Data Visualizations vs Reporting Trends
Data Visualizations (custom dashboards) allow you to create reports based on any of your customer data and activity objects to give you and your team insight into what matters most to you.
Reporting Trends are Vitally's out-of-the-box dashboards that provide insight into your KPIs to build a growing, successful B2B SaaS company. They provide KPIs around the entire customer lifecycle - from new trials to lost customers (and everything in between)!
User-level data is now supported!
You can add user-level filters to widgets and user-level columns to the table views accessible when clicking into widgets. Additionally, you can add user-level table views in your Dashboards! When adding user-level data to your widgets, keep in mind that the Group By properties are limited to the user level.
Data Visualization (Custom Dashboard)
Data visualizations are custom dashboards that allow you to create and arrange advanced reports based on your customer data and activity objects in Vitally. Dashboards consist of Widgets.
Some common Data Visualizations:
Activity dashboards to report on the activities (projects, notes, tasks, etc) of CSMs
TTV for onboarding duration
Retention and renewals
Health based on segment
Visualize how many meetings CSMs are scheduling a month (if you're logging calls through note categories, you can create a widget to see how many meetings CSMs are scheduling)
How to Create a Dashboard
How to | How to Visual |
You have a few options for creating a dashboard, either by the Create New button on the bottom left or adding directly into a Hub. Below we go over adding a dashboard into a Hub:
If a dashboard is added to a public Hub, that dashboard will still be private. You must update the permissions with the share button in step 5 to allow others to view this dashboard. | 
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Please note that if you want filters to be permanent, you MUST add filters to individual widgets (read more on creating widgets below). Using the global filters on the top right of the Dashboard will not permanently add filters. These are locally cached and will reset after some time.
How to Create a Widget
Once you create your dashboard, the next step is to create your first widget. The widget wizard is broken up into a sequence of 3 steps where you will be able to select the type of data you want to visualize, how it's visualized, how the data is calculated, and how the results are filtered.
How to create | How to Video |
How to Create a Widget in a Dashboard
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Customize columns in your Dashboard widgets and save those changes for your entire team. Additionally, you can save those widget result views as hub views.
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User-level widgets are now supported. You spoke, we listened!
When selecting your Object in a Widget, you'll now see "Users" as an option.
You can add user-level filters to widgets and user-level columns to the table views accessible when clicking into widgets. Additionally, you can add user-level table views in your Dashboards!
When adding user-level data to your widgets, keep in mind that the Group By properties are limited to the user level. | 
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Please note that if you want filters to be permanent, they MUST be added to individual widgets. Using the global filters on the top right of the Dashboard will not permanently add filters. These are locally cached and will reset after some time.
Dashboard Widget types
Metric Widget - Show a count or percentage
Metric Widget - Show a count or percentage
This is an easy and quick metric view you can use to visualize the count of all accounts with a poor health score or show the average number of days of an onboarding project, for example.
Donut - Used to show proportions of categorical data
Donut - Used to show proportions of categorical data
This is a great way to view the proportions of categorical data, with the size of each piece representing the proportion of a category. For example, you can visualize the NRR by segment, the number of accounts by CSM, or health categories. Note: It's not recommended to use a Donut widget if your reporting contains large negative numbers. The Bar Chart is best for this.
Bar Chart - Show comparisons between different categories
Bar Chart - Show comparisons between different categories
Bar charts are great when you want to show segments of information. For example, you can visualize the number of accounts up for renewal sorted by renewal month.
Stacked Bar - Show how a larger category is divided into smaller categories
Stacked Bar - Show how a larger category is divided into smaller categories
Stacked bar charts are a great way to compare between categories. The bars are proportional to the values they represent. They can be used to visualize the number of projects by CSM, divide them by project category or status, or even create a risk forecast.
Trend Line - Display trends over time
Trend Line - Display trends over time
Trends can be tracked up to a 12-month period, giving teams visibility into insights around changes for events such as accounts created, average health scores, or any other metric or custom Success Metric tracked in Vitally.
