Why are metrics in ChartMogul different to what's shown in my billing system?

Most billing systems also provide built-in reports that will allow you to see subscription metrics. However, the data that you will see here may not always match what you see in ChartMogul as different formulas are used to compute those. For reference, you can see how the different metrics are computed in ChartMogul in our help center and you can compare these to how the metrics are computed in your billing system.
Additionally, ChartMogul allows you to export your customer and metric data into CSV files and you can compare these with the data exports in your billing system by using a spreadsheet application like Excel. This will allow you to easily determine where data is missing or not matching.
Let us now discuss further the most common discrepancies seen between ChartMogul and your billing system:
  1. Difference in MRR
  2. Difference in customer number
  3. Difference in customer status
  4. Difference in cash flow
  5. Revenue and MRR

Difference in MRR 

The MRR in the subscription analytics of your billing system can be different to the one in ChartMogul because of different data settings that result in the data being modelled differently. The most common reasons are as follows:
Time zone settings 
Different timezones can cause a discrepancy in MRR. For example, if the timezone in your billing system is set to Pacific time (US), then your timezone in ChartMogul is set to AEST (Australia), this means that invoices in your billing system that are received at the end of the day will be reported as invoices the following day in ChartMogul.
Handing of failed invoices
Some billing systems exclude customers with failed invoices when computing the MRR. In ChartMogul, these are included. Even if a transaction is marked as failed, the amount will still contribute to the MRR.
Refund handling 
With the exception of Stripe, refunds do not impact the MRR in ChartMogul. Even if a transaction was refunded, this is still computed as part of the MRR. You can read more about the refund handling settings here.
Handling of one time payments 
in ChartMogul, one-time payments do not contribute to the MRR - mainly due to the reason that these are not recurring. These payments can be seen in the Net cash flow chart instead. Other billing systems may count this when computing the MRR.
Coupon and discount handling
Discounts in invoices do not impact the computation of the MRR in ChartMogul.
Tax handling 
Taxes that are specified in invoices are deducted from the MRR computation in ChartMogul.
Currency handling
In ChartMogul, you will define a primary currency for your account. If an invoice is received in another currency, this will automatically be converted. The exchange rate we use derived from openexchangerates.org. You can read more about how we handle multiple currencies here.
Handling of what is considered an active customer
A customer is considered as Active in ChartMogul if they have a subscription with an amount greater than $0.00, with a subscription managed by a supported billing system.

If a customer is on a free trial, or has a 100% discount, they will not be reported active in ChartMogul but will be reported as a lead.

When a customer is past due on a payment ChartMogul will assume good faith and will not report the customer churned until their invoice is closed or their subscription is cancelled in the billing system.

If a customer has only one-time payments they will be reported as a lead.

Recognizing Churn
You have 2 main options in recognizing churn in ChartMogul. It's to either recognize the cancellation as a churn immediately, or at the end of the paid up billing period. Depending on what setting you select, this could be different from how your billing system treats cancellations and this could cause a difference in the MRR calculation. You can read more about the churn recognition options in ChartMogul here.
If your billing system shows a different MRR, one way of determining what's causing the difference is by identifying a specific customer showing a different MRR in ChartMogul. From there you should be able to see what is driving the difference.

Difference in customer number

It is also possible that you will see a different number of customers in your billing system and in ChartMogul. The most common reason for this is the way ChartMogul handles customers who haven't paid. For a customer to be considered active and be included in the customer number in ChartMogul, they need to have been successfully billed an amount over $0.00. For this reason customers on a free trial, or with a 100% discount applied will not appear in your ChartMogul dashboard.

Also, note that customers that are invoiced outside of a subscription will contribute to the Non-Recurring Revenue graph and would show the status lead on their customer profile.

ChartMogul allows you to export your customers with filters applied e.g. customer status. If you see a discrepancy in the number of your active customers, you can export this list from ChartMogul in CSV format and compare it to an export from your billing system by using a spreadsheet or anything similar to determine what's driving the difference.





Difference in customer status

You can filter your customer list in ChartMogul by adding the "Subscription status" filter to easily see which customers fall into what status. You can also export customers in a specific status to a CSV file and compare this to the data you have in your billing system.

There are 4 customer statuses in ChartMogul which are also discussed in detail in this article.

Lead - The default status. It describes any non-paying business or consumer who might become an active customer in the future. Any customer who is not "Active" or "Cancelled" will have the status of "Lead". It also includes those who have made only non-recurring payments and do not have any subscriptions.

Active - Any customer who has at least one "Active" subscription will have the subscription status of "Active".

Past due - Any customer whose subscription payments are past their due date will have the subscription status "Past Due".

Cancelled - Any customer who has at least one subscription, and all their subscriptions are "Cancelled" will have the subscription status "Cancelled".

These definitions may be different in your billing system which can cause discrepancies in the status. Here's a diagram showing the customer lifecycle in ChartMogul:




Difference in cash flow

The net cash flow chart in ChartMogul is calculated by adding all revenues from subscriptions, one-time and metered charges, offset by refunds. Credit card/transaction fees are not deducted. Revenue from manual customers that have been added individual or via the bulk CSV upload does not contribute to this chart. 

For the gross cash flow chart, revenues from subscriptions, one-time and metered charges are all included. Neither refunds nor credit card/transaction fees are deducted. Revenue from manual customers that have been added individual or via the bulk CSV upload does not contribute to this chart as well.

Make sure you check how the data for these cash flow charts are computed in your billing system. If your billing system handles refunds or credit card/transaction fees differently, this would result in different numbers.



Revenue and MRR

Revenue and MRR are subtly different.
MRR is the sum of all currently active subscriptions normalised (amortized) to a 30.45 day period.
Revenue in Month is the sum of all billings successfully paid during a month.
For example, if you had 100 customers who are all billed $10.00 each month your MRR would be the sum of all committed revenue ($1000.00), this is what your customers committed to pay so this is your MRR. If 10 of your customers were late to renew their subscriptions and have past due invoices, your MRR would be $1000.00 and your Revenue would be $900.00.
Another reason that your MRR might be different to your revenue is subscriptions are not always billed in monthly intervals. An annually billed subscription is amortized. For example, if a customer is billed for a $12 annual subscription, their MRR will be $1, whereas the revenue they contribute will be $12 in their first month month and $0.00 for the following 11.
Revenue can also include non-recurring payments, and depending on what you are including in your recurring revenue in ChartMogul your revenue can be very different to your MRR because of this.

If you feel that the MRR in ChartMogul is not presented correctly, kindly contact our support team at support@chartmogul.com.