How Chartsy fits together

The two chains#

Chartsy has two independent inputs. Your billing provider supplies the money, and your website supplies the traffic. Each travels its own path, and they meet only in Growth:

Keeping the two apart explains a lot of otherwise confusing behaviour - most usefully, that a busy billing month with no site traffic uses no events, and that Growth is the only place the two chains have to be joined.

Data source

The external account Chartsy reads from - your Stripe, Paddle, Paddle Classic, or BigCommerce account. It is the only thing you have to set up. Read more

Data models

The specific object types Chartsy copies out of that source - customers, subscriptions, invoices, charges, refunds and so on. Knowing which models exist tells you which questions can be answered. Stripe models

Metrics

Numbers derived from the models by a definite formula - MRR, churn rate, LTV, ARPU. A metric is a calculation, not a stored field. Read more

Charts and dashboards

A chart shows one metric over one dimension; a dashboard is a saved arrangement of charts that refreshes on its own. Read more

Events (the traffic chain)

A tracked visit or a tracked signup on one of your sites - a visit being closer to a session than a pageview. Events are the whole of the traffic chain and touch none of the billing objects above: they are the unit your usage is measured in, and nothing else in Chartsy counts toward it. Read more

Three more terms worth knowing#

Metadata

Custom key/value fields you already set in Stripe or Paddle - acquisition source, company size, coupon code. Chartsy turns them into dimensions you can filter and break down by, which is how a generic metric becomes a metric about your business. Read more

Attribution

The vocabulary Growth uses to say where a customer came from - source, campaign, launch, instance, first touch, last touch. Read more

Sync

The ongoing process that keeps the copied models in step with the source. It explains both why your history is already there on day one and why a number can briefly lag your provider. Read more

Every concept page#

• Data sourcesWhat a data source is, which ones Chartsy supports, and what connecting one actually does.
• EventsVisits and signups both count. What creates an event, and what never counts toward your usage.
• MetricsHow MRR, ARR, churn, LTV, ARPU and the rest are defined and calculated.
• Dashboards and chartsThe difference between a chart, a dashboard, and a saved question - and when to use each.
• TemplatesPre-built dashboards you can start from, and what happens when you edit one.
• MetadataCustom key/value fields from Stripe and Paddle, and how Chartsy turns them into filters and breakdowns.
• Sources, campaigns, launches and instancesThe attribution vocabulary Growth uses, plus first-touch vs. last-touch.
• Customers, subscriptions and statusesHow Chartsy counts a customer, what each subscription status means, and how trials are handled.
• Syncing and data freshnessBackfill, real-time webhooks, and how recent the numbers on your dashboard actually are.
• GlossaryEvery Chartsy and SaaS-metrics term in one A-Z list.