MRR Cohort Waterfall
The MRR waterfall shows exactly how your recurring revenue base is changing month over month — where new MRR is coming from, and where you're losing it.
What a cohort waterfall shows
The waterfall breaks each month's MRR into four components:
MRR from brand-new clients that closed this month. The hardest MRR to earn — it represents net new accounts.
MRR increases from existing clients — new service lines, seat count increases, upsells, or upgrades. Ideally your largest and fastest-growing component.
MRR lost from clients who left (CHURNED lifecycle status) or significantly reduced their contract.
New Logo + Expansion − Churn. This is your actual growth. Positive = growing, negative = shrinking.
How to read the chart
The waterfall displays as a stacked bar chart per month with a net MRR line overlay:
- Green bars stacked upward = new logo + expansion (positive)
- Red bars hanging downward = churn (negative)
- The net MRR line shows the month-over-month growth trajectory
- Hover any bar segment to see the exact dollar amount and which accounts contributed
Identifying trends
Growing expansion MRR
Your land-and-expand motion is working. Existing clients are growing with you.
High churn relative to new logo
You're filling a leaky bucket. Focus on retention before growth.
New logo dominant, low expansion
You're good at signing clients but not expanding them. Look at upsell workflow templates.
All three growing proportionally
Healthy, compounding growth. Both acquisition and expansion are working.
Churn detection logic
MRR is classified as churn when:
- An account transitions to CHURNED lifecycle status
- A contract is TERMINATED or marked as expired without renewal
- An active service line is removed and the amendment type is SERVICE_REMOVED (not temporarily suspended)
Contract amendments that reduce MRR (quantity decreases, price reductions) are classified as Contraction MRR — a separate category from full churn. Contraction appears in the expansion bar as a negative value, not in the churn bar.