Data defines how B2B SaaS companies do business. And fortunately, as the SaaS industry continues to boom (projecting to grow 30% per year), there is an unprecedented amount of data to work with.
Every application event (both manual and automated) produces a unique data point that can be analyzed to inform core product and business decisions. A sign up, an API call, an email send, or a payment event can all be captured along with rich information describing who, when, where, why, and what happened. Tapping into this invaluable resource and using it to drive data-backed growth is the key to success in B2B SaaS.
Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. According to TRUE Global Intelligence, 55% of an organization’s data is dark. In other words, it’s just “collecting dust” in the back corner of a server—unquantified and untapped—because SaaS businesses don’t have a big data analytics solution with the power to harness and make sense of this immense volume of data.
That’s why we built Maxio Business Intelligence, the industry’s first self-service analytics suite powerful enough to support your entire business, but simple enough for anyone to use—no data science degree required. Business Intelligence is a single source of truth that helps B2B SaaS companies track critical business, customer, and product metrics in a centralized location. Seamlessly create and share custom dashboards using data from Maxio or other relevant third-party sources. And the best part? Reports are updated in real time—no more waiting on batched data or shuffling between tools to gain a 360° view of your business.
You’ll never find an easier-to-use business intelligence tool. To prove it, we’ll walk you through how to build a Maxio Business Intelligence dashboard that tracks the key business indicators every SaaS company needs to inform their strategic, long-term planning. These critical metrics fall into the following categories:
MRR and ARR
Churn and Contraction
Acquisition
Subscriptions
Invoices
Payments
Outstanding Balances and Dunning
Refunds
Product/Service Usage
Creating a dashboard in Business Intelligence can be accomplished in 3 simple steps, and in this tutorial, we’ll walk through each one using MRR as our example.
The same steps we lay out below to track MRR can be repeated for all out-of-the-box and custom-created metrics. For the other categories, we’ll outline which metrics are included out-of-the-box and provide examples of how to customize them to gain more granular insights for your business.
How to Create a Dashboard in Maxio Business Intelligence
1. Add out-of-the-box metrics
Every SaaS business leader knows that an accurate understanding of their company’s MRR and ARR growth forecast is crucial for creating effective long-term business plans and investment strategies. That’s why Business Intelligence provides the following metrics out-of-the-box:
Total MRR and ARR
Total MRR and ARR Growth
MRR movements: $MRR, Week over Week
Install Base MRR Growth
Total MRR (Past Due)
To add these metrics to your Business Intelligence metrics list, simply:
In the Maxio application, navigate to Business Intelligence > Explore.
Select ‘Add Out-of-the-box Metrics’ in the top, right-hand corner.
Select MRR/ARR
Choose the MRR and ARR metrics you want to add to your metrics list.
Out-of-the-box Metrics Library
2. Customize your metrics
Now that you have a template for standard MRR and ARR metrics, the next step is to clone and customize these metrics for your specific use case. (We recommend leaving the out-of-the-box unedited to maintain a source of truth.)
To create a custom metric based on an out-of-the-box metric:
Head to Business Intelligence > Explore.
Select ‘Go to Saved Metrics’ in the top, left-hand corner to view your list of saved metrics.
The Saved Metrics view provides a central hub to manage all of your saved metrics. Sort metrics alphabetically or by edit date, filter based on user-defined tags, and search for metrics by name.
Saved Metrics List with Total MRR Growth Query Preview
In the Saved Metrics view:
Pick the metric you’d like to customize. For this example, choose ‘Total MRR Growth’.
Click the ellipses icon under the chart preview and select ‘Clone Query’.
This will open a template in the Metric Builder view as shown below.
Total MRR Growth Out-of-the-box Metric in Edit Mode
In this view, you can add Filters to isolate relevant segments of data and Groupings to categorize your results.
To customize your metric:
Add a filter by selecting the plus button.
Choose the property to use for the filtering. For this example, choose
breakouts → plan → category matches any value new_business.This will return only your New Business MRR Growth.
