Recurring Revenue
The Recurring Revenue module is a forecasting module for subscription-based income. It combines two sources of input:
- Existing contracts — imported from your subscription management tool (Exact Online, Stripe, Teamleader, or CSV). The module reads each subscription and its line items, including billing cycle, amount, start and end dates.
- Future growth model — your own assumptions about new customers, growth rates, churn, and pricing per product.
The output is a month-by-month forecast of recurring revenue and cash flow, with metrics like MRR growth, customer acquisition cost, and payback period.
Creating the module
- In your Scenario, click Add a budget
- Choose Recurring Revenue
- Follow the 5-step setup wizard
Step 1 — Introduction
A read-only overview screen. Use this step to connect your subscription integrations or trigger a sync before configuring the forecast.
Available connections:
- Exact Online
- Stripe
- Teamleader
- CSV upload
Click Sync on any connected integration to refresh subscription data. Syncs run at most once per day. The first import after connecting an integration can take a few minutes — during this time the product list in Step 2 may appear empty.
To connect a new integration, click Connect next to the provider, or go to Organisation → Integrations → Subscription.
CSV import — Download the CSV template and fill in your subscription data before uploading. Required fields: subscription number, relation name, product, start date, end date, interval, period, and amount per period.
Next gate: disabled while a sync is in progress.
Step 2 — Import existing contracts
Configure how existing subscription data is used in your forecast.
Controls at the top:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Use existing contracts toggle | Turn On to include imported subscription data in the forecast. Turn Off to use the growth model only (Step 3). |
| Budget range | Start and end months for the forecast. Only products active within this range are shown. |
| Type | Dynamic — the budget stays live and updates as integration data changes. Static (Snapshot) — fixes the contract base at a point in time; useful for benchmarks or locked plans. |
Product list:
Each product imported from your subscription integration appears as a card. Per card:
- Monthly churn % — the assumed churn applied to renewals. If actual end dates in the subscription data imply a lower churn for a given month, the known churn takes precedence; otherwise the configured % is used.
- Expand — shows the subscription line items for that product (relation, start date, end date, period, interval, amount) and two charts: Recurring revenue impact and Cash flow impact.
Step 3 — Future growth and churn
Model the growth of new subscriptions beyond what is already in your existing contracts.
Command bar:
- Start from previous budget — loads products and assumptions from another Recurring Revenue budget version
- Add Product — creates a new blank product
- Delete Products — removes all model products (red button)
Per-product fields:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Product name | Editable if manually created; read-only if the product was imported from an integration |
| Number of new customers | New customers added in month 1 (integer) |
| Monthly growth % | Growth rate applied to new customer additions month-over-month |
| Monthly churn % | % of customers who churn on each renewal cycle |
Periodicity table — defines the billing structure for this product. Add one row per billing plan:
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Period | Billing unit — Month, Quarter, Year, etc. |
| Interval | Number of units per cycle (e.g. 3 + Month = quarterly) |
| Distribution % | Share of new customers on this plan — all rows must sum to 100% |
| Average revenue | Price per billing cycle (excl. VAT). E.g. €100 for a monthly plan, €1,200 for an annual plan |
A warning appears if distributions across rows don't sum to 100%. A product with no periodicity rows cannot proceed.
Next gate: at least one product with a name, at least one periodicity row per product, and distributions summing to 100% on every product.
Step 4 — Mapping
Each product requires two mappings:
| Mapping | Account type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring Revenue | P&L line (revenue) | Where recurring revenue appears in your P&L |
| Revenue Recognition | Balance Sheet line (liability) | Deferred revenue account for amounts billed but not yet recognised |
Use the copy-to-all button (available separately for each mapping type) to apply one product's mapping to every product at once.
How revenue recognition flows through reports:
- Revenue is spread over the recognition period in the P&L (e.g. an annual contract recognised monthly at 1/12 of the annual amount)
- The Balance Sheet holds the deferred liability for amounts billed ahead of recognition
- In the Cash Flow statement, cash received flows through the EBITDA cash flow line; the release of deferred revenue moves through net working capital
Next gate: every product must have both a P&L mapping and a BS mapping set.
Step 5 — Result
A read-only preview showing two charts:
- Recurring revenue by product — stacked bars per product across the budget period
- Cash flow by product — billing cash receipts per product (peaks in months when annual contracts bill, flat for monthly billing)
Click Finish to name and save the budget version.
Dashboard
The Recurring Revenue dashboard has a Budget filter (top) and a date slider with three handles (start, last actuals date, end).
Charts and panels:
| Panel | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Recurring revenue | Stacked bars per product or product group (toggle top-right). Click a bar to open a transaction drilldown table. |
| Cash flow | Stacked bars of cash receipts per product or product group. Same click behaviour. |
| Net MRR Growth | Stacked bars broken down by MRR movement type: New, Upsell, Downgrade, Churned — with a net MRR line overlay. Click a bar to open a drilldown. |
| Metrics table | Month-by-month table with: Monthly New Customers, Churned Customers, Net Customers (cumulative), New MRR, Total MRR (cumulative), ARPA (monthly and total), Sales & Marketing Cost, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Payback Period (months) |
Sales & Marketing Costs for CAC and Payback Period are pulled from your P&L forecast using a Sales & Marketing Costs report anchor. Go to Entity → Reporting Structures to configure this anchor. Without it, the CAC and Payback Period columns show an empty state with a link to set it up.
Output in reports
- P&L — recurring revenue lines per product based on the P&L mappings set in Step 4
- Balance Sheet — deferred revenue liability releases as revenue is recognised over the billing period
- Cash Flow — cash receipts follow the billing cycle; the release of deferred revenue flows through net working capital