Stripe reports and metrics: how to manage and track?

While accepting Stripe payments on your WordPress site is easy with WP Full Pay, understanding and the use of Stripe reports is less straightforward.

In this guide, we will start what is Stripe reporting, and then cover:

Key Stripe metrics you should know
How to use different Stripe reports?
Stripe metric to track based on your business model
The best Stripe reports to use for different payment models

Ready?

What are Stripe reports?

Before diving deep into Stripe metrics, let’s discover first what Stripe reports are and why it’s critical to utilize them for your business.

Stripe reports are like detailed records or summaries that show you how your business is doing financially when you use Stripe to take payments.

Stripe financial reports not only help you with your reconciliation and accounting. In simple terms, Stripe reconciliation is a process of ensuring that the payments you’ve received through Stripe correctly align with your business’s financial statements.

Stripe reconciliation also helps to verify that all financial activity is accounted for and accurate. This is important for maintaining accurate financial records and can be critical for things like tax reporting and business analysis.

With Stripe reporting, you can also track and analyze key data points, such as sales, customer behavior, and payment trends.

If used properly, Stripe reports help you understand the necessary 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. Moreover, Stripe reports can even help you fight fraudulent activities, such as card testing attempts.

Stripe metrics

Stripe metrics are the data points and numbers that Stripe tracks to give you insights into your business’s financial performance. These metrics can include total sales, average payment size, number of refunds, chargeback rates, and more.

By analyzing Stripe metrics, you can understand how your business is doing in terms of sales, customer behavior, and overall financial health.

Metric	Definition
Number of payments	Counts successful payment transactions
Payment average	The average amount per payment transaction
Discount amount	Total savings provided through discounts
Discount average	Average discount value applied per transaction
New customers	Number of first-time customers acquired
Existing customers	Count of returning or ongoing customers
Number of disputes	Total contested or chargeback transactions
Refund amount	Cumulative value of refunded transactions
Refund average	Average amount refunded per transaction
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)	Regular income from subscriptions
New subscribers	Count of new subscription sign-ups
Trial conversion rate	Percentage of trials converting to paid subscriptions
Average revenue per subscriber (ARPS)	Average earnings from each subscriber
Churned subscriptions	Subscriptions ended per period
Retention rate	Proportion of customers continuing subscriptions
Subscriber lifetime value	Predicted total revenue from a subscriber over time

Which Stripe metrics should you track?

Now that you’re more familiar with the Stripe reporting and the metrics, the question may arise: which metrics are you should track?

It depends on your business model: the types of payment you’re accepting.

If you’re using WP Full P ay to accept Stripe payments on your WordPress site, you can track various metrics based on the payment forms you’re utilizing:

One-Time Payments: For single purchases or fees.
Recurring Payments: For subscriptions or ongoing services.
Save Card: For saving customer card details for future transactions.
Donations: For accepting online donations.

Let’s see which Stripe metric you should track for each payment model.

For each payment form supported by WP Full Pay, here are the appropriate metrics you might track:

Payment model	Associated metrics
One-time payments	Total sales revenue, average order value, number of transactions
Recurring payments	Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), churn rate, retention rate
Save card	Number of cards saved, usage rate of saved cards for repeat transactions, failed transactions
Donations	Total donation volume, average donation size, frequency of donations

Stripe metrics for one-time payments

When tracking metrics for one-time payments through WP Full Pay, you’ll want to focus on the following key performance indicators that Stripe offers:

Payments: This metric counts all successful one-time payment transactions, giving you a clear picture of sales volume.
Average Revenue per User (ARPU): While typically used to evaluate revenue from subscribers, for one-time payments, you can use this to assess the average transaction value.
Net Revenue: It reflects the total revenue after accounting for refunds, disputes, and any other deductions.
Refunds: Track the total amount and number of refunds to understand the post-purchase satisfaction and any potential issues with products or services.

These metrics provide insights into the health of your one-time sales, customer spending habits, and overall financial performance.

