Renewal date vs the calculated renewal date
The renewal date is the figure you entered; the calculated renewal date is the next real renewal after any automatic roll-forwards.
On a software record you will see two related dates: the Renewal date and the Calculated renewal date. They usually match, but they answer different questions.
The Renewal date is simply the date you typed in. It never changes on its own. Think of it as the anchor for the current term.
The Calculated renewal date is the next renewal that is genuinely still ahead of you. StackTrackr works this out from the stored renewal date, the billing cycle and whether the tool auto-renews.
If a tool auto-renews and its renewal date has already passed, StackTrackr rolls that date forward by whole billing cycles (one month for monthly, three for quarterly, twelve for annual) until it lands on today or later. That rolled-forward date is the real next renewal, so you are always looking at the upcoming commitment rather than a date that has already gone by.
On the renewal day itself the calculated renewal date stays on today rather than jumping to the next term. That is deliberate: the day the money actually leaves your account is the day you most want the tool visible, so it still counts towards the renewing-in-30-days figure on your dashboard, still appears in the reports timeline, and can still trigger a reminder if you have a nought-day offset set. It only steps to the next term once the renewal day has passed.
If a tool does not auto-renew, or it is a one-off purchase, nothing rolls. The calculated renewal date is just the stored renewal date, because there is no automatic next term to work towards.
One thing to note: the anchor date and the billing cycle together decide the rolled date. If your quarterly tool renewed in the past, the calculated date steps forward in three-month jumps, not to an arbitrary point. Keep the billing cycle accurate so the roll-forward matches your real contract.
Month ends behave the way a contract does. If your anchor date is the 31st, the roll lands on the 31st of every month that has one and on the last day of the months that do not, so a tool anchored on 31 January rolls to 28 February and then back to 31 March rather than drifting a few days earlier with every term. The same rule sets the cancellation deadline and every payment date on the Cashflow report, so all three stay on your real billing day.
A quick tip: if the two dates differ, that is your signal the original renewal date is now historic and the tool has auto-renewed at least once. Editing the renewal date to the current term keeps both figures tidy.