By default, this metric is grouped by category of MRR movement. Change the Group by to address→ countr to view New Business MRR Growth by Country.
Multiple groupings can be applied to get more granular.
Optionally, choose to order your results in ascending or descending numeric or alphabetical order. You can also limit the number of shown results to keep your charts clean.
Select a frequency interval to view this data (e.g. weekly, monthly, yearly). For a total amount across the timeframe, leave the interval blank.
Select the desired chart type in the left-hand ribbon and then hit ‘Save Query’. Pro tip: click the bottom right-hand corner of the chart icon to see all chart variants (e.g. grouped, stacked, percentage, etc.)
Finally, give your metric a name, and it will appear in your metrics list.
Voila! You created your first custom metric that shows the New Business MRR Growth by Country.
New Business MRR Growth by Country with the Choropleth Chart Type
Repeat the steps above using different filters and groupings to create granular metrics tailored specifically for your business. Here are some ideas to get you started:
New Business MRR by Sales Rep
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_mrr_movements
Target Property:amount[includes usage and plan amounts]
Timeframe: Last 12 months
Filter:Category contains new_business
Group by:sales_rep → name
Interval: Monthly
Total MRR by Country
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_subscriptions
Target Property:MRR [includes usage and plan amounts]
Timeframe: Last 12 months
Filter: optional
Group by:address → country
Interval: Monthly
Total MRR Growth by Custom Field
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_mrr_movements
Target Property:amount [includes usage and plan amounts]
Timeframe: Last 12 months
Filter: optional
Group by:subscription → custom_fields →custom_field
Interval: Monthly
3. Create a Dashboard
A repository of key metrics tailored to your business is a step in the right direction. But to unleash the full potential of this data to drive growth, you need a curated view of key business metrics that can be easily shared with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
Maxio Business Intelligence has a drag-and-drop dashboard tool that enables you to add saved metrics to a dashboard. Dashboards can be saved and shared securely by grabbing a public link, embedding anywhere, or downloading an image.
To get started using our drag-and-drop dashboard creator, just
Navigate to Business Intelligence > Dashboards.
Select ‘New Dashboard’ in the top, right-hand corner.
Dashboard Library with out-of-the-box dashboards added8.
In the Dashboard Builder, you’ll find options to add charts, text, images, dashboard-level filters, and dashboard-level date pickers.
Edit mode in the Dashboard Builder
To build a dashboard for your newly-created metrics:
Click chart and select the New Business MRR Growth by Country metric.
Grab the right-hand corner and drag to the desired size.
Select ‘Edit Chart’, click ‘Chart Title’, and enter the name ‘New Business MRR Growth by Country’.
Select ‘Update Widget’ to save your changes.
Add a filter widget to the dashboard and select an attribute you want to filter by such as product → name.
Add a date picker to adjust the time frame for the associated chart.
Click the setting icon in the top, right-hand corner and name your dashboard.
Finally, select ‘Finish edition’.
Dashboard with New Business Growth by Country Metric Added
Congratulations! You just created your first dashboard in Maxio Business Intelligence.
Now, click the share icon and grab a link or the embed HTML snippet to share a real-time, interactive dashboard with your team. Or, select the Actions icon and download an image to share a still snapshot.
Repeat the steps in the MRR example above to add out-of-the box metrics, create custom metrics, and build a dashboard for the other 9 categories of business metrics below.
Maxio Business Intelligence also provides predefined dashboards by persona (Executive, Finance, Accounting, Operations, Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing) to help you get started. Below is an example of an Executive Dashboard.
Out-of-the-box Dashboard for an Executive User
More Business Metrics to Track in Maxio Business Intelligence
Churn
Churn is one of the single most important SaaS metrics to track because of its direct impact on topline revenue. Maxio Business Intelligence enables you to segment your churn data by multiple attributes including region, industry, and churn reason code. Having this granular insight will allow you to understand why customers churn—perhaps a new competitor appeared in a certain region. From there, your team can execute a tailored mitigation plan such as enabling your customer success team with collateral to fend off this competitor. Focusing on revenue retention is also a powerful lever to improve profitability because it carries a much higher ROI when compared to acquisition alone (5x more expensive).
