Summary
The License data model tracks key contract and revenue details like ARR / MRR, renewal dates, and forecasting metrics. It supports auto-renewals and includes both system and custom fields to manage everything from product and currency to confidence scores and weighted values. These fields can be grouped into Profile Templates for easy viewing and used in forms to enforce data consistency.
Who is this article for?
Planhat builders/admins who configure their tenant for their team (e.g. CS Ops).
This article is part of the Data Models Course.
Article Contents
Introduction
The License Model powers revenue reports and key system fields like Renewal Date and ARR/MRR values. Licenses can auto-renew, generating new ones automatically to keep your data up to date.
Key System Fields
First, we have basic license fields such as
ARR / MRR - displays the ARR / MRR of hte License
Renewal ARR / MRR - a number field that's used to predetermine the ARR / MRR value of a License if it gets renewed.
License Start Date - displays the License start date.
License End Date - displays the License end date.
Fixed Period (toggle) - A checkbox field that's used to determine if the License has a specified end date or if it's ongoing for the foreseeable future: - Yes: a License end date must be provided. - No: the License is ongoing and no end date is required.
Auto Renewal (toggle) - A checkbox field that determines if a License will automatically renew. If you would like a License to automatically renew, it's important to note that you must also have the setting "Automatically Renew Licenses (automaticRenewal)" enabled, which can be configured within the "Revenue" --> "Revenue Setup" part of the "Settings" Global Tool.
Notice Period - a number field that's used to set a notice period for Licenses that auto-renew e.g. 30 days
Notice Unit (list) - a list field that's used in conjunction with the "Notice Period" field. When you're setting up the notice period, the "Notice Unit" field gives you the option to use display the notice period in "days", "weeks" or "months”
Status (list) - a list field that displays the License status:
Ongoing: the License is active
Renewed: the License has been renewed (not active)
Lost: the License is lost (not active)
Currency (list) - a list field that displays a range of different currencies. You can add and manage currencies in the "Revenue" --> "Currency & FX" part of the "Settings" Global Tool.
Product (list) - a list field that contains the names of your recurring products. You configure this list in the "Settings" Global Tool, in the "Revenue" --> "Product Catalog" section.
The following are fields that provide insight into forecasting.
Optimistic ARR / MRR Forecast - displays the optimistic ARR/MRR forecast
Pessimistic ARR / MRR Forecasts - displays the pessimistic ARR/MRR forecast
Next Term Start Date - a date field that's used to predetermine a License start date if it gets renewed.
Next term length (months) - a number field that's used to predetermine the length of a License when it gets renewed.
Value - a number field that's used to store and display the total License value.
The last system two fields we’ll touch on have a technical purpose.
External ID - a text field that contains the License unique identifier, ensuring the License data syncs properly with your ERP, financial system or database, manual import, etc.
Source ID - the unique identifier for Licenses synced with an external CRM (such as Salesforce or HubSpot) ensuring the Licenses sync properly with Planhat.
Key Custom Fields
Units - this could be seats, data, hours, or any units you use in pricing
Payment Terms - displays the payment terms of the agreement
Previous Forecast Value - displays the previous forecast value
ARR / MRR Confidence % - how confident are we on this renewal potential
You could also set up color coded conditions - e.g. more than 89 = green, between 69 - 89 = yellow, and below 70 is red
Weighted Amount - i.e. a Formula Field where you can take ARR or MRR and multiply it by the ARR / MRR Confidence % field.
Field Groups
Now that you have an understanding of the Key Fields, let’s look at how to group them in a logical way. This will display those fields in Previews (as well as full page profiles) for Licenses. We recommend a set up as below.
For more information on Field Groups, take a look at Help Center Article: Field Groups.
Create Form
To ensure your data stays clean, it’s important you make fields mandatory for creation. We recommend the following at a minimum to enable you to manage your Licenses in the best way.
For an in-depth breakdown on all things Profile related, take a look at our Help Center Article: An introduction to Profiles / Previews, the How-To Library in app, or check out the Dojo course related to Profiles.
Common Global Filters
Global Filters for Licenses let you centrally define segments — like upcoming renewals or multi-year contracts. From there, you can apply them across Pages, Workflows, and Reports for additional insight.
In the example below, I am using a Global Filter to view all of my Licenses which have the product Conversion Optimiser. Doing so is a quick and easy way to get insight into my licenses for particular products in a Data Table list view.
Here are some of the most commonly used Global Filters:
By Product - e.g. Lead Generation, Converstion Optimization, SEO, etc.
Upcoming auto renewals - all upcoming auto renewals
Upcoming manual renewals - all upcoming manual renewals
Multi-year contracts - all multi-year contracts
Annual contracts - all annual contracts
Missing key data - shows all Licenses where key data points are missing, helps ensure data hygiene
Ongoing Licenses by Currency - e.g. EUR, GBP, USD, etc.
Ongoing - all ongoing licenses
Past Renewal Date - all licenses past renewal date
Proof of Concept - all prospects/customers in Proof of Concept
Pending Renewals - shows all pending renewals. You could also further segment by Customer Tier (e.g. Enterprise, Mid-Market, SMB)
Useful Metrics
Metrics can vary greatly from org to org, so we’ll just touch on a couple examples to show what’s possible.
You could utilize data that’s on a license. e.g. # of seats purchased. From there, you can trend that over time.
You could also take # of seats purchased minus active users to determine how many seats are unused.
For more information on metrics, check out the Help Center Article: Metrics Overview, the How-to Library in app, or the time-series course in the Dojo.
For additional information on working with Licenses, check out this Help Center Article.