Table View - Display up to 50 rows from an existing data View
Table View - Display up to 50 rows from an existing data View
If you've created a view and want to centralize it in a dashboard along with other data, add a table view widget to your dashboard!
iFrame Embed - Embed any public URL like Google Slides, Looker, and more
iFrame Embed - Embed any public URL like Google Slides, Looker, and more
With Dashboards, users can expand the reporting and data visualization with their existing Vitally-built widgets, enabling teams to view Customer Success data side-by-side with business intelligence insights.
X-Frame-Options controls the page you want to iframe in Vitally. If your URL says “you cannot iframe me” by returning “deny”, all web browsers will respect your settings and cannot be overridden in Vitally.
For example, include a geographical breakdown of all your customers' locations. Once created in Looker, you can embed this iFrame directly into a dashboard of your customers. Other examples are embedding Google Sheets, Tableau data, or any other data visualization with a public URL.
Measuring Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
Net revenue retention (NRR) is one of the most common KPIs Customer Success teams will measure their performance against, and for good reason as it helps CS teams understand if their revenue managed is expanding at a faster rate than any churn experienced.
NRR takes into account the total revenue under management at the start of a target period (typically monthly, quarterly, or annually), and then looks at the same set of customers and how much revenue they account for at the end of the period.
NRR is calculated with this formula: (Starting MRR + Change in MRR) / Starting MRR
For example, let's say you want to track your NRR for Q1. To do so, follow these steps:
For example, let's say you want to track your NRR for Q1. To do so, follow these steps:
Look at your customers on Jan 1. Let's say you have 100 customers for a total of $1M ARR
Look at that same set of customers on Apr 1. Note that it does not matter how many new customers you acquired in Q1 - we're only looking at revenue from the 100 customers you had on Jan 1.
Let's say 10 customers churned for -$25K ARR
Let's say 20 customers expanded for + $150K ARR
Let's say 5 customers contracted for -$25K ARR
To calculate your NRR for Q1, you divide the ARR of your 100 customers on Apr 1 divided by their ARR on Jan 1. In this example, we have 110% NRR:
ARR from 100 customers on Mar 1: $1.1M ARR ($1M ARR - $25K churn - $25K contraction + $150K expansion)
$1.1M / $1M = 1.1 * 100.0 = 110% NRR
To measure NRR, you simply need to create a Widget that targets Accounts (or Organizations if using account hierarchy). While configuring the widget, you'll be able to select NRR (net revenue retention) as the Property. You'll also be able to determine the timeframe.
Here are two examples of calculating NRR and organizing by CSM or Segment:
NRR per CSM
NRR per CSM
To calculate each CSM's NRR, simply build a widget with these details. This is for a horizontal configuration. For a vertical configuration, flip the X and Y axis values.
Visualization Type: Bar
Object: Accounts or Organizations
X-Axis: NRR (net revenue retention)
Y-Axis Property: CSM
Then, configure your Widget like the one below, specifying the timeframe to calculate against:
NRR per Segment
NRR per Segment
To calculate the NRR of each Segment, simply build a widget that has these details. This is for a horizontal configuration. For vertical, flip the X and Y axis values.
Visualization Type: Bar
Object: Accounts or Organizations
X-Axis: NRR (net revenue retention)
Y-Axis Property: Segment
Then, configure the timeframe to calculate against.
We now offer Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) everywhere we offer Net Revenue Retention (NRR) as a value calculation operation on widgets. GRR is the retained monthly revenue divided by the starting MRR for each month, and that total is multiplied by 100 to get to the percentage. The retained monthly revenue is the lower value when comparing the starting MRR and the ending MRR value for the month.
Managing a Dashboard
You can share, filter, clone, and add to a Hubs!
