> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getnovaplan.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Revenue Analytics

> ARR and recognized revenue by period, plus cohorts, retention, NDR, GRR, and LTV.

Revenue Analytics is the detail layer under your revenue model: ARR and recognized revenue by period, cohort retention, net and gross retention, and lifetime value. It is where the headline movement on [Financial Performance](/reporting/financial-performance) becomes period-by-period numbers you can drill.

## What It Covers

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="ARR & Revenue by Period" icon="chart-column">
    Recognized revenue and ARR movement across month, quarter, or year.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cohort Retention" icon="layer-group">
    How each acquisition cohort retains and expands over time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="NDR and GRR" icon="percent">
    Net and gross retention by cohort, with running ARR balances.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Client LTV" icon="gem">
    Per-client lifetime value and contribution.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The Terms, Defined

| Term                          | Plain-language meaning                                                                      |
| ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cohort                        | The group of customers acquired in the same period, followed forward over time              |
| Retention curve               | The share of a cohort's ARR still active N months after they landed                         |
| GRR (Gross Revenue Retention) | ARR kept from a cohort after churn and contraction, never counting upsell; caps at 100%     |
| NDR (Net Dollar Retention)    | ARR kept from a cohort including expansion, so it can exceed 100% when upsell outruns churn |
| LTV (Lifetime Value)          | The total revenue a client is expected to contribute over its lifetime                      |

<Note>
  GRR measures how much you keep before any growth; NDR measures how much you keep after growth. NDR above 100% means the existing base is growing on its own even before new sales.
</Note>

## Recognized Revenue

Recognized revenue is derived from your ARR through each stream's recognition schedule, so the P\&L revenue line ties back to the contracts and events that produced it. Drill any period to the customer, then to the individual events behind the number.

## How to Read a Cohort

<Steps>
  <Step title="Pick the granularity">
    Choose month, quarter, or year. The whole view re-buckets together so the numbers stay consistent.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Find the cohort">
    Each row is an acquisition cohort; each column forward is a later period in that cohort's life.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read NDR vs GRR">
    GRR tells you the floor (what survives churn); NDR tells you the trajectory (what the base does with expansion included).
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Common Questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="My NDR is above 100% but GRR is below 100%. Is that a contradiction?">
    No, that is the healthy case. GRR below 100% reflects some churn and contraction; NDR above 100% means expansion more than offset it. The base is growing net of losses.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why does recognized revenue differ from ARR?">
    ARR is an annualized run rate; recognized revenue is what lands in the P\&L each period through the recognition schedule. A new contract can be live (counting in ARR) while its revenue recognizes over the following months.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What pulls a client's LTV up or down?">
    Longer retention and expansion lift LTV; early churn and contraction pull it down. A high-NDR cohort tends to carry higher LTV because the base keeps growing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I trace a period's revenue to specific customers?">
    Yes. Drill a period to the customer level, then to the individual events, so any recognized-revenue figure ties back to the contracts behind it.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## If the Numbers Look Off

* If retention looks artificially high, confirm renewals are not being double-counted into the cohort's running balance.
* If recognized revenue and ARR diverge more than expected, check the recognition schedule for the stream, since timing (not a data error) usually explains the gap.

<Tip>
  Use [Financial Performance](/reporting/financial-performance) for the headline ARR bridge, and this page for the cohort and retention detail underneath it.
</Tip>