Stripe is a pioneering online payment processing platform renowned for its seamless integration, robust security, and unparalleled user experience. As a leading force in the fintech industry, Stripe empowers businesses of all sizes to effortlessly accept payments from customers worldwide, whether it is for online and in-person retailers, subscriptions businesses, software platforms and marketplaces and everything in between.
Its intuitive interface and extensive developer tools make customization and integration a breeze, while its emphasis on data security ensures transactions are conducted with utmost safety and compliance.
Syft and Stripe
Syft Analytics seamlessly integrates with Stripe and transforms your data into beautiful reports and insights. The Syft and Stripe integration unlocks functionality available in Syft's feature set including Customers and Products metrics, Sales and Benchmarking analyses, Reports and Cash Manager.
All features can be combined into custom PDF report packs or live view reports. Syft’s plug-and-play interface requires no training or setup with reporting, available as soon as your data has been linked.
How to connect a Stripe entity to Syft
To connect your Stripe entity to Syft, follow the step-by-step guide:
Click "Add entity" at the top right-hand side of your screen.
You’ll now be redirected to the add entity setup page, where you can click on “Stripe”.
You will be redirected to the Stripe App Marketplace where you can install the Analytics by Syft app.
Alternatively, you can navigate directly to the Stripe App Marketplace and search for the Analytics by Syft app instead of going through Syft's Add entity page.
Click on the Analytics by Syft app.
Click on "Install app" as shown in step 3.
Once you have installed the app using either of the methods above, click "Continue Setup".
This will redirect you to sign up or log in. Signing up or logging in will ensure that your Stripe account is connected to Syft.
Your Stripe entity will then be connected to Syft and all of your Stripe data can now be used in financial reporting and analytical insights.
Additional entity settings
You can update the settings for the entity added within Syft under "Options" > "Entity". This is a very important step since here you will choose elements that will impact the rest of how Syft presents your information from Stripe. Some selections you must make include the following:
Your entity's industry and entity type (this is important as it will be used in Benchmarking)
Your default comparative, date format and the week starting date
The location of your entity
The reporting currency and how you would like it to be presented
Whether you would like to display units
Syft and Stripe Connect
Who can use this feature
Plans: Available with the Premium integration add-on.
Stripe Connect is the quickest and simplest way to assimilate payments in your platform or marketplace. Stripe's APIs empower you to construct and scale end-to-end payment incidents, from immediate onboarding to international payouts, and generate new revenue streams. Simultaneously, Stripe will take care of payments recognition. And now, you can integrate multiple Stripe Connect entities with Syft.
💡 Pro tip
Integrating multiple Stripe Connect entities means that you can have one Syft account with multiple users. Plus, you can connect all your Stripe Connect accounts in one place and share localized analytics.
To set up the Syft and Stripe Connect entity, the following is required:
Your Stripe Account ID: This can be found in Stripe's "Settings" under "Account Details" and "Business Settings".
A Stripe Restricted Key: To generate a restricted secret key, navigate to the "Developers" tab in the top toolbar. Select "API Keys". Scroll down to "Restricted Keys" and click "Create restricted key". Name the key and select "Read" access for all permissions.
The reason that you will need the Restricted Key is that Syft needs read access to everything on your Stripe account in order to integrate.
📓 Note
Restricted Keys are deletable and they are different to the Secret Key from Stripe. In other words, you can delete Syft's access to your Restricted Key without harming your Stripe account in any way.
Once you have your Stripe Account ID and Restricted Key, you can select connected accounts to add to Syft.
How to connect a Stripe Connect entity to Syft
To connect your Stripe Connect entity to Syft, follow the step-by-step guide:
Click "Add entity" at the top right of your screen.
You will now be redirected to the accounting provider setup, where you can click on “Stripe Connect”.
You will be required to enter your Stripe Account ID and Stripe Restricted Key.
Choose which entities to connect to Syft from the list of Stripe Connect accounts.
Your Stripe Connect accounts are now linked to Syft as separate entities. Each entity can be used individually or can be consolidated in your financial reporting and analytical insights.
More on Stripe
From MRR to ARR and churn to LTV, with Syft subscription analytics, you can access accurate, real-time subscription analytics and reporting.
Subscription metrics by plan
Subscription metrics by plan includes two subscription analytics tables, one for revenue and the other for plan count. You can toggle between these options at the top of the table. Additionally, take a look at the multi-period view.
The data is presented on a per plan basis and can be grouped by a variety of variables such as plan category, currency, billing period, and payment status. These options are largely dependent on the tool you've connected to Syft. Both the revenue and plan count tables provide the following:
Existing: Total cumulative recurring revenue (or customer count) for each plan from inception.
New: New subscriptions created during the period.
Reactivations: New subscriptions created during the period from users who were customers in the past.
Expansions: Expansions occur when an existing paid subscription is upgraded or modified to increase its revenue. This can happen by adding or changing a plan, increasing the quantity, or lowering a discount.
Contractions: Contractions occur when an existing paid subscription is downgraded or modified to decrease its revenue. This can happen by removing or changing a plan, lowering the quantity, or increasing a discount.
Churn: Cancelled subscriptions during the period.
FX impact: The impact on your revenue due to plans billed in foreign currency. Only shown in a revenue view.
Total: Total recurring revenue.
Average revenue per user: The average revenue per user. Calculated as total revenue divided by total number of customers.
Lifetime value: The total amount of money expected from each customer over their lifecycle with you. Calculated as average revenue per user divided by the churn rate. Only shown as an MRR.
