Last updated on Friday, August 22, 2025
Usage-based pricing is growing fast. SaaS, cloud, media, even manufacturing companies are tying revenue to consumption. Customers love the flexibility. But for Finance and RevOps, it creates a forecasting puzzle.
Traditional pipeline-to-close forecasting doesn’t work when revenue depends on how much customers actually use a product. Without clear benchmarks, companies end up guessing. That means missed revenue targets, late churn reactions, or expansion opportunities that slip by.
Benchmarks give teams a way to measure themselves. They set a standard for what “good” looks like. And they help Sales, Finance, and Customer Success work from the same set of numbers.
Target: Stay within ±90-95% at the account level by mid-quarter, and ±95-97% on total business by month end.
Revenue tied to consumption can swing quickly, so accuracy has to be tighter than most companies are used to. Leading teams connect real-time usage data directly into their CRM. That way, forecasts update as usage changes instead of waiting for end-of-month reconciliations.
Benchmark 2: Forecast cadence
Target: Weekly updates at a minimum, with many teams moving toward near real-time.
Consumption patterns don’t wait for end-of-quarter reviews. If your forecast only updates once a month, you’re reacting too late to churn or growth. Best-in-class companies refresh forecasts every week or even daily if usage signals are streaming in.
Target: Include at least 3–5 usage signals per product.
Looking at total usage alone won’t cut it. Strong forecasts pull from multiple angles:
The more signals, the sharper the forecast.
Target: One shared forecast across Sales, Finance, and Customer Success.
Misalignment is a common problem. Sales runs pipeline numbers, Finance models revenue, and Customer Success tracks adoption. Without a shared view, each team makes different calls. Companies ahead of the curve keep their forecasts in their CRM where everyone can see (and trust) the same numbers.
Every company sits somewhere on this ladder:
The goal isn’t to jump straight to prescriptive. It’s to move one level up from where you are now.
Usage-based revenue isn’t going away. Customers expect it. But it can make planning unpredictable unless you’re watching the right signals and holding yourself to clear benchmarks.
Companies that measure themselves against these standards are better prepared to:
revVana brings usage forecasting into your CRM. That means:
With the right benchmarks (and the right system) usage-based forecasting stops being guesswork. It becomes a predictable, reliable growth driver.
Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world – and one of the hardest to forecast. Every year brings new threats, new products, and new business models. Managed services expand while licensing contracts evolve into usage-based billing. Vendors chase renewals while service providers juggle utilization. The result? Revenue that looks strong in aggregate but hides deep volatility underneath.
Revenue leakage happens when earned revenue slips through operational cracks. In SaaS, those cracks often repeat monthly and quietly compound. A missed uplift. An unbilled add-on. A renewal processed without an updated rate. Over a few quarters, these small errors become a measurable loss.
Pipeline is not the whole story. It tells you what might happen. You also need signals that show how money actually moves through your business, where it gets stuck, and how close your plan is to reality.