Getting started with Analytics

In this article, we'll introduce the steps that all Zuora administrators should review and consider to get maximum value from Zuora Analytics.

1. Assign Analytics roles to users in your organization.

   Administrators need to assign proper roles to users in the organization based on their requirements. For details, see Assign Analytics roles to users in your organization.

2. Review all available metrics and decide which ones are relevant for your business.

   Analytics supports over 20 subscription metrics. For your business, some metrics may be more important than others. The definitions and calculations of all available metrics are described in Analytics metric glossary. It is important to go through the list of metrics in the article and pick the ones that matter most to your business.

3. Decide on key fields (including custom fields) to analyze.

   If you want to group data by certain data fields such as Product Name, Product Rate Plan Name, or Billing Period, note down these data fields. You'll be able to select these fields when you create or edit a dataset. Popular analysis fields include:

   1. Account custom fields, particularly any fields you sync from your CRM into Zuora that store business segmentation data (such as account owner, CSM, vertical, geography, market segment).
   2. Account Number and Name, Subscription Name, or Charge Number fields so that you can review granular account lists to explain any metric.
   3. Product name or product custom fields so you can analyze metrics by specific products or product lines.
   4. Subscription attributes like term type and auto-run setting to analyze the performance of different subscription configurations.
   5. Rate Plan Charge Type, Charge Model, or Billing Period to track trends across subscribers with different billing plans (e.g. usage versus recurring, monthly versus annual).

4. Create datasets and cards.

   Analytics provides eight default cards and eight default datasets. Based on the results you get from step 3 and 4, determine if the default datasets and cards meet your requirements. If not, create your own custom datasets and cards. For details about default cards and datasets, see Default cards and datasets. For details about how to create a dataset and card, see Create or edit a dataset, Create a table card, and Create a time series card.

5. Customize the Dashboard.

   You can change the cards that are displayed (pinned) on your Dashboard. You can add up to 50 cards to the Dashboard so that you can create a single at-a-glance view of key metrics broken down by all the key measures that matter most to your business. For details, see Customize the Dashboard layout.