ChartMogul Subscription Analytics uses data it obtains from your billing system to calculate the metrics you see throughout our platform.
You can learn more about why metrics in ChartMogul may differ from your billing system in another article. Here we focus on how to compare the metrics you see in ChartMogul to the data in your billing system.
Here's what we cover in this article:
- Comparing ChartMogul data to your billing system
- Reviewing individual customer records
- Using filters to audit your metrics
Before you begin
Familiarize yourself with how ChartMogul organizes and classifies MRR movements.
Comparing ChartMogul data to your billing system
When comparing data in ChartMogul to the data stored in your billing system, an excellent place to start is checking how the following metrics are the same — or different — in both systems:
- MRR
- Cash flow
- Number of customers
Differences between some of these numbers — but not others — may offer insight into how each system works with and presents your data.
For instance, if ChartMogul reports fewer active customers, this may explain why MRR is also underreported. If cash flow is still aligned between the two systems, this could indicate that some subscriptions are not yet contributing to MRR in ChartMogul.
Read more about why subscription metrics in ChartMogul may differ from your billing system. ChartMogul also offers several settings that determine how we calculate your subscription analytics. For select billing systems, review the Invoiced Customer Handling setting.
We recommend familiarizing yourself with these settings and selecting the best one for your business when setting up ChartMogul. Changing these settings requires a complete re-sync of your billing system data, which can take some time to complete, depending on the volume of data stored in your billing system.
Using ChartMogul’s interface to identify import issues
Some discrepancies between ChartMogul and your billing system can be accounted for by issues encountered during data import.
For instance, the data format may be invalid or be otherwise unsupported by ChartMogul. This can happen at the level of the customer data, invoices, invoice line items, or transactions.
If you're an Admin and your integration supports data tables, you can find such issues by selecting a source and checking Only show rows with errors. You can also see items ChartMogul is still processing. Review your integration guide to see if data tables are supported for your integration.
Reviewing individual customer records
Comparing a customer's record in ChartMogul to their record in your billing system is a great way to understand how ChartMogul uses a customer’s data to calculate metrics.
Start by finding a chart whose metrics you would like to understand better. Then use the table below the chart to drill into the data. You can see which customers are contributing to the chart and then drill down to an individual customer.
Connecting MRR to underlying transactions
There are two important things you can see on a customer's page: 1) MRR throughout their lifecycle, and 2) how this ties to their transactions history.
It’s important to note that MRR is not the same as a monthly transaction. Looking at how ChartMogul interprets an invoice payment can provide insight into how we’ve calculated MRR for that customer.
Here’s a breakdown of a sample transaction:
ChartMogul correctly identifies this transaction as a subscription event (as opposed to a non-recurring line item). We then determine the service period is monthly and exclude taxes from the transaction total to calculate an MRR of $133 for the customer:
ChartMogul derives Howdy-do Corp.'s MRR from the transaction type and service period (excluding taxes).
By looking closely at the transaction, you can see how we calculate the MRR and what information we are receiving from your billing system.
For instance, if you find a payment that hasn’t contributed to MRR as expected, ChartMogul may have categorized it as a non-recurring payment. In this case, we recommend checking the line item type in the billing system.
Seeing a customer's behavior across ChartMogul
Once you have looked at a specific customer — or set of customers — in detail, a useful way to see how ChartMogul uses their data to calculate metrics is by adding a tag to each customer record, such as "Audit." Then, use this tag to filter charts and reports.
For example, in the MRR chart, you’ll see how these customers contribute to MRR over time. Whereas the cash flow charts allow you to see an aggregation of their payments, refunds, and taxes.
When you’re done, use the tag manager to remove the tag.
Using filters to audit your metrics
Using filters can be useful in auditing your subscription metrics, as they will help understand how ChartMogul treats a specific set of customers.
Below are some ideas on how to use filters in ChartMogul. Drill even further into your data by combining multiple filters.
Filtering by customer status
The Customer status allows you to filter for customers by their status in ChartMogul. Only customers with the status Active Subscriber or Past-due Subscriber contribute to MRR.
Filtering by source
If you’ve connected multiple billing systems, use the Source filter to see ChartMogul calculates analytics for each system. Billing systems vary in how they treat customers, which may differ from how ChartMogul interprets customers from each system.
Filtering by Subscriber since
Use the Subscriber since filter to focus on specific cohorts of customers.
Filtering by tags or custom attributes
Enrich your customer data using tags and custom attributes to focus on a group of customers.
ChartMogul adds tags to customers, such as auto-churned-delinquent-subscription and merged-customer. Learn more about tags.
Next Steps
Find out more about how we calculate our metrics, including MRR, customer lifetime value (LTV), and churn rates in our Help Center’s Guide section.