Subscription Metrics

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Subscription metrics track changes to recurring or transactional items, like creation, termination, price/quantity modifications, to display the recurring revenue or growth/churn rates for individual subscriptions on a monthly base, producing MRR values. Subscription metrics are related to the account and the subscription.

MRR metrics or cash metrics?

The decision whether to create MRR metrics or cash metric depends on your reporting requirements. Investors or shareholders of a business may want forecasts on recurring revenues. In this case, you would create account metrics or subscription metrics and build reports based on the produced MRR and churn data. A business's directors or managers, however, may rather need a cash flow forecast – so you would create cash metrics and build reports upon them.

For details on configuring the subscription metrics creation, see Subscription Metrics.

Subscription Metrics Data

Relevant values, which you are likely to use in your reports, include:

Actual: The actual amount (MRR value) of this metric, the sum of Previous + Initial + Change
Initial: The initial MRR value, set only on the first metric record of a metric chain
Previous: The MRR value of the previous metric record in the metric chain
Change: The change of the MRR based on the previous MRR
Smooth Change: The "combined" changes of two consecutive metric records (created within two days), used to "smooth out" large swings in chart representations
Expansion: The absolute expansion (raise of the MRR value) if Change is positive
Churn: The absolute churn (decline of the MRR value) if Change is negative

Complete subscription metric data model

Field	Description
Account	The related account (secondary master-detail); the metric record is deleted when the account is deleted.
Actual	The actual amount of this metric `Previous + Initial + Change`
Change	The change of the MRR based on the previous MRR.
Churn Rate (Gross)	The gross churn rate is the ratio between `Churn` and `Actual`. `IF(Actual=0,1,Churn/Actual)`
Churn Rate (Net)	The net churn rate is the ratio between `Change` and `Actual`. `IF(Actual=0,1,Change/Actual)`
Churn	The absolute churn if the change is negative. `IF(Change < 0,ABS(Change),null)`
Date	The effective date of this metric, depends on the kind of change (add/subtract) and the service period/next invoice date of the item.
Expansion	The absolute expansion if the change is positive. `IF(Change > 0,Change,null)`
Growth Rate	The growth rate is the ratio between `Change` and `Previous`. `IF(Previous=0,null,Change/Previous)`
Initial	Holds the initial MRR value. Only filled if the change date equals the start date of the first subscription.
Is Latest (checkbox)	Marks the latest metric record for a particular item criterion.
Item Criterion	The criterion shows which items have been aggregated to this metric.
Items	The names of the related items that caused the current change.
Next Metric	Links to the next metric record, which supersedes the current record.
Previous Metric	Links to the previous metric record, which is superseded by the current record.
Previous	Holds the MRR value of the previous metric record.
Retention Rate	The opposite of the gross churn rate. The sum of the two is always 100%. `1-ChurnRateGross`
Smooth Change	The smooth change formula allows to report two consecutive metrics (within two days) as one (like `-50` and `+70` is reported as `+20`)
Subscription	The related subscription (primary master-detail); the metric record is deleted when the subscription is deleted.

Subscription Metric Generation

Generally, the account metric generation and the subscription metric generation are nearly identical. They use the same subscriptions and items as input and follow the same rules that trigger the metric creation.

The difference is:

Metric data for subscription metrics is aggregated on subscription basis.
Metric data for account metrics is aggregated on account basis, that is, for all subscriptions of an account.

The decision whether to create subscription metrics or account metrics is controlled via the global setting Subscription Metrics Scope.

Subscription Metric Generation Triggers

Generally, the following item actions produce new or changed metric records:

Creating a recurring item
Creating a transactional item with expected revenue
Ending a subscription or item using an end date

You can set the end date retroactively within one month to trigger the end metric creation.
Deactivating an item
Changing the price/quantity of an item

To actually create or update subscription metric records, you schedule the subscription metric builder job.

Workflow Details

Subscription metric records and account metric records are created on subscription or item change if the following conditions are met:

Subscription

Status is not set to Draft
That is, subscriptions with the statuses Active, Inactive, Canceled or Upgraded (or any custom status) are subject to the metric generation.

Recurring item

Billing type is Recurring, Recurring Prorated or Recurring Prorated AVG
Item is created
Quantity or price is changed
Item is deactivated
Items that are inactive already are not subject to the metrics generation.
End date is set
Items whose end date had already passed are not subject to the metrics generation.

Transactional item

Billing type is not Recurring, Recurring Prorated, Recurring Prorated AVG or One-Time
Item is created
Expected revenue is changed
Item is deactivated
Items that are inactive already are not subject to the metrics generation.
End date is set
Items whose end date had already passed are not subject to the metrics generation.

Changing the start date or deleting an item does not trigger the metrics generation. To cover start date modifications, you deactivate the original item and create a new one with the new start date. To cover an item removal, you deactivate the item.

In addition, the following rules apply:

Each change results in a new metric record that is linked to the previous record.
If the change date equals the start date of the first subscription, the field Initial is set.
Subsequent metric records have filled the fields Previous and Change.
The first record is set to the start date of the item or subscription.
As of v2.84, the global settings option Ignore Invoices for MRR Metrics decides whether subsequent metric records are set to the item's next invoice date or start from the original start date. If activated, item price or quantity changes update MRR metrics starting from the relevant start date, irrespective of the item's next invoice date. This way, it is possible to decouple the metrics creation from existing invoices.

With new v2.84 installations, this option is activated by default. When upgrading from previous versions, this option is not selected, which keeps the previous behavior of using the item's next invoice date for subsequent metric records.

