Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Reports Documentation¶
Menu Location: Reports > Financial Reports > Monthly Recurring Reports
Access Level: Manager / Administrator / Kiva Admin
Last Updated: 2026-03-01
Overview¶
The Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Reports page is your subscription business health dashboard, providing comprehensive metrics that compare your last 4 weeks of performance against the previous 4 weeks. This powerful analytics tool helps you understand revenue trends, customer acquisition, retention patterns, and overall business growth through seven key performance indicators displayed with visual trend graphs.
Primary Functions:
- Monitor Total MRR and revenue trends over time
- Track new customer revenue contribution (New MRR)
- Analyze average revenue per customer and per order
- Monitor active customer count changes
- Track new customer acquisitions
- Monitor customer cancellation rates
- Navigate through historical comparison periods
Page Layout¶
Header Section¶
- Navigation Links: Quick access to "Lifetime Reports" and "Net Revenue Retention" related reports
- Page Title: "Reports / Monthly Recurring Reports"
- Date Range Navigation: Arrows to move backward/forward through 4-week comparison periods with current date range displayed
Main Content Area¶
The page displays seven metric cards in a grid layout, each showing:
- Metric Name: Clickable to view detailed methodology
- Current Value: Large, prominent number for the recent 4-week period
- Change Indicator: Green up arrow for increases, red down arrow for decreases
- Change Amount: Absolute and percentage change from previous period
- Trend Graph: 24-period historical visualization below each metric
Seven Key Metrics:
- Total MRR
- New MRR
- Average Revenue Per Customer
- Average Revenue Per Order
- Average Active Customers
- New Customers
- Customer Cancellations
Understanding the Metrics¶
Total MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)¶
Your complete revenue for the last 4 weeks compared to the previous 4 weeks. This is the foundation metric showing overall business performance.
What It Shows:
- All successful payments collected from customer orders
- Excludes credit transactions
- Represents actual cash received, not projected or reserved revenue
How to Interpret:
- Upward trend (green arrow) indicates revenue growth
- Downward trend (red arrow) requires investigation into causes
- Percentage change shows rate of growth or decline
New MRR¶
Revenue specifically from customers who joined during the recent 4-week period compared to new customer revenue from the 4 weeks before that.
What It Shows:
- How much revenue new customers are generating
- Effectiveness of customer acquisition efforts
- New customer spending patterns
Key Insights:
- High New MRR with growing Total MRR shows healthy new customer acquisition
- Low New MRR despite growing Total MRR indicates expansion revenue from existing customers
- Declining New MRR may signal acquisition channel problems
Average Revenue Per Customer¶
Total revenue divided by the number of unique customers who placed at least one order, compared across the two 4-week periods.
What It Shows:
- How much each active customer contributes on average
- Customer spending behavior changes
- Impact of pricing or product mix changes
Use Cases:
- Increasing ARPC suggests customers are ordering more or prices are effective
- Decreasing ARPC may indicate more discount usage or smaller order sizes
- Compare against historical baselines to identify trends
Average Revenue Per Order¶
Total revenue divided by the number of unique orders processed, compared across periods.
What It Shows:
- Average value of each individual order
- Order composition and add-on effectiveness
- Impact of minimum order requirements or shipping thresholds
Difference from ARPC:
- ARPC tracks customer-level spending (one customer may have multiple orders)
- Average Revenue Per Order tracks individual transaction value
- Both metrics together show customer ordering frequency and order size
Average Active Customers¶
Average number of customers with orders over the last 4 weeks compared to the previous 4 weeks.
What It Shows:
- Overall customer base size trend
- Net effect of new acquisitions minus cancellations
- Business scale and reach
Important Note:
- This is an average across the 4 weeks, not a snapshot of total subscribers
- Data recording began March 2017, so historical graphs near that date may show irregularities
- Growth here indicates your customer base is expanding
New Customers¶
Total count of new customer account signups during the recent 4 weeks compared to the previous 4 weeks.
What It Shows:
- Customer acquisition rate
- Marketing and referral effectiveness
- Business growth potential
Key Insights:
- Combine with New MRR to understand new customer quality
- Compare against cancellations to understand net customer growth
- Track against marketing spend to calculate acquisition cost efficiency
Customer Cancellations¶
Number of customers who cancelled during the recent 4 weeks compared to the previous 4 weeks.