Out-of-the-box Churn Metrics:
Gross MRR Loss
Net MRR Churn
Net MRR Loss
Examples of custom Churn Metrics:
Net Churn MRR by Churn Reason Code or by Product or by Custom Field
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_mrr_movements
Target Property: breakdown → plan → amount
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:breakdown → plan → category matches any value churn,
reactivation
Group by:churn_reason_code or product → name or subscription → custom_field
Interval: Monthly
Acquisition
Efficient and cost-effective acquisition is the key to becoming a fast-growth SaaS company. Maxio Business Intelligence empowers you to track both the total potential revenue amount and the pipeline conversion rates to uncover bottlenecks and identify underperforming segments. Then, your business can lean on this information to create data-backed process and product optimizations, allowing you to improve conversion rates and capture more revenue each month.
Out-of-the-box Acquisition Metrics:
Trial to Paid Conversion Count
Trial to Paid Conversion MRR
Potential Conversion MRR
Examples of Custom Acquisition Metrics.
Trial to Paid Conversion MRR by Country
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_conversions
Target Property: mrr
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter: optional
Group by: address → country
Interval: Monthly
Potential Conversion MRR by Product Handle
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_subscriptions
Target Property: saas_metrics→ potential_conversion_mrr
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:status contains trialing
Group by:product → handle
Interval: Monthly
Subscriptions
Measuring subscription SaaS metrics like Average Recurring Revenue Per User (ARPU), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and renewals offer insight into the value your customers are getting from your product. With Maxio Business Intelligence, you can uncover insights about how different segments value your product. For example, you may notice that your domestic CLV is significantly higher than your international CLV. This could be due to an issue with international customer support that could be addressed by opening up a new regional office.
Out-of-the-box Subscription Metrics:
Average Recurring Revenue Per User (ARPU)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Total Renewals
Total Subscriptions by Status
Examples of Custom Subscription Metrics:
Total Active Subscriptions by Payment Collection Method
Analysis: Count Unique
Data source: chargify_bi_subscriptions
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter: status contains active
Group by:payment_collection_method
Interval: none
Total Renewals by product, country, or custom field
Analysis: Count
Data source: chargify_bi_subscription_renewals
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:type → renewal_success
Group by:product → name or address → country or subscription → custom_field
Interval: Monthly
January 2020 1 Year Cohort Retention
Step 1:
Analysis: Funnel
Data_source: chargify_bi_subscription_renewals
Timeframe: 2020-1-1 to 2020-1-31
Target Property:subscription_id
Filter:type contains signup_success
Step 2:
Analysis: Funnel
Data_source: chargify_bi_subscription_renewals
Timeframe: 2021-1-1 to 2021-1-31
Target Property:subscription_id
Filter:subscription → status contains active
Invoices
Invoices are chock-full of important pieces of information like the invoice status (open or paid), the line items from the sale (composed of the products purchased), discounts, credits, and taxes applied, and payment details. Maxio Business Intelligence allows you to run queries against your invoice line item data to uncover actionable insights. For example, you can create a metric that sums the invoice discount amounts grouped by sales representatives to ensure that your sales team is complying with their approved discounting framework.
Out-of-the-box Invoice Metrics:
Amount Invoiced by Invoice Status
Examples of Custom Invoice Metrics:
Invoice Discount Amount by Customer Organization
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_invoice_line_items
Target Property:
discount_amount
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter: optional
Group by:
customer → organization
Interval: Monthly
Payments
Maxio Business Intelligence provides businesses easy and flexible access to analyze all of their transaction data. This accelerates the process of reconciling cash at close-of-month (for less complex business models) by eliminating the heavy lifting of manual processes. Tracking payment data also enables companies to have a clear understanding of their operating cash flow to ensure they are tracking towards their long-term free cash flow performance goals.
