Treatment of Long Term Deferred Revenue in Tech/SaaS

I think these are 2 different things. 
 

For EBITDA, SaaS is often paid annually in advance, so the ST deferred represents cash received for anything in the next 12 months of contract length / revenue recognition. So lenders are recognizing that you have already received cash, and just haven’t recognized the revenue as it’ll be recognized within the next 12 months. So they give you credit for that, cuz nothing needs to be done to recognize revenue and EBITDA, other than time passing. 
 

For working capital, ST deferred is treated as ordinary course working capital, because it’s just how the SaaS business model works and should be predictable. LT deferred is often treated as a debt-like deduction to purchase price. This is because it’s sort of unfair to be collecting cash for contracts 2-5+ years down the line and having that cash as an addition to purchase price. Because then the buyer is not getting any benefit from those contracts down the line and has to continue to service the customer. So treating it like debt just nets out the cash you are adding to purchase price. 
 

and LT is not part of cash EBITDA cuz it’s not an annual number. You shouldn’t be getting annual EBITDA credit for the full value of 2-5+ year deals.