Lifecycle of a subscription

Subscription Lifecycle is ChartMogul's way of tracking every change a customer makes to their subscription — from their first purchase through upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, and reactivations — and classifying each change as an MRR movement.

ChartMogul tracks each of these changes as MRR movements — shifts in monthly recurring revenue caused by subscription changes — and displays them on the customer's record and in the Report Data table below reports.

How ChartMogul Classifies MRR Movements

Imagine your company offers the following subscription plans:

In addition to the Gold and Silver paid plans, you also offer a free, time-limited trial.

Now, let's look at a fictional subscriber — Tetoko — and see how ChartMogul uses MRR movements (changes in monthly recurring revenue triggered by subscription events) to organize and report on changes to their subscriptions.

New Business: First subscription from a customer

• Billing: $2,000 (4 × Gold yearly plans)
• MRR: $166.67 ($2,000 ÷ 12)
• Movement: New Business — first subscription from this customer

Each movement type below uses this same format: Billing shows what you charged, MRR shows the normalized monthly value, and Movement shows how ChartMogul classifies the change.

Expansion: An existing customer adds a subscription

A few days later, Tetoko adds two Silver monthly plans. You bill them $60. ChartMogul calculates the MRR as $60 and—because this is an additional subscription for an existing customer—classifies it as Expansion (and not New Business). 

Contraction: An existing customer reduces their MRR

Two weeks later, Tetoko realizes they don't need the Silver plan and cancels their subscription mid-cycle (before the current billing period is over). Since they have another active subscription, ChartMogul classifies the $60 in MRR as Contraction — a reduction in MRR from an existing customer who still has at least one active subscription (rather than Churn).

Neutral: A discount that zeroes out MRR change

A few months later, Tetoko's champion (the internal contact who manages the relationship with your company) tells an account manager they're thinking about canceling. The account manager applies a 100% discount on the Silver plan until the Gold plan renews. ChartMogul records this as a neutral movement — a subscription change that results in no net change in MRR.

Churn: A customer cancels their last active subscription

Near the end of their first year on the Gold yearly plan, Tetoko cancels their subscription to cut costs.

Because this was their last active subscription, ChartMogul classifies it as Churn and records it at the end of the current billing period — Tetoko already paid for the full year.

Reactivation: A former customer re-subscribes

Great news, Tetoko re-subscribes! This time, they choose three Gold monthly plans. As a former paying subscriber, ChartMogul classifies the MRR as Reactivation with a value of $150.