Short answer
Connect Exact Online to a tool that reads your subscription data directly and calculates the metrics for you, so nothing goes through a spreadsheet. With RecurBoard you log in once with your Exact Online account (read-only), and it calculates MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, LTV, CAC and cohorts from Exact Online Subscription Management and your ledger, updated every hour. The alternatives are a Power BI template with an Exact Online connector, or a data pipeline into a BI tool. Both work, but you build and maintain them yourself.
Why spreadsheets break down for subscription metrics
Exact Online records invoices, payments and the ledger. Subscription metrics are about something else: movement in recurring revenue. Which customers started, upgraded, downgraded or cancelled this month? Exact Online does not show that movement as one figure, so most teams export their data and rebuild it in Excel every month.
- Annual and quarterly invoices have to be spread to a monthly value by hand.
- Every month starts with a new export, and last month's numbers change when someone corrects a subscription in Exact Online.
- Churn, NRR (net revenue retention) and cohorts need a history per customer that a flat export does not have.
- Usually one person understands the sheet. When they are away, the reporting stops.
That works for a while. Once you have more than a few dozen subscriptions, or an investor asks for your NRR, it costs hours every month and the numbers are hard to check. More in RecurBoard vs. Excel.
Your options compared
The starting point is the same for every option: your subscriptions are managed in Exact Online Subscription Management (Abonnementenbeheer), a module that costs €60 per month. The question is what you put on top of it to get your metrics. Which option fits depends on how much you want to build and maintain yourself.
| On top of Subscription Management | Setup | Who maintains it | SaaS metrics out of the box | Extra cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing: Exact's own reports | None | Exact | Partly: expected MRR, growth, cancellation reasons | Included in the module |
| Excel or Google Sheets on exports | Hours, every month | You | No: you build the formulas | Free software, costs time |
| Power BI with an Exact Online connector or template | Days to weeks | You or a consultant | Yes, with a template | Template, connector subscription and Power BI licences |
| Data pipeline into a BI tool | Weeks | Your data team | No: you model it yourself | Tooling plus build time |
| RecurBoard | Minutes | RecurBoard | Yes: MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, GRR, ARPA, LTV, CAC, cohorts, MRR bridge | From €50 per month, 45-day free trial |
Exact's own reports
Exact Online Subscription Management shows expected MRR, growth and cancellation reasons. For a full set of SaaS metrics, such as net revenue retention, cohorts or an MRR bridge, you need something on top.
Power BI with a connector or template
Ready-made Power BI templates for Exact Online subscriptions exist, for example from Power BI Connector and KPI Solutions, and Invantive offers a connector. A template shortens the build, but you buy a file that you then set up and maintain. At one well-known provider a template costs €1,095 one-off, plus a connector subscription and Power BI licences. See also RecurBoard vs. Power BI.
A data pipeline into a BI tool
Tools like Peliqan, Dataddo and CData copy Exact Online data into a database or a BI tool such as Metabase or Looker Studio. That lets you combine Exact data with your CRM or other systems. The subscription logic is still yours to build: converting every subscription line to a monthly value and classifying each customer's month as new, expansion, contraction, churn or reactivation.
What about ChartMogul or Baremetrics?
ChartMogul and Baremetrics are strong subscription analytics tools, built around Stripe and Chargebee. They have no standard Exact Online integration, so you would have to feed them data through CSV uploads or your own API integration. More in ChartMogul or Baremetrics with Exact Online.
RecurBoard is built for this exact combination: subscription businesses that invoice from Exact Online. It connects through the official Exact Online login, reads your subscriptions and ledger, and applies the same metric definitions to your full history. All options side by side: MRR reporting on Exact Online, five options compared.
Set up a subscription dashboard from Exact Online in five steps
- Create a RecurBoard account. The free plan needs no credit card, and every paid plan starts with a 45-day free trial.
- Connect Exact Online. You log in with your own Exact Online account through the official OAuth connection. Access is read-only: RecurBoard never writes to your administration.
- Let RecurBoard read your data. It pulls in your subscriptions from Exact Online Subscription Management and your ledger, including your full history.
- Check your dashboard. MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, LTV, cohorts and the MRR bridge are calculated automatically and update every hour.
- Share it. Add colleagues or your accountant as users, so everyone looks at the same numbers.