When selecting the meatball menu (three dots on the top right) you have a few options:
Add to Hub: You can add to multiple Hubs
Edit dashboard details: Change name and icon and/or visibility
Clone dashboard: Clone the dashboard with all the same widgets
Remove from [Hub]: If application, remove the dashboard from any Hub
Delete Dashboard: Permanently delete the Dashboard from Vitally
You also have a Share button and a Funnel, which is your Global Filters to the right:
Share: the share button allows you to share editing with other team members as well as whether this Dashboard can be searched while other team members are creating Hubs
Global filters (funnel icon): Global filters are locally cached meaning they will only be applied to your dashboard. If you want these filters to permanently stick, you'll need to add them to each individual widget.
Colors of a Widget
You can't exactly customize the color in a widget however, you do have ways to customize these to better fit your design! Below, we go over customizations and logic on the Widget color displayed in Dashboards:
If you have colors set for your custom field display values, we will use them to color our widgets (this is where you can edit so these colors are to your liking!)
Vitally already has some custom colors for “health category” on accounts. This applies the same coloring to “last health category” for accounts, and “health category” + “last health category” for organizations
The “no value” color is a darker grey
About Reporting Trends Dashboard
Vitally's out-of-the-box reporting dashboards provide insight into the KPIs you need to build a growing, successful B2B SaaS company. They provide KPIs around the entire customer lifecycle - from new trials to lost customers (and everything in between)! Additionally, there are insights into NPS trends as well as a Team dashboard showcasing the health of each CSM's or AE's customer portfolio.
Requirements for Reporting Trends Dashboard:
Since these dashboards help you analyze the entire customer lifecycle + NPS scores, you'll need to ensure you've configured Vitally to track each stage of that lifecycle. If you've yet to do so, please follow the process detailed in these articles:
About Each Reporting Widget
These dashboards are categorized into 3 different categories:
Customers: provide insight into your subscription KPIs - i.e. the KPIs to measure the process from initial subscription to (unfortunate) churn. These KPIs are organized into 3 sections.
Trials: displays these collections of trial KPIs
NPS Analytics: displays these collections of NPS KPIs
These widgets will display according to your Revenue Default in your settings. If you have this set to ARR, we will display ARR and vice versa with MRR. Go to Settings > Account & Billing > edit your Revenue default to change between ARR and MRR.
Customer Customer & Revenue Growth Historical growth of paying customers + their revenue.
Provides a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of your 1) MRR, 2) Paying customers, and 3) Average MRR per paying customer.
Easily switch views from a bar graph to a trend line to a table list on the top right of each widget. | Customer Revenue Growth Breakdown New Business, expansion, contraction, & churn per month.
Shows a weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of your 1) New business, 2) Expansions, 3) Contractions, 4) Churn, 5) Net New business, and 6) Net Churn.
You can change the way the data is displayed. At the top right, you can easily change how to view the KPIs with units using number of customers, MRR, and MRR percentage (compared to starting MRR in the timeframe). Additionally, you can switch views from a bar graph, to a trend line, to a table list on the top right of each widget.
These numbers (new business, expansion, contraction, churn) DO NOT consider accounts that have paid and churned within the same time frame selected or accounts without revenue. New Business is defined as new revenue for new accounts. For example, if an account churned in March and started a new subscription in July, it should show up as new business in July. If an account churns in July and resubscribes in July, it will not be included in New Business.
You can click into the different categories each month to view which accounts made up that particular category, along with helpful data points. For example, if you click on the contraction category, you’ll see the account’s starting and ending revenue.
*We calculate Net Churn: Expansion - (Contraction + Churn) |
Customer Health Breakdown Historical customer or revenue health.
Provides a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of (1) Healthy, (2) Concerning, and (3) Poor customers.
How is the Monthly Health Score Calculated for the Health Breakdown widget? | Customer Logo/Revenue Retention Monthly logo or revenue retention.
Shows a weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown displaying the ratio of retained vs churned customers. You can switch units between MRR (e.g., the percentage of starting revenue retained at the end of the month) and accounts (e.g., the percentage of accounts retained at the end of the month).
Easily switch views from a bar graph to a trend line to a table list on the top right of each widget.