What It Shows:
- Customer churn rate
- Retention challenges
- Service or product satisfaction issues
Critical Metric:
- Green arrow (increase in cancellations) is negative - investigate causes immediately
- Red arrow (decrease in cancellations) is positive - retention is improving
- Compare against New Customers to understand net customer base change
Actions & Operations¶
Navigating Time Periods¶
Purpose: View different 4-week comparison periods
Steps:
- Click the left arrow to move back one week in time
- Click the right arrow to move forward one week in time
- The date range display updates to show new comparison periods
- All metrics recalculate for the new time frame
Note: The forward arrow is disabled when viewing the most recent period (you cannot view future data).
Viewing Metric Methodology¶
Purpose: Understand how each metric is calculated
Steps:
- Click the metric name (displayed with dotted underline)
- A detailed modal popup appears explaining:
- Calculation methodology
- Data source details
- Specific date ranges used
- Example calculations
- Click "Close" to dismiss the modal
Available for All Metrics: Every metric name is clickable for detailed explanations.
Analyzing Trend Graphs¶
Purpose: Identify patterns and trends over 6-month periods
Steps:
- Review the mini graph below each metric
- Look for overall trajectory (upward, downward, flat)
- Identify seasonal patterns or recurring cycles
- Spot anomalies or sudden changes for investigation
Graph Features:
- 24 data points representing approximately 6 months of history
- Automatic scaling to show relevant range
- Hover functionality may display specific values
Common Use Cases¶
Use Case 1: Monthly Business Review¶
Goal: Assess overall business health and prepare performance report
Steps:
- Review Total MRR to understand overall revenue trajectory
- Check Average Active Customers to see customer base growth
- Compare New Customers against Customer Cancellations for net growth
- Review Average Revenue Per Customer for customer value trends
- Analyze New MRR to assess new customer contribution
- Prepare summary for stakeholders highlighting key changes
Example: Total MRR up 8%, Active Customers up 50, New MRR up 12%, Cancellations down 5 customers. Summary: Strong growth driven by effective new customer acquisition and improved retention.
Use Case 2: Investigating Revenue Decline¶
Goal: Understand why Total MRR decreased
Steps:
- Check if Average Active Customers decreased (fewer customers)
- Review Customer Cancellations for unusual spike
- Check New Customers to see if acquisition slowed
- Review Average Revenue Per Customer to see if spending decreased
- Use navigation arrows to view multiple periods to identify when decline began
- Cross-reference with marketing campaigns, seasonal factors, or service issues
Tips:
- Declining revenue can result from fewer customers or lower spending per customer
- Identify which metrics changed to pinpoint root cause
- Look at trend graphs for context beyond just the last 4 weeks
Use Case 3: Evaluating Marketing Campaign Effectiveness¶
Goal: Measure impact of new customer acquisition campaign
Steps:
- Note current New Customers count before campaign launch
- Run campaign for 4 weeks
- Navigate forward to view period during/after campaign
- Compare New Customers metric to pre-campaign baseline
- Review New MRR to assess quality of acquired customers
- Calculate customer acquisition cost by dividing campaign spend by new customers
- Monitor following periods to see if new customers retained or cancelled
Example: Pre-campaign: 25 new customers per 4 weeks. Campaign period: 45 new customers. Post-campaign retention check: Review cancellations in next period to ensure new customers are staying active.
Troubleshooting¶
Metrics Show Unexpected Zero or Very Low Values¶
Symptoms: One or more metrics display zero or unusually low numbers.
Solutions:
- Verify you have order data for the selected time period
- Check that payment processing has been working correctly
- Ensure the time period selected isn't too far in the past or future
- Try navigating to a known active period to confirm system is working
Common Causes:
- Viewing a period before business started
- System maintenance or data processing delays
- Payment processing interruption during period
Historical Graphs Look Irregular Near March 2017¶
Symptoms: Trend graphs for Average Active Customers show strange patterns near early 2017.
Solutions: This is expected - customer count tracking began in March 2017, so data before that date may be incomplete or irregular.
Fix: Focus analysis on periods after March 2017 for accurate Active Customer trends. Other metrics are not affected by this limitation.