Out-of-the-box Payment Metrics:
Total Amount Paid by Payment Type
Examples of Custom Payment Metrics:
Total Amount Paid by Product Handle or Custom Field
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_payments
Target Property: amount_in_cents
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:product → handle or subscription → custom_field
Group by:product → handle or subscription → custom_field
Interval: Monthly
Outstanding Balances and Dunning
Creating a dunning strategy to capture as much revenue that’s owed to you is a powerful lever to minimize revenue leakage. With Maxio Business Intelligence you can track the amount at risk compared to the amount recovered over time to understand the effectiveness of your dunning strategy. Get the level of granularity you need by filtering our internal email domains and segmenting by customer, product, or subscription custom fields. Consider adjusting the frequency of communication, the actions taken (like retrying payments), and the length of the process.
Out-of-the-box Dunning Metrics:
Total Amount Recovered
Total Amount at Risk
Dunning Monthly
Examples of Custom Dunning Metrics:
Total Amount at Risk filtered by Product ID
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_dunning_retries
Target Property: revenue_at_risk_delta
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:product_id
Group by:customer_name
Interval: Monthly
Refunds
Maxio Business Intelligence empowers you to track details around refunds that are being issued such as the customer, product, region, industry, and other essential customer data. Use these insights to identify key product gaps and poor product market fit. For example, if a certain segment of users that is being issued the majority of refunds, you can adjust your product positioning to properly set expectations or adjust your marketing strategy to not target this segment.
Out-of-the-box Refund Metrics:
Refunds issued
Examples of Custom Refund Metrics:
Refunds Issued by Country or Region or Custom Field
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_refunds
Target Property: amount_in_cents
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:customer → organization or product → handle or subscription → custom fields
Group by:customer → organization or product → handle or subscription → custom fields
Interval: Monthly
Product or Service Usage
Understanding how customers consume your product enables you to optimize your pricing, product, and customer success strategies. Maxio Business Intelligence allows you to track granular details around feature utilization in real time. These insights can be used to create new, data-backed pricing structures that more effectively monetize certain functionality—consider including volume limits, feature limits, or charging an add-on fee. This data can also be used to shape the product roadmap by revealing where your users are deriving value and what areas may need improvement. Finally, by measuring product usage in real time, your customer success team can proactively reach out to pitch upgrades or prevent churn rather than having to react to information that comes in from the customer.
Out-of-the-box Refund Metrics:
Refunds issued
Examples of Custom Refund Metrics:
Refunds Issued by Country or Region or Custom Field
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_refunds
Target Property: amount_in_cents
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter:customer → organization or product → handle or subscription → custom fields
Group by:customer → organization or product → handle or subscription → custom fields
Interval: Monthly
Product or Service Usage
Understanding how customers consume your product enables you to optimize your pricing, product, and customer success strategies. Maxio Business Intelligence allows you to track granular details around feature utilization in real time. These insights can be used to create new, data-backed pricing structures that more effectively monetize certain functionality—consider including volume limits, feature limits, or charging an add-on fee. This data can also be used to shape the product roadmap by revealing where your users are deriving value and what areas may need improvement. Finally, by measuring product usage in real time, your customer success team can proactively reach out to pitch upgrades or prevent churn rather than having to react to information that comes in from the customer.
Out-of-the-box Usage Metrics:
Total Usage Revenue Growth
Usage Quantity by Component
Examples of Custom Usage Metrics:
Usage Quantity By Component Filtered on a specific Products or Subscribers
Analysis: Sum
Data source: chargify_bi_metered_usages
Target Property:
usage_quantity
Timeframe: Last 12 months (includes current month)
Filter: Use
subscription → subscriber_name or product → name
Group by:subscription → subscriber_name
Interval: Monthly
Conclusion
Data is at the heart of successful, B2B SaaS businesses. Companies that efficiently harness and take action on this data are winning. Maxio Business Intelligence enables anyone to capture and visualize data from Maxio and relevant third party sources with an intuitive, self-service analytics suite. Uncover granular, actionable insights to create data-backed business strategies that drive sustainable growth. To learn more about Business Intelligence, visit Maxio’s documentation or talk to a B2B SaaS expert.