💡 Pro tip
Switch between MRR and ARR views using the toggle at the top of the table. Everything, from existing revenue through to cancellations, will be recalculated to a monthly or annual recurring revenue view and account for the billing frequency of each plan.
All amounts are gross amounts, meaning that they include tax and discounts. We subtract discounts from your recurring revenue to give you a truer reflection of your recurring revenue.
💡 Pro tip
The metrics populated are always based on the billing date (i.e. the invoice date). This includes cancellations which will only reflect on the date the invoice is expected to run in the future.
The foreign exchange impact is calculated based on the difference in the exchange rate between each billing period. If your exchange rate vs. the billing currency has strengthened, this will be a gain.
Conversely, if it has weakened, this will be a loss. The impact is recalculated daily for each subscription so the effect of exchange rates on your revenue is always clear. This prevents large end of month currency adjustments which are common in other tools.
Total recurring revenue = Existing + (Reactivations + New + Upgrades) - (Downgrades + Churn) + FX Impact.
📓 Note
Syft allows you to view your data for any time period (monthly, daily, etc.). When switching time periods, all calculations will take the time period into account. For example and using the LTV metric, changing from a monthly view to a daily view will utilize a daily churn rate in the calculation of LTV instead of a monthly churn rate.
FX Impact: currency gains and losses
Most ecommerce and subscription businesses allow users to pay in one of multiple currencies. These businesses are exposed to currency movements between billing periods. For example, a business based in the US would use the US Dollar (USD) as their reporting currency and all non-USD invoices would be exposed to exchange rate movements.
To determine the FX impact, Syft calculates any gain or loss on the reporting currency vs. the billing currency. This means that you can view the impact of currency movements between billing periods (and for each plan). This also prevents revenue jumps at the end of the month which are common in other tools.
The foreign exchange impact is calculated based on the difference in the exchange rate between each billing period. If the exchange rate vs. the billing currency has strengthened, this will be a gain. For example, if the USD/GBP rate was 0.8 and it moves to 0.9 between billing periods, you'll receive more USD at the next invoice date. This would be a currency gain and would be reflected in the FX Impact column as a positive.
Conversely, if the exchange rate vs. the billing currency has weakened, this will be a loss. For example, if the USD/GBP rate was 0.8 and it moves to 0.7 between billing periods, you'll receive less USD at the next invoice date. This would be a currency loss and would be reflected in the FX Impact column as a negative.
Subscription metrics by customer events
Customer events includes lists of customers for new subscriptions, reactivations, expansions, contractions, and churn - for any period. The events tables are useful to provide lists of customers to the relevant operational and finance teams to action. Export these lists using live view or, alternatively, to Excel or PDF.
Customer events includes:
New: New subscriptions created during the period.
Reactivations: New subscriptions created during the period from users who were customers in the past.
Expansions: Expansions occur when an existing paid subscription is upgraded or modified to increase its revenue. This can happen by adding or changing a plan, increasing the quantity, or lowering a discount.
Contractions: Contractions occur when an existing paid subscription is downgraded or modified to decrease its revenue. This can happen by removing or changing a plan, lowering the quantity, or increasing a discount.
Churn: Cancelled subscriptions during the period.
All: The combination of all new, reactivations, expansions, contractions, and churn events.
💡 Pro tip
The subscription table includes all data that is recurring in nature. The subscription data, along with all once-off purchases, are included all together in the primary "Sales" tab under Analyze.
Methodology and reasons for differences
Since Syft's metrics are calculated based on invoice (or expected invoice) contents, there may be a few reasons why Syft's outputs differ slightly. Specifically:
Any changes to plans between billing cycles won't be recognized in Syft until an invoice is finalized with the change
We don't include payments that aren’t part of a subscription (i.e. once-offs)
We don't include customers who don't have a billing relationship with you yet (i.e. triallers)
Change the currency
Syft allows you to change the currency of all your data into any currency. We support over 170 currencies including popular crypto-currencies. Conversions are calculated using daily exchange rates which means plan and product pricing may be slightly different to what you bill your customers.
Differences that could cause graphs to mismatch
Discounts: Syft will recognize the discounted value regardless of the period of the discount. As an example, if you have a discount for 50% off either forever or for a specified period, Syft will always recognize the amount that is charged for ($100 discounted at 50%, Syft will show $50 for forever or for the specified period, once the discount rolls off, Syft will then show $100). Where as Stripe will show $100 if the discount is limited to a period and only $50 if the coupon is for forever.
Once off products: Only products that are set to recur are included in the MRR graph, this means that if you have a once off product that does not recur, any revenue generated from these products would not be included in the MRR graph on Syft. How Stripe deals with these transactions is unknown.
Once off payments: Any payments charged against the clients payment method without an invoice generated first would also not be included in Syft's MRR graphs. How Stripe deals with these transactions is unknown.
❓ FAQs
When do cancellations reflect:
Cancellations reflect at the end of the billing cycle (which is also the invoice date). Since subscriptions are billed in advance, customers have access to the subscription until the end of the billing cycle.
What happens with 100% discounts:
100% discounts will be reflected as a contraction and not a cancellation. You still have a billing relationship with the customer even with a 100% discount and the discount may be part of a sales or retention strategy.
What happens if a new customer signs up and then upgrades in the same month:
We'll recognize this as a new customer and an expansion, both occurring in the same month. We don't bundle this since the customer could sign up and upgrade on any day of the month (day 1 or day 31). Upgrades could also be promoted in product in which case the user would never sign up with the upgrade from the start of their subscription.
How are discounts recognized:
Discounts are factored in to the revenue calculation. Discounts that are removed are reflected as an expansions.
How are refunds recognized:
Refunds are ignored.