Reading the revenue movement

The movement table is the core of a close. It starts at last month's balance, applies everything that changed, and lands on this month's. The line under the title names the basis, and every row keeps that basis's promise: these figures describe the cash that cleared, and they claim nothing the payments alone cannot prove.

Leg

Customers

Amount

Starting

204

$40,018

New

20

+$4,016

Returned

4

+$826

Growth

+$1,644

Contraction

($529)

Lost

19

($4,508)

Ending

209

$41,467

What each row means

Starting

What cleared from existing customers in the previous month.

New

Paid this month, with no payment history before it.

Returned

Paid this month after a gap, having paid before.

Growth

Paid more this month than last. The amount is the increase in cash collected, not a change in what they owe.

Contraction

Paid less this month than last. The amount is the decrease in cash collected, not a change in what they owe.

Lost

Paid last month and nothing this month. That is an absence of cash, which is not the same as a cancellation - a meaningful share pay again within a few months.

Ending

Starting plus everything above.

The rows describe the direction of collected cash, which the computation fully supports. They do not describe plan changes, which a payment export cannot see.

That distinction is not pedantry. Across seven closes of a real export, 111 customers landed in a growth or contraction leg with a derivable plan rate in both months. Ninety-two were on the identical rate - a partial charge finally billing in full, a retry landing, a proration, or two charges falling in one month. Just fourteen of the 111 had a genuine rate change. An earlier version of this table said "Upgrades" and "Downgrades", and those words were wrong for roughly nine of every ten rows they described.

The same defect at the exit is why the last leg is Lost rather than "cancelled": it fires when cash is absent, and between 39% and 66% of those dollars per close belong to someone who pays again within three months.

Growth and Contraction have no customer count because they move money, not people. The same customer appears in neither New nor Lost.

Note. Open any leg and the drill-through repeats what that leg measures, in one line, above the names. If you are about to act on a figure, that line is the claim you are acting on.

Reading the bars

Above the table, at wider widths, the movement draws as a bridge, not a bar chart. Each brick starts where the previous one finished, stepping left to right, so you can see the legs close the gap between the starting and ending balance without reading a single figure.

The frame is windowed just below the walk so both balance bars stay visible, and the chart states its window in words underneath. Bar heights compare the legs to each other, not to zero.

Checking it adds up

The headline above the table already tells you whether it ties. If you want the detail, the reconciliation section shows each check:

• Ending balance ties - $41,467 computed vs $41,467 reported

• Amounts, customer counts, source coverage, classification and provenance, each graded separately

Some rows can honestly read "not evaluated at this level", and that is said rather than hidden. The checks sit folded under the close, and a failure is surfaced, because then it is the most important thing on the page.

Note. Money is shown to the dollar. Because each row is rounded, the rows can add to a dollar or two either side of the total. Morevy says so underneath the table when it happens, rather than leaving you to wonder whether the column is broken.

Going deeper

Open any amount to see the customers behind it. Asking who stopped paying in February returns the actual names, what each was worth, and whether they account for the whole leg.

If the named customers do not add up to the leg total, Morevy says that too, rather than presenting a partial list as complete.