SaaS Agent SLA-COGS Treatment Skill

Overview

SLA-related cost lines hit the income statement in four places — COGS, contra-revenue, S&M, or G&A. The classification is not a stylistic choice; it is an accounting policy under ASC 606 / IFRS 15 (for the contra-revenue items) and under standard cost-classification guidance (for the opex items). Getting it wrong:

• Overstates revenue (if SLA credits are misclassified as opex)
• Understates COGS (if SLA-defence HITL labour is misclassified as G&A)
• Distorts gross margin (the metric investors lean on hardest)
• Triggers audit adjustments and DD findings

This skill installs the classification discipline and the disclosure policy.

Use When

• An agent product has contractual SLA commitments and credits, refunds, or related costs
• The income statement must reconcile to gross margin and contribution margin investors will lean on
• An audit firm or DD team has asked for the cost-classification policy
• Cross-loaded with saas-agent-revenue-recognition, saas-agent-deferred-revenue-and-credit-reserves, and saas-agent-unit-economics-and-cogs