> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beaconrevenue.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Segment

> The commercial group an account belongs to, the six dimensions that place it there, and how the groups are formed.

## What it is

`segment` is the commercial group an account belongs to. Beacon builds the set of groups from your own customer base rather than from a fixed list, so both the names and the number of groups differ between companies. A set holds between 3 and 12 segments. A segment must hold at least 10 active accounts or 5% of total recurring revenue; below that it is merged into an adjacent segment.

## How it is calculated

Measured. Accounts are grouped on six weighted dimensions.

| Dimension              | Weight | What it reads                                                                                 |
| ---------------------- | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Lifecycle economics    | 0.28   | Retention trajectory, churn and expansion likelihood, lifetime value against acquisition cost |
| Product adoption       | 0.22   | Feature adoption, usage intensity over 30 days, onboarding completion, time to value          |
| Commercial motion      | 0.18   | Contract value, billing cycle, term length, discount level, payment terms                     |
| Firmographic structure | 0.15   | Industry, size band, employee count, region, company age                                      |
| Customer quality       | 0.10   | Fit tier against your ideal customer profile                                                  |
| Signal health          | 0.07   | How complete and confident the data behind the account is                                     |

Depth follows what is connected. With contract and firmographic data only, the grouping produces 3 to 5 segments at an accuracy band of plus or minus 40%. Adding product usage produces 5 to 8 segments at plus or minus 25%. With customer and financial sources connected, the grouping produces 5 to 10 segments at plus or minus 12%.

Naming a segment, merging two, splitting one or renaming one is never automatic. Each requires your approval. Dimension weights change at most once in 90 days, and a full restructure at most once in 180 days.

## Where it comes from

| Source                               | What it supplies                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Billing                              | Required. Contract value, billing cycle, payment terms, recurring revenue              |
| CRM                                  | Industry, size, region, contract structure, and any segment field you already maintain |
| Product usage                        | Feature adoption, usage intensity, onboarding completion                               |
| Support or customer-success platform | Signal coverage behind each account                                                    |

Identity resolution must cover at least 80% of your largest accounts by revenue before segments are reliable, because groups built on unresolved duplicates describe patterns that do not exist. Where a source is missing, the grouping still runs at a shallower depth with a wider accuracy band rather than returning nothing.

## How fresh it is

An account is reclassified as soon as it crosses a segment boundary. Segment-level health is recalculated daily. The full set of segments is reviewed quarterly. Segment carries no monthly seal. Where more than 5% of a segment's accounts migrate within 30 days, an alert is raised for review.

## Currency and rounding

Neither applies to the value itself, which is a label. The revenue figures used to place an account are converted into your single reporting currency before any grouping is calculated.

## What changes it

Movement on any of the six dimensions: a change in retention trajectory, churn or expansion likelihood, feature adoption, usage intensity, contract value or discount level, firmographic detail, or fit tier. Connecting a new source can move the grouping to a deeper layer and re-cut the whole set. An approved merge, split, rename or weight change re-runs the grouping within the limits above. Every reassignment is recorded with its timestamp, the depth in force at the time, and the previous segment.

## What it is not

* Not a size band. Company size carries 0.15 of six dimensions. Grouping by size alone puts together accounts that look alike and behave differently.
* Not a cohort. Cohorts group accounts by when they arrived or activated. Segment is one of the dimensions a cohort can be cut by, not a synonym for one.
* Not the segment field in your CRM. That field is an input to the grouping and is not published back as the answer.
* Not `lifecycle_stage`. Segment is which group an account belongs to; stage is where the account has reached after the sale.
* Not a segment health score. That value describes a segment's own health and does not classify individual accounts.