SaaS Revenue & Growth Metrics
PM reference for revenue + retention metrics — MRR/ARR, ARPU/ARPA, ACV, churn (logo + revenue), NRR, expansion, quick ratio — with cohort analysis and 10 most common pitfalls.
Your blended churn is 3% — and your most recent cohort retains 58% at 6 months while older cohorts hit 85%. Blended metrics lie. PMF is eroding right under your dashboard, and you'll only see it when the curve flattens. The cure is cohort analysis, separate logo and revenue churn, and breaking NRR into its actual components.
Who it's for: PMs building metrics dashboards, founders preparing fundraise materials, exec teams diagnosing growth slowdowns, retention leads investigating cohort degradation
Example
"Calculate MRR, churn, NRR for our board deck" → MRR $2M (+10% MoM), Logo churn 2%, Revenue churn 1.5%, NRR 115% (expansion-driven), Quick Ratio 5.0 → Verdict: healthy + scale acquisition. Plus cohort table showing whether newer cohorts retain better
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
npx ccplaybooks add saas-revenue-growth-metrics# SaaS Revenue & Growth Metrics
Calculate SaaS revenue, retention, and growth metrics: MRR/ARR, ARPU/ARPA, ACV, churn, NRR, expansion, quick ratio. Diagnose momentum, retention problems, and product-market-fit signals.
Not a BI tool. A framework for which metrics matter, how to calculate correctly, and what to do based on numbers.
## Two Metric Families
### Revenue
- **Revenue** — sum of all customer payments. Track growth rate vs. cost growth
- **ARPU** = Revenue / Users. Per-seat monetization. B2C $5-50/mo; B2B $50-500+/mo
- **ARPA** = MRR / Active Accounts. Account-level deal size. SMB $100-1K; Mid $1-10K; Ent $10K+Get new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Calculates revenue (MRR/ARR/ARPU/ARPA/ACV) and retention (logo + revenue churn, NRR, expansion, quick ratio) with explicit formulas, benchmarks, and pitfalls. Forces cohort analysis to surface blended-metric blind spots. Includes compounding churn math (3% monthly ≠ 36% annual).
Pairs with saas-economics-efficiency-metrics, finance-metrics-quickref, and finance-based-pricing-advisor.
Quick Start
mkdir -p ~/Documents/SaaSRevenueMetrics
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ~/Documents/SaaSRevenueMetrics/
cd ~/Documents/SaaSRevenueMetrics
claude
Provide MRR components (new/expansion/churned/contracted), customer counts by segment, and cohort data. Claude calculates the full metric set, flags concentration risk, and surfaces cohort degradation.
The Two Metric Families
| Family | Key Metrics |
|---|---|
| Revenue | Revenue, ARPU, ARPA, ACV, MRR/ARR, Gross vs. Net |
| Retention & Expansion | Logo Churn, Revenue Churn, NRR, Expansion, Quick Ratio |
Plus Revenue Mix and Cohort Analysis as required diagnostic frameworks.
Tips & Best Practices
- Track logo churn AND revenue churn. If revenue churn > logo churn, you're losing big customers.
- Cohort-or-it-didn't-happen. Blended metrics lie when newer cohorts perform differently than old.
- Break down NRR. Expansion-driven >120% is healthy; >100% from low churn alone is fragile.
- Use compounding-churn formula. 3% monthly = 31% annual, not 36%.
- Calculate ARPU/ARPA by segment. Blended averages ($10 SMB + $1000 Enterprise) are useless.
Common Pitfalls
- Confusing revenue with profit
- ARPU "growth" from losing small customers
- Ignoring cohort degradation (PMF eroding silently)
- Treating monthly churn as 12 × monthly (ignores compounding)
- Celebrating gross revenue while net contracts via discounting