Stripe metrics for recurring payments

For “Recurring Payments” processed through WP Full Pay, focus on these Stripe metrics:

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): Tracks the total predictable revenue generated from subscriptions each month.
Churn Rate: Measures the percentage of subscribers who cancel their subscriptions within a given period.
Lifetime Value (LTV): Estimates the total revenue expected from a subscriber over the duration of their subscription.
Active Subscribers: Counts the number of active subscription customers.

These metrics help in understanding the stability and growth of your recurring revenue streams, subscriber retention, and overall subscription business health.

Stripe metrics for “save card” transactions

For “Save Card” transactions processed through WP Full Pay and Stripe, you would generally focus on the following metrics:

Card Save Rate: Indicates the percentage of customers who choose to save their card information for future transactions.
Repeat Purchase Rate: Measures the frequency at which customers using saved cards return for additional purchases.
Failed Payments: Tracks the number of transactions that fail due to issues with saved card details.

These metrics help evaluate customer trust and convenience in your system, the effectiveness of the saved card feature, and the reliability of transaction processing.

Stripe metrics for “Donation” transactions

If you’re accepting “Donations” managed through WP Full Pay and Stripe, consider tracking these key metrics:

Total Donation Amount: The sum of all donations received over a certain period.
Average Donation Size: The average amount donated per transaction.
Donation Count: The total number of individual donations received.

These metrics help you gauge the overall success of your fundraising efforts, understand donor generosity, and assess the frequency of donations. They are crucial for non-profits and organizations relying on charitable contributions.

Stripe metrics	Payment models
Total Revenue	Across all payment types, track the cumulative revenue, including one-time purchases, recurring payments, and donations.
Total Revenue	The total number of transactions, irrespective of type, giving a broad view of overall business activity.
Average Transaction Value	Averages across all payment types to understand typical revenue per transaction
Refund and Dispute Rate	Common to all types, showing customer satisfaction and potential issues. If you see an unusually high number of disputes, this may indicate fraudulent activities which need further investigation!
Customer Acquisition and Retention Metrics	Encompassing new and returning customers for one-time, recurring, and donation models. This percentage metric will reveal the number of customers retained over a period of time.

You might also like to read how to create form and accept donation on WordPress with WP Full Pay.

Stripe Reports and How to use them

There are 3 types of Stripe reports: Balance, Payout (Reconciliation), and custom reports.

You can access Stripe reports by navigating the “Reports” section of your Dashboard.

Both the Balance and Payout (Reconciliation) 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.

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

What is the difference between the Balance and Reconciliation reports?

The difference is that these financial reports group transactions in different ways to facilitate different types of reconciliation.

Balance reports

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

With the Balance report, 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 Balance report 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 Stripe’s Balance 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:

You can specify the number of columns when downloading your Balance Stripe reports.

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

You can choose which columns you want to display in your Stripe Balance reports.

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

Reconciliation – Payout Stripe reports

The 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 reconciliation reports?

You can download the payout 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:

When downloading our Payment Stripe reports, 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.

Stripe reporting for different payment models

If you’re accepting Stripe payments on your WordPress site using WP Full Pay, the Stripe report you choose depends on the type of payment you’re handling.

Payment models	Stripe reports
One-Time Payments	The ‘Balance Report’ is ideal as it provides a detailed transaction history, including one-time sales.
Recurring Payments	The ‘Reconciliation Report’ is suitable for subscriptions, as it helps track and match transactions with bank deposits, vital for subscription models.
Save Card	Custom Reports would be useful here, allowing you to track specific metrics related to saved card usage, like repeat purchases.
Donations	Custom Reports are also beneficial for donations, enabling you to tailor the report to focus on donation-specific transactions and trends.

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. Check reports frequently

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.

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!

You might also like to read: Top 10 Finance AI Tools

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 Stripe reports allow you to gain meaningful insights so that you can make data-driven decisions and unlock the full potential of your business!