Overview of Order Delta Metrics
This article introduces the concept of Order Delta Metrics, ways to access them, the objects and fields, how to handle historical data, and limitations.
If you are still using the previous Order Metrics, see Key Metrics for Orders.
Availability
The Order Delta Metrics feature is only available if you have the Orders feature enabled. If you are an existing Subscribe and Amend customer and want Order Delta Metrics only, you can turn on Orders Harmonization. You can still keep the existing Subscribe and Amend API integrations and UI to create and manage subscriptions.
As of Zuora Billing Release 306, Order Metrics is no longer available. Zuora has updated the methodologies for calculating metrics in Orders. The new methodologies are reflected in the following Order Delta Metrics objects.
It is recommended that all customers use the Order Delta Metrics. If you are an existing Order Metrics customer and want to migrate to Order Delta Metrics, submit a request at Zuora Global Support. Whereas new customers, and existing customers not currently on Order Metrics, will no longer have access to Order Metrics, existing customers currently using Order Metrics will continue to be supported.
What are Order Delta Metrics?
Order Delta Metrics represent the changes in key metrics as the result of an Order. Orders are composed of:
- Order Actions that create or change subscriptions.
- Order Line Items that represent fees for physical goods or non-recurring services.
Order Delta Metrics are tied to the corresponding Order Action that generates them, as well as to the Rate Plan Charge objects that the Order Action impacts. If there is no change in subscription metrics, an Order Action will not generate order metrics.
For each Order Line Item within an Order, OrderDeltaTcv and OrderDeltaTcb metrics are generated.
For example, if you use an Update product Order Action to change the unit price of a recurring product that a customer has subscribed to, Zuora creates an OrderDeltaMrr metric to represent the delta value between the updated Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and the previous value as a result of the change. In other words, the value of the OrderDeltaMrr metric is the updated value of MRR minus the previous value of MRR for that Rate Plan Charge.
See the following diagram for an example calculation. In this example, OrderDeltaMrr is 10 between 2021-04-01 and 2021-06-01.
Similarly, in the case of Add product Order Action, the value of the corresponding OrderDeltaMrr is the MRR of the newly added product minus the previous MRR value of the product (Zero). Therefore, the Order Delta Mrr value equals the MRR value of the product the customer has subscribed to.
See the following diagram for another calculation example of Order Delta Mrr. In this example, OrderDeltaMrr is 20 between 2021-01-01 and 2021-06-01.
An order action might impact multiple Rate Plan Charge objects, in which case multiple Order Delta Metrics will be generated.
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Order Metric |
Key Subscription Metric |
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The change in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of a RatePlanCharge as the result of an Order. |
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The change in estimated billing over the duration of a RatePlanCharge or an Order Line Item as the result of an Order. |
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The change in Total Contract Value (TCV) of a RatePlanCharge or an Order Line Item as the result of an Order. |
Order Delta Metrics are generated asynchronously with the Orders.
The following sections describe each of the Order Delta Metrics.
Order Delta Mrr
The value of an Order Delta Mrr metric is the change in MRR of a RatePlanCharge as the result of an Order. Zuora creates Order Delta Mrr metrics for recurring charges only.
For example, suppose that you have subscribed a customer to 10 units of your product for 12 months, with a list price of $5.00 per unit per month. This scenario is represented by a recurring charge with a quantity of 10 units, a duration of 12 months, and MRR equal to $50.00 = 10 units × $5.00.
After 3 months, you use an Update Product order action to increase the quantity to 13 units, so that the new MRR of the recurring charge is $65.00 = 13 units × $5.00. Zuora then creates an Order MRR metric for the recurring charge. The value of the Order MRR metric is $15.00 = $65.00 − $50.00 and the duration of the Order MRR metric is 9 = 12 − 3 months.
See Example 2 in Order Delta Mrr for a more detailed explanation of this scenario.
Order Delta Tcv
The total contract value (TCV) of a charge is defined as the total amount that has been booked over the duration of the rate plan charge. For Order Line Items, the total contracted value is the contracted value at the time when the order is executed. The value of an Order Delta Tcv metric is the change in TCV of a RatePlanCharge or an Order Line Item. See TCV of Rate Plan Charges for more information.
For example, a customer subscribes to 10 units of your product for 12 months, with a list price of $5.00 per unit per month. This scenario is represented by a recurring charge with a quantity of 10 units, a duration of 12 months, and TCV equal to $600.00 = 12 months × 10 units × $5.00.
