What is Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)?

What is Monthly Recurring Revenue?

Monthly recurring revenue(MRR) is a metric related to SaaS business and subscription-based businesses. It measures the income generated over one month. 

Recurring revenue is that income that is consistent or regular. You usually measure it on a monthly or yearly basis.

SaaS businesses are entirely dependent on recurring revenue.

MRR can get compared with other subscription business aspects. Such as monthly sign-up rate, account growth rate, customer retention, and so on.

It’s a method to average the firm’s varied cost plans and billing sessions into one consistent number whose variations can get analyzed over time.

MRR reflects the progressions and depression in revenue generation.

What are the types of Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)?

New MRR:  This is a recurrent revenue stream from new clients every month.

Expansion MRR: When clients elect to increase their current subscription plan, you gain this MRR.

Reactivation MRR:  Customers who elect to revive their memberships after being inactive will receive this form of MRR.

Contraction MRR: Whenever clients downgrade their current package, they lose a monthly recurring revenue (for example, from premium to standard).

Churned MRR: This occurs when a company’s monthly recurring revenues get lost due to a customer canceling their membership.

How to calculate monthly recurring revenue (MRR)? 

There are two methods for calculating recurring revenue every month. The first step is to total up all paid subscriptions’ worth. 

Your MRR will be $235 if Customer A pays $50 per month. Customer B pays $75 per month, and Customer C pays $110 per month. Isn’t it simple?

Although the customer-by-customer method is straightforward in theory, it may be time-consuming mainly as your company grows and needs to serve many customers.

A good alternative is to multiply the total number of clients by the average of their monthly expenses (also known as average monthly recurring revenue per user, or ARPU). 

In this scenario, you achieve an MRR of $800 if ten consumers pay an average of $80 each month. It’s wise to compute MRR utilizing ARPU as you gain more consumers.

Nevertheless, your MRR computation will get influenced by a few other things. Remember to factor in the following factors when calculating MRR for your company:

Recurring Income: This category comprises any recurring monthly fees from your current clients.

Existing Account Upgrades and Downgrades: Several clients may upgrade or downgrade in a given month if you offer various membership tiers. To guarantee that your MRR remains accurate each month, keep track of the recurring revenue received or lost due to these changes.

Lost Revenue Due to Customer Churning: Every firm encounters some level of customer churn, and the revenue lost will impact your calculations. The recurring revenue lost due to account closures or cancellations is known as MRR churn.

Formula for MRR 

The procedure of calculation of MRR has the following approach: 

(i) Align the data on subscription values and customers. Divide contract value by the number of months.

(ii) Add up the subscription column. This is MRR for any particular month.

(iii) Now, after getting the MRR, you break it down to segments like add on, churn, as per your requirement 

(iv) Calculate the growth MRR by, 

Importance of MRR 

MRR is a metric that helps in better management and decision-making. MRR is vital for these reasons: 

(i) Financial planning and forecasting: When you get consistent revenue over time, you get an idea about where the business is heading. And you can plan accordingly. By tracking your MRR in an online financial platform or through a business checking account, you can get a clear idea of your monthly income and expenses because it allows you to your revenue hourly and daily.

(ii) Computation of growth and momentum: MRR is a growth indicator in SaaS businesses. The MRR rise or fall indicates the momentum your company has.

What are the mistakes to avoid when calculating MRR?

Overestimate your earnings:

Whenever anyone subscribes, businesses usually include yearly or semi-annual subscriptions. However, computing your monthly recurring revenue might lead to severe inaccuracies.

When it comes to one-time transactions, consider this:

Your MRR should not contain a one-time transaction. Purchases and payments made only once are not termed “recurring.”

As a result, they’re not eligible for the Monthly “Recurring” Revenue classification. It’s because you do not expect to receive this income regularly. 

Suppose you include them in any MRR calculations. In that case, your revenue estimates will turn overstated, and your payment model will get affected.

Incorporating bookings and trials:

Making the error of including trial users in your MRR estimates is a beginner mistake. Indeed, it’s great to see someone sign up to sample your product. (Learn more about product management tools here.) However, this does not imply that they will be returning customers.

You can’t add free-trial users to the MRR since they’re not currently customers. 

We can all agree that there’s a good possibility they won’t convert, too. As a result, it’s advisable to exclude them from your MRR calculations.

Incorporating missed payments:

On the one hand, forecasts overstate their income by considering ARR or one-time subscriptions. Forecasters who deal with missed payments are on the other end of the spectrum.

When it comes to computing MRR, precision is essential. On the other hand, delinquencies should get classified as a distinct category. Create a specific segment for late fees instead of subtracting them.