Percentages Don't Match Expected Calculations¶
Symptoms: The percentage change shown doesn't match your manual calculation.
Solutions:
- Click the metric name to view detailed calculation methodology
- Note that percentage calculations use specific formulas (change ÷ base period × 100)
- For metrics that can be zero, system uses safe handling to avoid division by zero
- Some metrics use averages which may differ from simple totals
Check: Detailed popup for each metric shows exact calculation method including which period is used as the denominator for percentage calculations.
Page Loads Slowly¶
Symptoms: MRR Reports page takes significant time to display metrics.
Solutions:
- The system performs complex calculations across large datasets
- Wait for full page load before navigating time periods
- Refresh the page if load exceeds 30 seconds
- Contact Kiva Logic support if slow performance persists
Note: The system uses caching for some calculations to improve performance. First load of a new time period may be slower than subsequent visits.
Related Pages¶
- MRR Reports 2 - Lifetime Reports (
mrr-reports2.php) - Customer lifetime value and churn analysis - MRR Reports 3 - Net Revenue Retention (
mrr-reports3.php) - Year-over-year customer retention metrics - Billing Revenue Reports (
billing-revenue-reports.php) - Customer-specific revenue ranking - Admin Subscription Reports (
admin-subscription-reports.php) - Subscription pricing and schedule analytics
Typical Workflow:
- MRR Reports → Identify trend → Lifetime Reports → Understand customer value patterns
- Notice declining MRR → Check cancellations → Investigate specific cancelled customers
Permissions & Access¶
Required Access Level: Manager
Access Level Capabilities:
- Customer Service: No access to financial metrics
- Manager: Full access to all MRR metrics and historical data
- Administrator: Full access to all MRR metrics and historical data
- Kiva Admin: Full access to all MRR metrics and historical data
Best Practices¶
Regular Monitoring¶
- Review MRR dashboard weekly to catch trends early
- Focus on percentage changes, not just absolute values
- Use trend graphs to identify patterns beyond current period
- Document significant changes with notes about business events
Metric Interpretation¶
- Never rely on a single metric - view the complete picture
- Declining revenue with stable customers means lower spending per customer
- Growing revenue with shrinking customers means at-risk concentration
- Compare all seven metrics together for accurate business health assessment
Time Period Analysis¶
- Compare against same period last year for seasonal insights
- Use 4-8 week navigation to identify when changes began
- Don't overreact to single-period fluctuations
- Look for consistent trends across multiple periods
Things to Avoid¶
- Not clicking metric names to understand calculation methods
- Comparing periods with significantly different business conditions
- Ignoring trend graphs in favor of only current numbers
- Making decisions based on single metric without context
Quick Reference Card¶
| Task | Action/Location |
|---|---|
| View previous 4-week period | Click left arrow in header |
| View next 4-week period | Click right arrow in header |
| Understand metric calculation | Click metric name for detailed popup |
| View 6-month trend | Review mini graph under each metric |
| Access Lifetime Reports | Click button in top-right |
| Access Net Revenue Retention | Click button in top-right |
| Calculate net customer growth | New Customers minus Customer Cancellations |
| Assess acquisition quality | Review New MRR alongside New Customers |
FAQs¶
What does "last 4 weeks" mean exactly?¶
The system compares weeks in 28-day blocks (4 weeks of 7 days each). The current period is the most recent 4 weeks, compared against the 4 weeks immediately before that.
Why do some metrics show increases as green and others as red?¶
Green arrows indicate positive business outcomes. For Customer Cancellations, a decrease (red arrow) is actually good news - fewer cancellations is positive.
How often is the data updated?¶
Metrics are calculated when you load the page based on current payment and customer data. For the most current information, refresh the page.
Can I export this data to Excel or CSV?¶
The current version displays data on-screen only. Consider using browser screenshots or manually recording key metrics for external tracking.
Why compare 4-week blocks instead of calendar months?¶
Four-week blocks provide consistent comparison periods regardless of varying calendar month lengths (28-31 days), enabling more accurate trend analysis.
Change Log¶
2026-03-01¶
- Initial documentation created
- All seven metrics documented
- Methodology explanations included
- Common use cases and troubleshooting added
End of Documentation
For additional help, contact your system administrator or Kiva Logic support.