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Board OntologyCustomers

Prior-Quarter GRR

Gross Revenue Retention reported in the PRIOR period — the comparison anchor for the current `customers.gross_revenue_retention`. The board reads the two together to render the GRR trend on the bespoke customers retention grid. Per the SMSB GRR definition (excludes expansion, capped at 100%), both periods must use the same cohort basis for the delta to mean anything. Common pitfall: reading a GRR trend without the matching NRR trend — the gap between them is the expansion signal. — Customers KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).

I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)

No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.

Rogue ID: customers.prior_quarter_grr Type: Percentage (%) Domain: Customers

Definition

Gross Revenue Retention reported in the PRIOR period — the comparison anchor for the current customers.gross_revenue_retention. The board reads the two together to render the GRR trend on the bespoke customers retention grid. Per the SMSB GRR definition (excludes expansion, capped at 100%), both periods must use the same cohort basis for the delta to mean anything. Common pitfall: reading a GRR trend without the matching NRR trend — the gap between them is the expansion signal.

Formula

GRR from the prior period, on the same SMSB closed-start cohort basis as the current `customers.gross_revenue_retention`. grrTrend = gross_revenue_retention − prior_quarter_grr (in points).

Why it matters

A declining GRR is the truest early churn signal — it cannot be masked by expansion the way NRR can.

How to interpret

Persistent GRR decline with flat NRR is a product/onboarding problem hidden by upsell. Pair with customers.prior_quarter_nrr to read the expansion gap.

Calculation policy

How an AI agent should compute this KPI from messy company data. Free-text rules consumed at reasoning time — not a deterministic DSL. The most common ways to get this wrong are listed under Common miscomputations.

Inclusion rules

  • The customers.gross_revenue_retention value AS REPORTED for the immediately-prior reporting period — a point-in-time restatement of that past period's GRR, NOT recomputed on this period's cohort.
  • The prior GRR must itself have used the SMSB closed-start-cohort basis (excludes expansion, capped at 100%) consistent with the current GRR.
  • A percentage, as of the prior period close.

Exclusion rules

  • Current-period cohort or activity — this is the prior period's snapshot.
  • A prior GRR computed on a different cohort window / basis than the current metric.
  • Expansion ARR (GRR excludes it by definition).

Required inputs

  • The prior period's reported GRR (closed-start cohort basis).
  • Confirmation the prior cohort basis matches the current GRR.

Data-source priority

  • The prior period's board-reported GRR.
  • The prior period's cohort ledger ONLY if no reported value exists.

Edge cases

  • As-of semantics: the prior reporting period's GRR value fixed at that period's close — not this period's cohort recomputed for a prior window.
  • A cohort-window mismatch across the two periods makes the delta meaningless.
  • Read with prior_quarter_nrr: the gap is the prior period's expansion signal.

Validation checks

  • grrTrend = gross_revenue_retention − prior_quarter_grr (in points).
  • Bounded ≤ 100% — GRR cannot exceed 100%.
  • prior_quarter_grrprior_quarter_nrr for the same prior cohort.

Common miscomputations

  • Recomputing the prior value on the current period's cohort instead of using the prior-period reported GRR.
  • Comparing a prior GRR on a different cohort basis to the current one.
  • Letting expansion leak in (GRR > 100%).
  • customers.gross_revenue_retention
  • customers.prior_quarter_nrr
  • customers.net_revenue_retention

Source

I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.

Stage relevance

Company stagePriority
Series ACore
Series BCore
Series C+Core
PublicCore

Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.

Default owning functions

  • Finance
  • Sales

Machine-readable

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