*We measure revenue retention as follows: (Starting MRR - Churned MRR) / (Starting MRR). Only non-ignored accounts with a non-null MRR at the end of the prior month are factored into this equation. |
Trials Trial Conversion & Revenue Monthly revenue from converted trials.
Can show a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of the number of converted trials + MRR from those converted trials in the timeframe. | Trials Trial Conversion Rate Monthly trial conversion rates.
Can show a weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of the number of converted trials + MRR from those converted trials in the timeframe. |
Trials Trial Qualification Rate Monthly trial qualification rates.
Can show a weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of your new trials along with your qualification rate (i.e. the percentage of new trials in the timeframe that are in your target market). |
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NPS Analytics Overall NPS Overall NPS + promoters, passives, & passives over time
Shows a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of your overall NPS score + the number of promoters, passives, and detractors you had at each time unit. When categorizing promoters, passives, and detractors, we only look at the user's most recent NPS response. If a user responds with a 10 twice, they will only be counted in this report once. Users who churned and are deactivated do not appear in this report. | NPS Analytics NPS Per Account Historical NPS scores per Account
Shows a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of your average NPS score per account + the number of accounts where your NPS score was World Class (> 70), Excellent (between 50 & 70), Good (between 0 and 50), and Poor (less than 0). |
NPS Analytics NPS Responses Individual NPS scores over time
Shows a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly breakdown of your NPS responses during each time unit grouped by score. |
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Viewing & Analyzing the Data on Reporting Trends
Once you've created your widgets, you can view and analyze this data to help understand where your business is or needs to go.
You have a few options when viewing and analyzing this data:
Hover over the widget to get insight into what is being calculated
Switch from a trend line, bar graph, or table to view the data as you need
Edit the widget at any point to add additional filters or changes
Dashboards: More Options
Customize columns in your Dashboard widgets Customize columns in your Dashboard widgets and save those changes for your entire team. Additionally, you can save those widget result views as hub views.
 | Global filter: The funnel on the top right of a dashboard is a Global Filter. This feature is used best when you want to view data for a specific account or accounts, specific segment, a specific ARR, etc. This filter is locally cached therefore is not permanent and eventually will reset. Additionally, the global filter does not affect the view of any other users, only your dashboard.
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Edit Dashboard Details: By selecting the meatball menu () on the top right and then selecting Edit dashboard details, you're able to (1) change the emoji displayed for your dashboard, (2) change the name of your dashboard, (3) Publish dashboard in the dashboard library.
| Cloning a Dashboard: By selecting the meatball menu (
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Removing Dashboard from a Hub: By selecting the meatball menu (
| Deleting a Dashboard: By selecting the meatball menu (
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Editing a Widget: By selecting the meatball menu (
| Cloning a Widget: By selecting the meatball menu (
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Deleting a Widget: By selecting the meatball menu (
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FAQ
Q: Why is there a discrepancy in the NPS Response and NPS Analytics?
A: It is expected to see more responses logged in NPS Responses, since this is every response, including multiple responses from the same user. The NPS analytics page would have fewer responses logged as this doesn't account for multiple NPS responses.
Q: NPS Analytic Trend Report - since this data is cumulative, why is there a drop from one month to the next
A: When a user churns, its NPS is subtracted and no longer included in reporting. If you've changed your user churn rules and/or have had a spike in user churn, that would explain the sudden drop.
Q: What is the order logic for the Stacked Bar on the Y axis?
A: They're ordered by the size of the bar, but in the case of stacked bars, it's by the size of the largest bar in the stack, except for cases where the y-axis is time, in which case we order them by the y-axis value.
Q: Why are filters not sticking in my Dashboard?
A: If you are using what we call global filters on the top right of your dashboard, these are temporary filters to filter down a dashboard quickly but are not permanent. If you want the filters to stick, please add them to each widget you want to apply those filters to.
Q: How is Net Churn ARR calculated?
A: Expansion - contraction - churn.
Q: How is revenue retention calculated?
A: (Starting MRR - Churned MRR) / (Starting MRR).