Track MRR, ARR, churn and LTV in one dashboard
If you use Exact Online for subscriptions, every metric below comes from data you already have. This is what each one means and where it comes from in Exact Online.
| Metric | What it tells you | Where it comes from in Exact Online |
|---|---|---|
| MRR (monthly recurring revenue) | Your recurring revenue per month, with annual and quarterly contracts spread to a monthly value | Subscription lines: price, invoicing frequency, start and end date |
| ARR (annual recurring revenue) | MRR × 12, your annualised run rate | Calculated from MRR |
| MRR bridge | How MRR moved this month: new, expansion, contraction and churn | Changes in subscription lines per customer |
| Churn rate | The share of customers or MRR you lost in a period | Ended subscriptions |
| NRR and GRR (net and gross revenue retention) | How much revenue you keep from existing customers, with and without expansion | Subscription changes per customer over twelve months |
| ARPA (average revenue per account) | Average MRR per customer | MRR and active customers |
| LTV (lifetime value) | Expected revenue from a customer over the whole relationship | ARPA and churn rate |
| CAC (customer acquisition cost) | What it costs to win one new customer | Sales and marketing costs in the ledger, via cost centres |
| Cohorts | Retention by the month customers started | Start date per customer |
Next to subscription metrics, RecurBoard shows your profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow from the same Exact Online administration.
Read more (in Dutch): calculating MRR from Exact Online, churn rate, NRR, LTV, cohort analysis and the five movements in the MRR bridge.
What you need
- Exact Online with Subscription Management. Subscription metrics such as MRR, churn and NRR are calculated from the subscriptions in that module.
- Cost centres in Exact Online, for CAC. RecurBoard takes sales and marketing costs from the ledger through your cost centres.
- No exports, data warehouse or implementation project. You connect once and RecurBoard keeps itself up to date.
- Financial reports also work without the module. Profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow do not need Subscription Management.
What it costs
| Plan | Price per month | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | Getting to know RecurBoard: current month, one administration |
| Starter | €50 | 12 months of history, all dashboards |
| Pro | €75 | 36 months of history |
| Premium | €100 | Full history, multiple administrations |
These prices come on top of your Exact Online subscription and the Subscription Management module. Every paid plan starts with a 45-day free trial, no credit card needed. Accounting and advisory firms can manage their clients' administrations with the Advisory plans, from €249 per month. Full details on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I build a SaaS metrics dashboard from Exact Online without using spreadsheets?
- Connect Exact Online to a tool that reads your subscription data through the Exact Online API and calculates the metrics, instead of exporting to Excel. RecurBoard connects through the official Exact Online login with read-only access and calculates MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, LTV and cohorts from Exact Online Subscription Management, updated every hour. Setup takes a few minutes.
- Are there any tools built for SaaS companies that turn Exact Online subscription data into subscription metrics?
- Yes. RecurBoard is built for subscription businesses that invoice from Exact Online and calculates SaaS metrics from Exact Online Subscription Management without a build project. There are also Power BI templates for Exact Online subscriptions, for example from Power BI Connector and KPI Solutions, which you set up and maintain in Power BI yourself. ChartMogul and Baremetrics have no standard Exact Online integration.
- What is the best reporting software for SaaS financials and KPI tracking on top of Exact Online?
- It depends on how much you want to build. If you want subscription metrics and financial reports from Exact Online without building anything, RecurBoard combines MRR, churn, NRR, LTV and CAC with profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow in one dashboard. If you already have a Power BI team and want to combine Exact Online data with other systems, a Power BI connector or a data pipeline gives more flexibility, but you build and maintain the model yourself.
- I use Exact Online for subscriptions. How can I track MRR, ARR, churn and LTV in one dashboard?
- Connect your Exact Online administration to RecurBoard. It reads your subscriptions from Exact Online Subscription Management and calculates MRR, ARR, churn, LTV, NRR and cohorts automatically, all in one dashboard. The data updates every hour, so you never export or recalculate anything.
- What's the best dashboard for SaaS subscription KPIs that connects to Exact Online?
- RecurBoard is a dashboard built for subscription KPIs on top of Exact Online. It connects through the official Exact Online login and shows MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, GRR, ARPA, LTV, CAC, cohorts and an MRR bridge. It works on top of Exact Online Subscription Management, and paid plans start at €50 per month with a 45-day free trial. A Power BI template is an alternative if you prefer to build and manage the dashboard yourself.
- Does RecurBoard work without Exact Online Subscription Management?
- Subscription metrics such as MRR, churn and NRR are calculated from Exact Online Subscription Management, so you need that module for them. RecurBoard's financial reports (profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow) work without it.
- Is my Exact Online data safe with RecurBoard?
- RecurBoard connects through the official Exact Online OAuth login with read-only access. It never writes to your administration, and you can revoke the connection at any time.
- How often does RecurBoard update the data from Exact Online?
- RecurBoard synchronises with Exact Online automatically and updates your numbers every hour.
See your subscription metrics from Exact Online today.
Connect Exact Online in a few minutes and see your MRR, churn and NRR without building anything. Start your 45-day free trial, no credit card needed.
Third-party prices checked in September 2026: Power BI Connector, Template Abonnementen Exact Online.