they expire. ## What are the signs of inflated MRR in a SaaS listing? Inflated MRR shows up when stated MRR is higher than last month's collected revenue, when ARR is far above the last 12 months of actual revenue, or when ARR is not roughly 12 times MRR. Each of these is a rule in our free checker, and the composite below raises all three. Composite example, not a real listing B2B SaaS for appointment reminders Asking price: $90,000 MRR: $6,200 ARR: $96,000 Last month revenue: $5,100 TTM revenue: $58,000 Average monthly profit: $3,600 Churn: 4% monthly Business age: 3 years Owner hours: 6 hours per week Traffic sources typed in: Organic search 25%, Direct 45%, Referral 30%. What the red-flag checker (https://firstpassmemo.com/checker/) returns: a payback of 25 months (2.08× annual profit) on average monthly profit, and these flags: Medium Stated MRR is above last month's revenue MRR $6,200 against $5,100 collected last month. Failed payments, discounts or refunds may sit in between. Ask: Can you reconcile MRR to cash collected (failed payments, discounts, refunds, annual plans)? How this rule works (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/mrr-above-revenue-collected/) Medium Run-rate ARR far above the last 12 months' revenue ARR $96,000 against trailing revenue $58,000. Either growth is very recent or the run-rate is optimistic. Ask: Can you share 12 months of monthly revenue so the ramp is visible? How this rule works (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/arr-far-above-trailing-revenue/) Medium ARR and MRR disagree ARR $96,000 against MRR × 12 = $74,400. One of them is out of date or defined differently. Ask: Which figure is current, and is ARR a run-rate or contracted revenue? How this rule works (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/arr-and-mrr-disagree/) Medium No connected data source mentioned The figures appear to be typed in by the seller. Nothing in the text says revenue or traffic is connected from Stripe, PayPal, analytics or a marketplace check. Ask: Can you give read-only access to the payment processor and analytics, or exports that match the P&L? How this rule works (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/no-connected-data-source/) Low Concentration not disclosed The listing does not say how much revenue comes from the largest customer, affiliate program or traffic partner. Ask: What share of revenue comes from the top 1 and top 3 customers or partners? How this rule works (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/concentration-not-disclosed/) Here stated MRR of $6,200 is above the $5,100 actually collected last month, and $96,000 ARR is far above the $58,000 of revenue in the last 12 months. None of that proves wrongdoing; it might be recent growth. It does mean you should see the Stripe data before an offer. See ARR far above trailing revenue (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/arr-far-above-trailing-revenue/). ## What should I do if the seller refuses Stripe access? If a seller refuses any read-only Stripe access or screen share before an offer, treat the revenue as unverified and price it that way, or walk away. A reasonable middle ground is a signed NDA followed by View Only access, or a letter of intent that makes the offer conditional on reconciling Stripe to the bank. ## What else should I check besides Stripe? Besides Stripe, check churn computed from the same export, because MRR that is real today can still shrink fast. A 4% monthly churn, as in the composite above, keeps about 61% of revenue after a year if new sales stop. The SaaS churn stress test (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/saas-churn-stress-test/) shows what that does to payback, and the micro-SaaS decision page (https://firstpassmemo.com/buy/micro-saas/) lists the remaining checks: code ownership, hosting costs, and what transfers. ## Sources - Stripe Docs, User roles (https://docs.stripe.com/get-started/account/teams/roles), read 7 October 2026 - FirstPass Memo, red-flag checker rules (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/), our own rules, published as /rules.json ## Related - Red flag: MRR above revenue collected (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/mrr-above-revenue-collected/) - Red flag: ARR far above trailing revenue (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/arr-far-above-trailing-revenue/) - SaaS churn stress test (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/saas-churn-stress-test/) - Is buying a micro-SaaS worth it? (https://firstpassmemo.com/buy/micro-saas/) - How to value a small SaaS (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-value-a-small-saas-business/) - Can a Stripe account be transferred? (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-transfer-a-stripe-account-when-you-buy-a-saas/) - Due diligence for a small SaaS (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/due-diligence-checklist-for-buying-a-small-saas/) - Glossary of listing terms (https://firstpassmemo.com/glossary/) - More questions buyers ask (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/) Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice. --- FirstPass Memo is informational screening, not investment, legal, tax, accounting or valuation advice, and not an audit. Seller figures are not independently verified. 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