Blog
Practical explanations of subscription KPIs: MRR, churn, NRR, ARPA, LTV and cohorts. How to calculate them from Exact Online, and why they don't roll out of your bookkeeping on their own.
How to calculate your MRR from Exact Online
Your accounting knows exactly what you invoiced last month. What it does not know is how much recurring revenue you have today. Here is how to make that calculation, and which choices to fix in advance.
Read moreCalculating churn rate, and why you see it too late
New sales are loud, churn is quiet. The arithmetic is trivial, and yet most subscription businesses only see their churn spike once it is a fact they are managing.
Read moreWhat is NRR, and why it is not in your accounting
NRR is the metric an investor asks about first and an entrepreneur can give last. That is no coincidence: it is also the only one you really cannot read off your accounting.
Read moreThe five movements under your revenue line
Your MRR went up by €1,700. That is the number named in the board meeting, and it is the least informative number you have.
Read moreARPA, the number that falls while your customer count rises
ARPA is the easiest metric to calculate and the easiest to misread. It is one division, and that very simplicity is why almost no one looks at it properly.
Read moreLTV: what a customer is worth to you, and why the standard formula makes you too rich
LTV is the metric that most easily impresses and most easily misleads. The sum underneath rests on three assumptions rarely made out loud.
Read moreCohort analysis for subscription businesses
Your churn has been around 2% a month for two years. Stable, manageable, no cause for concern. And yet last year's customers may have done considerably better than this year's.
Read moreFour routes to subscription reporting on Exact Online
By now you know which numbers you are missing and why your accounting does not show them. The question is what you do about it. There are four routes, and they are rarely laid side by side.
Read moreSeven steps between your accounting and your first metric
Everyone who does this knows it is work. Almost no one has ever written it down. In that list sits the answer to why almost no subscription business keeps this up monthly.
Read more