If you use the option Ignore Invoices for MRR Metrics, JustOn strongly recommends to deactivate the original item and create a new one with the new price or quantity instead of just modifying the values. This makes sure that the produced metrics represent the effective values throughout the covered period.
A final metric record for an item is created only if the end date of the item is actually reached (that is, if the end date equals the current date or a previous date), or if the subscription is canceled.
The final metric record is set to the day after the end date of the item.
Metrics are continued from upgraded subscriptions (related via the subscription field Previous Subscription).

Compatibility considerations – JustOn Billing & Invoice Management 2.81

Up to version 2.80, JustOn Billing & Invoice Management used the item end date for the final metric record, not the day after. This caused the metric amount to be reduced on the last day of the item period – when the item was still valid. This resulted in "spikes" in the metric chain that had to be "smoothed out" using the Smooth Change formula.

Starting with version 2.81, JustOn Billing & Invoice Management sets the final metric record date to the day after the end date of the item. This provides for a "smooth" transition between items, preventing breaks in the metric chain – or large swings in chart representations.

Note that metrics produced using the previous end date handling are not updated automatically. The new end date handling is used only for new items for which no metrics have been created so far or if the end date of an item has been modified.

JustOn Billing & Invoice Management detects the previous end date handling checking the item field Previous End Date. If the metric date is set to the item or subscription end date, this means that the metric record has been created using the previous end date handling. In this case, the metric end date will not be updated.

Subscription Metric Chains

By default, JustOn aggregates the items of a subscription to one metric chain, where the metric records have a predecessor and a successor. Optionally, the subscription metric records can be grouped by an item criterion, for example, the product group. The resulting metrics are organized in metric chains per criterion. This allows you to build reports that reflect changes that result in growth or churn based on a specific criterion.

MRR chain
Applying an item criterion, JustOn produces metric chains per criterion

Price Tier Handling

Both account metrics and subscription metrics support items with multiple price tier groups. With this respect, be aware of the following specifics:

If there are price tier groups defined for an item, JustOn uses the start dates, end dates and prices of the price tier groups to set the date and price values for the metric records.

When generating metrics, JustOn does not consider multiple prices per price tier group but always uses the price of the first tier.
When adding a new price tier group for an item where the next invoice date (Next Service Period Start) is after the item start date, JustOn will use the next invoice date to set the date for the metric record instead of the item start date. This behavior is equivalent to the invoice creation: Assume, for example, you have already invoiced an item, and then specify a price increase where the start date of the price increase precedes the last invoice date. In this case, the new price will be applied with next invoice only, not for the existing one.

Info

It is not possible to add a new price tier group to an item without existing price tier groups for which you have already created metric records. To support this use case, you

Create a new item with price tier groups instead, and
Set an end date for the previous item.

Note

Changing the dates of a price tier group or deleting a price tier group of an item does not trigger the metrics generation. To support these use cases, you

Deactivate the original item (including its price tier groups), and
Create a new item with the correct price tier information.

Subscription Metrics Examples

Single subscription

The following example illustrates the subscription metric generation on a basic level, that is, without applying criteria. This produces a single metric chain.

There is a subscription with the start date set to 2019-01-01 and the following items:

Start and end dates trigger subscription metric record creation

Based on the given subscription items, the subscription metric builder job produces these metric records:

Produced subscription metric records

#	Event	Modification
1	REC1 start date	`50,00` initial MRR value `50,00` actual amount
2	REC2 start date	`270,00` (positive) change `270,00` expansion value `320,00` actual amount
3	REC3 start date	`30,00` (positive) change `30,00` expansion value `350,00` actual amount
4	REC2 end date	`-270,00` (negative) change `270,00` churn value `80,00` actual amount
5	REC1 end date	`-50,00` (negative) change `50,00` churn value `30,00` actual amount

If there are end dates set for items, JustOn produces the corresponding end metrics.

Subscription cancellation

Now assume you cancel the subscription before an item end date is reached. This forces JustOn to generate one end metric record for the current metric chain that includes all items, irrespective of their end date settings.

Produced subscription metric records after cancelling the subscription

#	Event	Modification
1	REC1 start date	`50,00` initial MRR value `50,00` actual amount
2	REC2 start date	`270,00` (positive) change `270,00` expansion value `320,00` actual amount
3	REC3 start date	`30,00` (positive) change `30,00` expansion value `350,00` actual amount
4	subscription end date	`-350,00` (negative) change `350,00` churn value `0,00` actual amount

Subscription upgrade

Let us consider a subscription upgrade: There is a subscription with one item of 100 Euros, then you upgrade this subscription, raising the item's price to 125 Euros. There will be two subscriptions with their metric records. But because they all originate from the same item, the metric records will be aggregated in one metric chain, which allows for tracking the MRR for the item.

Produced subscription metric records of one subscription after upgrading it

Produced subscription metric records of the second subscription

#	Event	Modification
1	item start on subscription 1	`100,00` initial MRR value `100,00` actual amount
2	subscription 1 end	`-100,00` (negative) change `100,00` churn value `0,00` actual amount
3	item modification on subscription 2	`125,00` (positive) change `25,00` smooth change (= combined previous `-100,00` change and current `125,00` change) `125,00` expansion value `125,00` actual amount

Metric Fields on Subscriptions

The subscription includes the field Initial MRR. It shows the sum of the initial MRR values of active recurring items at the subscription start.

You can define additional fields on the subscription that summarize subscription metric data. Use this to calculate the current or future MRR values, like Current MRR or MRR in One Year.

Example metrics-related fields on subscriptions

Field	Purpose
Last MRR Update	Shows the date on which the MRR fields were last calculated.
Current MRR	Shows the current MRR over all recurring items.
MRR in One Year	Shows the MRR in one year, based on the last MRR update.

The MRR fields are set up individually for your org by an administrator. Be aware that the field labels as well as the count/month configuration may vary.