Gross Retention excludes expansion - it shows pure churn / contraction loss. The gap between NRR and GRR is the expansion lift.
Peak NRR of 110% in FY2018-Q4. Latest is 104% - that's -6pp from peak.
BlackLine is above the Finance Tech Public median by +0pp (cell median: 104%)
BlackLine (BL) is a finance tech company at the public stage. As of its most recent disclosure (FY2027-Q1), BlackLine reported a Net Revenue Retention rate of 104% - a mid-pack result for B2B SaaS at this segment.
BlackLine's NRR peaked at 110% in FY2018-Q4, 6pp above today's level. Over the past three years, the metric has contracted by 6pp.
Within its peer set (finance tech companies at public stage in the $100k-$500k acv band), BlackLine's NRR is roughly in line with the cell median of 104%. Compare against the full peer cell aggregate for distribution and top performers.
Contract shape and forward-booked revenue.
When the company breaks NRR/GRR by segment, geography, or customer size cohort.
| NRR by segment | enterprise: 107% |
|---|---|
| GRR by segment | enterprise: 96% |
Revenue, ARR, and team-size denominators for the productivity ratios.
Forward-booked revenue by maturity. Renewal pipeline visibility.
Support tiers: Standard · 24/7/365 · Prioritized routing · Personalized support
CS team segments: Enterprise · Mid-Market
CSM model: account-named
Education programs: BlackLine University
Customer Advisory Board: Yes
Top customer exec: Stuart Van Houten - Chief Commercial Officer (since 2025) · reports to CEO
CCO comp tied to retention: Yes - Incentive plans aligned to cloud-based revenue and SolEx efforts
Computed from the data above. Shows where value comes from and where leakage hides.
Named CS initiatives across recent disclosures (newest first).
New go-to-market strategy focused on a unified enterprise offering for the CFO office.
"implementing a new go-to-market strategy at BlackLine focused on a unified enterprise offering for the CFO office"
Comprehensive suite of AI capabilities providing a digital workforce of embedded and auditable AI.
"In September 2025, we launched Verity, a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities"
New pricing model based on product mix, organization size, and volumetrics rather than user count.
"In 2025, we updated our pricing model to reflect the value of our solutions based on factors such as product mix"
Strategic initiative to migrate customers to new, more flexible platform pricing models not tied to user counts.
"strategic initiative to migrate customers to new, more flexible platform pricing models."
Launched a comprehensive suite of embedded, auditable AI capabilities providing a digital workforce.
"In September 2025, we launched Verity, a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities"
Transitioning customers from seat-based to platform-based pricing to decouple growth from seat count.
"Our platform pricing model is designed to decouple our growth from a simple seat count and align our revenue directly"
Launching AI agents (Vera, Prepare, Collect) to automate financial close and invoice-to-cash tasks.
"With Vera as the supervisor of our agentic workforce, we are launching a suite of powerful agents"
Migration of customers from seat-based to platform-based pricing to drive deeper engagement and expansion.
"94% of eligible new bookings landing on platform pricing, a strong signal that our commercial model is becoming the standard"
Challenges acknowledged by management. Useful peer signals - your team is probably not alone.
Impact of fluctuating macroeconomic trends and longer sales cycles.
"impact of fluctuating macroeconomic trends on BlackLine’s operations... such as economic risk and longer sales cycles"
Customers delaying and deferring purchasing decisions due to economic volatility.
"As a result of economic uncertainty, we have seen customers delay and defer purchasing decisions"
Increased churn among smaller customers due to refined focus on enterprise and large mid-market.
"refined commercial focus on enterprise and large mid-market customers has resulted in an increased rate of churn"
NRR decreased due primarily to the impact of unfavorable foreign exchange rates.
"dollar-based net revenue retention rate decreased... due primarily to the impact of unfavorable foreign exchange rates"
Focus on enterprise customers resulted in increased churn among smaller customers.
"refined commercial focus on enterprise and large mid-market customers has resulted in an increased rate of churn"
Economic uncertainty causing customers to delay and defer purchasing decisions.
"As a result of economic uncertainty, we have seen customers delay and defer purchasing decisions"
Curated quotes about customer outcomes, retention, renewals.
"Our touch points for our customers... was up 72%, those customer touch points year over year."
"The perversity of our pricing model is the more efficient we make our customers, the less users they need."
"Time to value, Adam. Time to value. We've got to people are willing to invest if they're going to see a payback on it."
"In Q1, go-live volume increased by 20% compared to the same period last year."
"For all the new customers that have joined BlackLine in the last two years... we are like zealots making sure those customers get up and running."
"We have optimized our customer success model, leveraging technology and aligning compensation... to drive adoption."
Side-by-side NRR, customer cohorts, commercial structure, and CS motion.
BlackLine appears on 1 of our retention leaderboards.
Free to embed on your blog or board deck. Includes a small backlink to cust.co.
Or grab the data: JSON API →
| Period | NRR | GRR | Source type | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2027-Q1 | 104% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2026-Q1 | 105% | 93% | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2025-Q4 | 105% | 92% | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY-2025 | 105% | - | 10-K | source ↗ |
| FY2025-Q3 | 103% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2025-Q2 | 105% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2025-Q1 | 104% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2024-Q4 | 102% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY-2024 | 102% | - | 10-K | source ↗ |
| FY2024-Q3 | 105% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2024-Q2 | 104% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2024-Q1 | 105% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY-2023 | 106% | - | 10-K | source ↗ |
| FY2022-Q4 | 109% | - | 10-K | source ↗ |
| FY2022-Q2 | 106% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2022-Q1 | 109% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2020-Q1 | 108% | - | 10-Q-mdna | source ↗ |
| FY2018-Q4 | 110% | - | 10-K | source ↗ |
Generate a live retention report against BlackLine and your full peer cell. Ungated. Downloadable as PDF.