CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST WORKSHEET
ShowMeYourSaaS — October 26, 2026
Guide: https://showmeyoursaas.com/articles/customer-acquisition-cost/

DEFINE THE VIEW
Period start/end and timezone:
New paying account definition:
Deduplication and reconciliation date:
Cost categories included:
Allocation rule for shared staff, software, and content:
Treatment of presale onboarding versus post-sale delivery:
Expected lag from acquisition work to first payment:
Currency:

CASH ACQUISITION EXPENSE
Advertising and sponsorships:
Acquisition content and creative:
Acquisition share of staff/contractor costs:
Sales assistance, commissions, and related costs:
Acquisition share of software and relevant overhead:
Total (avoid counting invoices twice):
New paying accounts (exclude expansion seats):
Cash CAC = total cash acquisition expense / new paying accounts
If new paying accounts = 0: record CAC as undefined, with spend and count visible.

SEPARATE EFFORT-ADJUSTED VIEW
Founder acquisition hours:
Hypothetical internal hourly value:
Estimated founder effort = hours × rate
Effort-adjusted CAC = (cash expense + estimated effort) / new paying accounts
This estimate is not an additional cash payment.

FICTIONAL QUARTER — NOT A COMPANY RESULT OR BENCHMARK
Ads: $1,200
Acquisition writing: $600
Acquisition software: $200
Sales assistance: $1,000
Cash total: $3,000
New paying accounts: 20
Cash CAC: $3,000 / 20 = $150
Founder effort: 40 hours × illustrative $50/hour = $2,000
Effort-adjusted CAC: $5,000 / 20 = $250

CHANNEL RECONCILIATION — ONE ROW PER CHANNEL
Channel:
Attribution rule (first touch, last touch, manually reviewed, other):
Attributed new paying accounts:
Direct advertising spend:
Other acquisition costs allocated to this channel:
Unattributed and overlapping accounts:
Fully allocated channel expense / attributed accounts:
Do not sum conflicting attribution systems as if customers were unique.

The fictional ad platform attributes 8 purchases to $1,200 spend:
$1,200 / 8 = $150 ad spend per attributed purchase.
That is not fully loaded paid CAC and does not include every acquisition cost.

TIMING AND COHORT VIEW
Campaign/acquisition cohort:
Cost window and allocation:
Conversion cutoff and maturity:
Customers gained after the period:
Partial-window limitations:

SIMPLE PAYBACK SCENARIO — INVENTED ASSUMPTIONS
Monthly revenue per account: $40
Monthly variable delivery cost: $10
Monthly contribution before other expenses: $30
$150 cash CAC / $30 = 5 months.
$250 effort-adjusted CAC / $30 = about 8.33 months.
Assumes continued payment, retention, and stable costs. Excludes fixed overhead,
taxes, financing, discounts, and changes in usage. Not a forecast.

DECISION
Activation and retention of acquired accounts:
One acquisition-path problem supported by evidence:
Experiment, cost ceiling, and completed observation window:
Owner and next review date: