Net Revenue Retention NRR (also NDR, Net Dollar Retention; "net retention")
Of the recurring revenue you had from existing customers a year ago, how much you still have now after they upgraded, downgraded, and left, expansion can push it above 100%.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
CS and finance routinely publish different NRR for the same company. The
cohort fork: the disciplined definition fixes the set of customers alive at
the start of the window and tracks only them, explicitly excluding any new
logo signed during the window; a looser "quick" version divides all current
recurring revenue from retained accounts by starting revenue and lets some
new-account dollars leak in. The base fork: RevOps computes on ARR
(annualized contract value) while finance sometimes computes on
GAAP-recognized revenue (ASC 606), so a mid-year upsell books on a different
clock. The window fork: point-to-point (this month vs the same month 12
months ago) vs a trailing average. Each choice moves the headline several
points.
The trap
NRR above 100% is the single most gameable health headline.
- The full trap, worked on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: SaaS / RevOps convention - no single standards body · FASB ASC 606 (revenue recognition) for the base fork