Why it matters
Retention shows whether your relationships last longer than a year. Together with net revenue retention you see whether your existing clients carry your growth, or whether you start over every year.
Where it goes wrong
If you divide all active clients now by those of a year ago, you measure growth in the number of clients, not retention: new clients hide who has gone. Also record when a client counts as active; the model uses hours worked in the last 90 days.
How Dashly calculates it
Dashly calculates retention per quarter from scheduling and accounting. For recruitment marketing agencies it is called client retention: clients after 12 months ÷ clients at the start.