While Stripe is a powerful and easy-to-use payment processing platform used by millions of businesses and e-commerce brands worldwide, making sense and use of Stripe reports is less straightforward.

Don’t worry!

In this guide, we’ll take a look at the top Stripe metrics you should track, see how the different types of Stripe reports work, and discover how they can help you seize golden opportunities to fuel growth and gain a competitive edge.

Ready?

Let’s unlock your business’s true potential!

Basics first: what are Stripe reports?

Before diving deep into Stripe reporting and analytics, let’s discover first what Stripe reports are and why it’s critical to embrace their power.

Stripe financial reports not only help you with your reconciliation and accounting, they also lend you a helping hand in tracking and analyzing key data points, such as sales, customer behavior, and payment trends.

If used properly, Stripe reports help you unveil meaningful insights that allow you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your business strategies.

For instance, you can identify top-performing products, determine the success of your marketing activities, pinpoint areas for improvement, and understand your customers like never before. Moreover, Stripe reports can even help you fight fraudulent activities, such as card testing attempts.

What are the top Stripe metrics you should track?

Now that you’re more familiar with the meaning and importance of Stripe reports, the question may arise: which metrics are worth reporting on?

Well, the exact answer will depend on the goals and long-term vision of your business. However, let’s see those 10 metrics that you shouldn’t miss, especially, if you’re a subscription-based business!

1. Number of payments: Make sure to take a look at this metric in your Stripe reports to see how many online transactions were successful.
2. Payment Average: Examining the average payment amount across multiple buyers will help you understand customer spending habits and revise your pricing strategy in the future, if needed.
3. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): Use this metric to track how much revenue you can expect to receive per month based on newly onboarded or existing subscriptions. MRR is helpful for financial projections, strategic planning, and setting targets.
4. Number of disputes: Do you see an unusually high number of disputes? This may indicate fraudulent activities which need further investigation!
5. New Subscribers: Keep a close eye on this Stripe metric to identify any significant growth or decline. It will give you insight into the performance of your marketing activities, among others.
6. Trial Conversion Rate: Do you offer a free trial to potential subscribers? Take a look at the trial conversion rate in your Stripe reports to see if users deem your product valuable enough to pay for it.
7. Average Revenue per Subscriber (ARPS): Check this metric in your Stripe reports to understand how much you can expect to make from each subscriber in their database on average.
8. Churned Subscriptions: High churn rate may indicate dissatisfied customers, or maybe just buyers who failed to renew their subscriptions. Either scenario needs further investigation!
9. Retention Rate: This percentage metric will reveal the number of customers retained over a period of time. Customer retention is the engine of your subscription-based business, so make sure to keep your finger on the pulse!
10. Subscriber Lifetime Value: Last but not least, this metric will tell you how much revenue you can expect from a customer throughout their subscription period.

The different types of Stripe Reports & How to use them

There are two main types of Stripe reports: Balance and Payout Reconciliation.

These financial reports can be accessed through the “Reports” section of your Dashboard.

Both reports provide downloadable transaction history, and you can use either to reconcile your cash. You can set the required date range and customize the time zone to get the desired financial reports downloaded in CSV format.

The difference between the two reports?

They group transactions in different ways to facilitate different types of reconciliation.

Let’s see which one you should use and when!

Balance Stripe reports

This type of Stripe report resembles a bank statement. It’s optimized for users who treat their Stripe account similarly to a bank account in their accounting system.

You can track data on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to see how the balance of your Stripe account varies over a time period. This will allow you to get a good understanding of cash inflows and outflows that can be used to formulate business strategies.

This document can also help you calculate Stripe fees, allowing you to pass the appropriate fee on to your customers. Furthermore, you may also want to use Balance Stripe reports when seeking external funding.

How to download Balance Stripe reports?

All you have to do is navigate to Reports > Balance in the Stripe Dashboard. Next, set a date range.

Stripe will display your Balance summary, indicating your activities as well as your account’s starting and ending balance for the selected period. Taking a glance can be useful for getting a quick overview of your finances.

If you need a more in-depth look, click Download. A popup will appear where you can specify the number of columns to include in your report:

Next, click show, then choose which columns to display in your report:

After hitting Download, Stripe will generate your report as a CSV file.

Payout Stripe reports

The Payout reconciliation report helps you match the payments received in your bank account with the activity in your Stripe account. This data is real-time so you can check the status of lined payments whenever you want.

Accordingly, Stripe payout reports can be handy if you use Stripe to make payments via a business bank account. Keep in mind: these documents are only available if you have automatic payouts enabled!

How to download Payout Stripe reports?

You can download these Stripe reports in a similar way to Balance Stripe reports.

First, navigate to the Reports tab, select Payment Reconciliation, then select a date range.

This way, you’ll receive a breakdown of the automatic payouts received during the selected period, grouped into reporting categories.

Now, you can select Download. Here, you’ll have two options: you can either download a Summary, or you can select Itemized:

The former one will show you the data displayed in the Payout Reconciliation section of the Stripe Dashboard. The latter one will download a complete list of the individual transactions that are summarized in the Stripe Dashboard.

Custom Stripe reports

In addition to the above-mentioned financial reports, you also have the option to opt for Stripe Sigma to create custom reports. Sigma is a customizable SQL tool that allows technically adept users to write queries and track how metrics change over time.

Stripe custom reports are an excellent option for companies that don’t like pre-packaged reports. For instance, you can generate a custom report displaying recurring revenues per month or per year, average revenue per buyer, or even how many invoices remain unpaid.

How to get the most out of Stripe Reports?

Let’s see how you can maximize the benefits of your Stripe reports when it comes to building killer business strategies:

1. Keep abreast of changes

First of all, it’s wise to check your Stripe reports frequently. This enables you to identify any suspicious activity before it causes irreparable harm to your business.

For instance, it’s worth paying attention to activities happening frequently in a short period of time, such as purchases from a specific area, at a specific time, or with a specific payment method. Analyze your daily, weekly, and monthly reports to see if anything sticks out.

2. Customize your reports

There are many different custom column options in your Balance and Payment reports that you can add to help you better understand specific characteristics and trends.

For instance, if you wanted to know how much of your business is coming from a certain part of the country, you might add the “shipping_address_state” column to your Balance report. This will show you each transaction by the state to which the order was sent.

Adding the “available_on” column to your Payment report might be also useful to see when funds will be available in your Stripe account. Furthermore, the “source_id” column allows you to connect a transaction to a particular Stripe object. Another useful customization is using the “subscription_id” column that lets you understand how much of your sales are derived from billing subscriptions connected to your Stripe account.

3. Share your findings with your team

Since your Stripe reports contain such a vast amount of information, it’s critical to share your findings with other departments.

Make sure to share the raw data, as team members may have a unique interpretation of the results.

4. Modify your strategies if needed

Did your Stripe reports reveal that you’re attracting high traffic from a particular region? You might want to specifically target this demographic with an email campaign!

Are a lot of purchases coming during the weekend? You might want to run a Sunday flash sale!

Did you notice an increasing number of refunds? It might be worth investigating why your customers are unsatisfied with your product! It might also be a wise decision to inspect if your marketing materials promise more than what’s being delivered to your customers.

Don’t forget to follow up on results after devising your marketing strategies!

Wrap-up

If used correctly, Stripe reports can reveal hidden treasures buried within your business transactions. The Balance report allows you to reconcile your Stripe balance like a bank account and download a list of payouts. The Payout reconciliation report helps you match payouts with batches of payments and other related transactions. Both allow you to gain meaningful insights so that you can make data-driven decisions and unlock the full potential of your business!