Finance Metrics
Finance metrics and KPIs measure the financial health and performance of your business. Explore definitions, formulas, and benchmarks for tracking gross margin, cash flow, and return on investment.
Default directory · A–Z · 118 metrics
Abandoned Checkouts
Abandoned Checkouts is an e-commerce metric that measures the total value of orders that reached the checkout stage but were never completed, calculated before shipping and taxes. Tracking Abandoned Checkouts helps online businesses quantify lost revenue and identify friction points in the checkout process — such as unexpected costs, limited payment options, or a complicated form flow — that prevent customers from completing their purchases.
Account Balance
Account Balance is the net difference between all credits and all debits recorded in a specific account on a company's general ledger. When credits exceed debits, the account carries a net credit balance. When debits exceed credits, it carries a net debit balance. Tracking account balances supports financial statement preparation, tax compliance, and business trend analysis.
Accounts Payable
Accounts Payable (AP) is the total amount a company owes to its suppliers and creditors for goods and services purchased on credit and not yet paid. AP appears on the balance sheet as a current liability, representing short-term obligations due within one year.
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Receivable (AR) is the total value of invoices a company has issued to customers for goods or services delivered but not yet paid. AR appears on the balance sheet as a current asset because payment is expected within one year. It represents a legal obligation from the customer and is recorded when an invoice is issued, not when cash is received. Tracking AR accurately gives finance teams a real-time view of money owed and helps forecast cash flow.
ACV Growth Rate
ACV Growth Rate measures the percentage change in Average Contract Value over a specified period, serving as a critical indicator of your company's ability to extract increasing value from customer relationships. This metric reveals whether you're successfully moving upmarket, improving your value proposition, or effectively implementing pricing strategies. Unlike simple revenue growth, ACV Growth Rate isolates the per-customer value expansion, making it essential for understanding unit economics improvements and market positioning evolution.
Advertising Costs
Advertising Costs is the total amount a business spends to promote its products or services across all channels. This broad expense category typically includes online, broadcast, print, outdoor, and direct mail efforts. Tracking Advertising Costs helps marketing and finance teams understand the full cost of customer acquisition and brand building, and make informed decisions about budget allocation.
Annual Contract Value
Annual Contract Value (ACV) represents the normalised dollar amount an average customer contract is worth to your company over one year. Unlike other SaaS metrics such as Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), there's less universal consensus on ACV's precise definition across the industry. Some companies include one-time charges like setup fees, implementation costs, or training in their ACV calculations, while others exclude these non-recurring elements to focus purely on the ongoing contractual commitment. This variability makes it essential for sales and finance teams to establish clear internal definitions and remain consistent in their calculations to ensure meaningful trend analysis and benchmarking. The metric serves as a crucial indicator of your company's market positioning, customer segmentation strategy, and overall business model effectiveness. ACV directly influences your go-to-market approach, sales team structure, customer success investments, and pricing strategy. Companies with higher ACVs typically employ different sales methodologies, longer sales cycles, and more comprehensive customer onboarding processes compared to those targeting lower ACV segments.
Annual Recurring Revenue
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is a key financial metric representing the value of a business's repeatable, predictable subscription income normalized over a 12-month period. It quantifies the expected yearly revenue a subscription business, particularly those with contracts of a year or longer, can count on from its current customer base. The metric is calculated by annualizing all active, contractually committed subscriptions, excluding one-time fees, professional services, or variable usage charges. ARR is crucial for long-term forecasting, capital allocation, and business valuation, as it highlights the stability and scale of the subscription revenue stream.
ARR Growth Rate
ARR Growth Rate is the change in annual recurring revenue over a given period, typically represented in a percentage. Steadily increasing ARR growth rate year over year is usually indicative of product-market fit.
Average Basket Size
Average Basket Size (ABS) is an ecommerce metric that measures the average number of items purchased per transaction. It is calculated by dividing the total number of units sold by the total number of transactions over a given period. ABS helps businesses understand whether customers are buying more or fewer items each time they place an order. Average Basket Size is also a key input for calculating Average Order Value (AOV) when combined with Average Selling Price (ASP), helping teams distinguish whether revenue changes are driven by quantity, pricing, or both.
Average Revenue Per Account
Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) represents the mean revenue generated from each customer account over a specific period, typically calculated monthly or annually. Beyond serving as a simple revenue indicator, ARPA functions as a critical strategic metric that reflects your product's value proposition, market positioning, pricing effectiveness, and customer segmentation strategy. It directly influences unit economics, growth sustainability, and competitive positioning while providing actionable insights into customer behaviour, expansion opportunities, and market penetration across different segments and growth stages.
Average Revenue Per User
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is a company's generated revenue that is averaged across all users and reported as a monthly or yearly value. ARPU is a top-level metric, that can easily be normalized and is often cited as a comparative measure between similar companies.