After 9 months, you use an Update Product order action to increase the quantity to 13 units, so that the new TCV of the recurring charge is $735.00 = (3 months × 10 units × $5.00) + (9 months × 13 units × $5.00). Zuora then creates an Order Tcv metric for the recurring charge. The value of the Order Delta Tcv metric is $135.00 = $735.00 − $600.00 and the duration of the Order Delta Tcv metric is 9 = 12 − 3 months.
Assuming with the Product update example, there is also a one-off service charge of $20 that occurred on the transaction day, represented by the Order Line Item as in the following diagram. An Order Delta Tcv metric is generated for that $20 with start and end dates being the same as the transaction day.
When calculating TCV for Rate Plan Charges, Zuora prorates partial months based on the number of days in each partial month. Zuora does not prorate partial months according to the billing configuration of your Zuora tenant. This is because TCV is meant to be a metric representing the total booked value, and is not impacted by how it will actually be billed.
See more examples in Order Delta Tcv for a more detailed explanation of this scenario, including an example of how proration affects Order Delta Tcv metrics.
See Object and Fields for more details about the fields on the Order Delta Tcv object.
Order Delta Tcb
The total contracted billing (TCB) of a charge is defined as the estimated total amount that will be billed over the duration of the rate plan charge based on billing settings at ordering time. For Order Line Items, the TCB is the estimated billing amount at the time when the order is executed.
Discrepancies might exist between TCB and the actual invoice amount. TCB is rated at the time of booking, while the invoice amount is rated at the time of billing. As the rating time is different, several factors can lead to a discrepancy in the rated value, including but not limited to the following:
- Difference in the rounding result caused by the difference in discount applying sequence or bill run scope
- Change of billing rules
- Change of customer account bill cycle day (BCD)
For more scenarios when discrepancies might exist between TCB and the invoice amount, see the scenarios that cause the booking and billing variances for CCV.
For example, a customer subscribes to 10 units of your product for 12 months, with a list price of $5.00 per unit per month. Bill cycle is per quarter and the bill cycle day is the 1st of the month. This scenario is represented by a recurring charge with a quantity of 10 units, a duration of 4 billing periods, and TCB equal to $600.00 = 10 units × $5.00 × 3 months × 4 billing periods.
After 3 months, you use an Update Product order action to increase the quantity to 13 units, so that the new TCB of the recurring charge is $735.00 = (3 months × 10 units × $5.00) * 1 billing period + (3 months × 13 units × $5.00) * 3 billing periods. Zuora then creates an Order Delta Tcb metric for the recurring charge. The value of the Order Delta Tcb metric is $135.00 = $735.00 − $600.00 and the duration of the Order Delta Tcb metric is 9 = 12 − 3 months.
Assuming with the product update example, there is also a one-off service charge of $20 that occurred on the transaction day, represented by the Order Line Item. An Order Delta Tcb metric is generated for that $20 with start and end dates being the same as the transaction day.
When calculating TCB, Zuora prorates partial months according to the billing configuration of your Zuora tenant. See Proration and Calculating Total Amount with Partial Period Proration for more information.
See more examples in Order Delta Tcb for a more detailed explanation of this scenario, including an example of how proration affects Tcb metrics.
See Object and Fields for more details about the fields on the Order Delta Tcb object.
Accessing Order Delta Metrics
You can access Order Delta Metrics through the following ways:
- Make the API call through the Preview an order operation.
- Use Data Query. See Data Query use cases in the following article:
Objects and Fields
See the following articles for the objects and fields for Order Delta Metrics:
Historical Data
As of Zuora Billing Release 306, Order Delta Metrics will be generated asynchronously for every Order. If you want to generate Order Delta Metrics for your Orders generated in the past, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.
Limitations
Order Delta Metrics have the following limitations.
- Order Delta Metrics does not support metrics generation for evergreen subscriptions.
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When you create an Order, Zuora only generates Order Delta Metrics if the order is active.
- Discounts are supported at the subscription level, rate plan level, and account level. However, discount metrics are calculated for subscription and rate plan level discounts only, not calculated for account level discounts.
You can perform the following amendments for subscriptions with account level discounts; however, no metrics will be generated:
- Create Subscription
- Add Product
- Update
- Remove
- T&Cs
- Cancellation
- Renew
- Suspend / Resume