I'mBoard API Docs

Count of active paying customer logos at the end of the period. "Active" means the customer has a live paid subscription or contract on the reporting date — not trial, not cancelled, not zero-revenue. The board reads this alongside ARR to triangulate whether growth is logo-driven (more customers at similar ACV) or expansion-driven (existing customers paying more). Common pitfall: definitions of "customer" drift over time as the company sells to subsidiaries, parent accounts, or self-serve users — settle the counting unit (parent vs. account vs. seat) and document it in `customer_definition_note` so cross-period comparisons stay honest. — 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.total_customers Type: Number Domain: Customers

Definition

Count of active paying customer logos at the end of the period. "Active" means the customer has a live paid subscription or contract on the reporting date — not trial, not cancelled, not zero-revenue. The board reads this alongside ARR to triangulate whether growth is logo-driven (more customers at similar ACV) or expansion-driven (existing customers paying more). Common pitfall: definitions of "customer" drift over time as the company sells to subsidiaries, parent accounts, or self-serve users — settle the counting unit (parent vs. account vs. seat) and document it in customer_definition_note so cross-period comparisons stay honest.

Formula

Count of customer logos with an active paid subscription/contract on the reporting date. Excludes trials, paused accounts, and $0 contracts. Counting unit (parent vs. account vs. seat) must be documented and held constant period-over-period.

Why it matters

The denominator beneath every retention, churn, and concentration metric — and the simplest read on whether the company is winning new logos at the headline level. Boards use it to disambiguate logo-led vs. ARR-led growth.

How to interpret

Net change = new logos − churned logos; pair with customers_churned and ARR delta. Stage-typical absolute counts vary so widely (B2B enterprise vs. SMB SaaS) that an absolute count is industry folk-wisdom, not citation-grade — compare instead to the company's own trailing 4-quarter trend. A definitional change to "customer" must be flagged on the chart, not absorbed silently.

customers.customers_churned
customers.logo_retention_rate
customers.logo_churn_rate
customers.top_customer_concentration
sales.arr

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 stage	Priority
Pre-Seed	Core
Seed	Core
Series A	Core
Series B	Core
Series C+	Core
Public	Core

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

Default owning functions

Sales

Machine-readable

This KPI as JSON: /api/ontology/customers/total_customers.json
All Customers KPIs: /api/ontology/customers.json
Full catalog: /api/ontology/index.json

Total Customers