Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)	6 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2012
Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Description of Business	(a) Description of Business SERENA Software, Inc. (“SERENA” or the “Company”) is the largest global independent software company in terms of revenue solely focused on managing change and processes across information technology, or IT, environments. The Company’s products and services primarily address the complexity of application lifecycle management, or ALM, and are used by customers to manage the development of, and control change in, mission critical applications within both mainframe and distributed systems environments. In addition, the Company provides products and services to enable customers to rapidly address IT service management, or ITSM, and business process challenges through the use of visually designed process workflows. The Company’s products and services allow customers to orchestrate and manage their application development, IT and business processes by automating and integrating disparate ALM and ITSM products and processes, improving process visibility and consistency, enhancing software integrity, mitigating application development risks, supporting auditability and regulatory compliance, and boosting productivity. The Company’s revenue is generated by software licenses, maintenance contracts and professional services. The Company’s software products are typically installed within customer IT environments and generally accompanied by renewable annual maintenance contracts.
Basis of Presentation	(b) Basis of Presentation The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The Company has prepared the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Significant Accounting Policies	(c) Significant Accounting Policies The Company’s significant accounting policies are described in the notes to the Company’s consolidated financial statements, included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on April 30, 2012. There have been no changes to the Company’s significant accounting policies.
Spyglass Merger Corp	(d) Spyglass Merger Corp. On March 10, 2006, Spyglass Merger Corp., an affiliate of Silver Lake, a private equity firm, merged with and into us, a transaction we refer to in this report as the “Merger”. As a result of the Merger, our common stock ceased to be traded on the NASDAQ National Market and we became a privately-held company, with approximately 56.5% of our common stock at the time of the merger on a fully diluted basis owned by investment funds affiliated with Silver Lake.
Immaterial Correction of Prior Period Errors	(e) Immaterial Correction of Prior Period Errors Prior to the filing of the Company’s Form 10-Q for the second quarter of fiscal 2013, the Company identified errors related to its interest accrual calculations in fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2011. As a result, the Company’s historical interest expense and the related “accrued interest on term loan and subordinated notes” were overstated. Management evaluated the materiality of the errors from a qualitative and quantitative perspective, and concluded that the errors were immaterial to each of the prior periods but could have been material if corrected in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

6 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2012

Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]

(a) Description of Business

SERENA Software, Inc. (“SERENA” or the “Company”) is the largest global independent software company in terms of revenue solely focused on managing change and processes across information technology, or IT, environments. The Company’s products and services primarily address the complexity of application lifecycle management, or ALM, and are used by customers to manage the development of, and control change in, mission critical applications within both mainframe and distributed systems environments. In addition, the Company provides products and services to enable customers to rapidly address IT service management, or ITSM, and business process challenges through the use of visually designed process workflows. The Company’s products and services allow customers to orchestrate and manage their application development, IT and business processes by automating and integrating disparate ALM and ITSM products and processes, improving process visibility and consistency, enhancing software integrity, mitigating application development risks, supporting auditability and regulatory compliance, and boosting productivity. The Company’s revenue is generated by software licenses, maintenance contracts and professional services. The Company’s software products are typically installed within customer IT environments and generally accompanied by renewable annual maintenance contracts.

Basis of Presentation

(b) Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The Company has prepared the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Significant Accounting Policies

(c) Significant Accounting Policies

The Company’s significant accounting policies are described in the notes to the Company’s consolidated financial statements, included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on April 30, 2012. There have been no changes to the Company’s significant accounting policies.

Spyglass Merger Corp

(d) Spyglass Merger Corp.

On March 10, 2006, Spyglass Merger Corp., an affiliate of Silver Lake, a private equity firm, merged with and into us, a transaction we refer to in this report as the “Merger”. As a result of the Merger, our common stock ceased to be traded on the NASDAQ National Market and we became a privately-held company, with approximately 56.5% of our common stock at the time of the merger on a fully diluted basis owned by investment funds affiliated with Silver Lake.

Immaterial Correction of Prior Period Errors

(e) Immaterial Correction of Prior Period Errors

Prior to the filing of the Company’s Form 10-Q for the second quarter of fiscal 2013, the Company identified errors related to its interest accrual calculations in fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2011. As a result, the Company’s historical interest expense and the related “accrued interest on term loan and subordinated notes” were overstated. Management evaluated the materiality of the errors from a qualitative and quantitative perspective, and concluded that the errors were immaterial to each of the prior periods but could have been material if corrected in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.