Customer Reorder Gap Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet measures every account against its own reorder rhythm, so you can see who has actually stopped buying rather than who has simply been quiet for ninety days.
Nobody cancels; they just stop ordering, and every account stops at a different speed. A customer who orders every three weeks and has not been heard from in two months is gone, while one who orders twice a year is exactly on time — and any list built on a fixed ninety-day window gets both of those wrong, in opposite directions.
What is in it
- Customers — 100 rows, three things you type per account.
- Orders — 1,800 rows: a date, a customer, a value.
- Who Went Quiet — every silent account ranked by the gross profit the silence has already cost you, with a running total down the side.
- By Type — which kinds of customer actually leave.
- Overview — the whole book on one screen.
- Start Here and Setup: three numbers, one of which is how many of an account’s own gaps counts as gone quiet.
Who it is for
Any business where the same people buy again and nobody formally leaves: wholesale and trade supply, a salon, a garage, a vet, a print shop, a feed merchant, a subscription that is not on direct debit. You need one export — date, customer, value — from whatever you invoice with, and a year or two of it is plenty. Accounts with only one or two orders sit in their own category until there is a third, because two orders is a coincidence and not a rhythm.
The worked example
The worked book has 70 accounts, 1,621 orders and $2,290,447 of trade, with an average gap between orders of 33 days. 16 accounts have gone quiet — 23.9% of everyone with a rhythm — worth $166,591 of trade a year and $27,516 of gross profit you have not had yet.
Two accounts show why a fixed window fails. One silent for 92 days is at 2.2x its own rhythm and is gone; another silent for 93 days is at 1.9x and is worth a call, not a panic. The worst on the list ordered every twenty-one days for the best part of a year and has now been silent for 288 days — 13.7x its own gap.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Order on WhatsApp — $9
Orders are taken on WhatsApp: message me and I’ll send the payment details, then the files as soon as the payment is confirmed.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I tell which customers have actually stopped ordering?
The file measures every account against its own reorder rhythm rather than a fixed window, so a customer who ordered every three weeks and has been silent two months is flagged while a twice-a-year customer at the same point is not. In the worked book of 70 accounts the average gap between orders was 33 days, and 16 accounts — 23.9% of those with a rhythm — had gone quiet, worth $166,591 of trade a year and $27,516 of profit you have not had yet. Two accounts one day apart on the calendar, at 92 and 93 days of silence, are 2.2x and 1.9x their own rhythm: one is gone, the other is worth a call.
Is this only for wholesale?
No — it works for any business where the same people buy again: a salon, a garage, a vet, a print shop, a feed merchant, a subscription that is not on direct debit. It holds 100 customer rows and 1,800 order rows, and sorts every account into five states: Ordering, Late, Gone quiet, Probably gone for good, and Too new to have a rhythm. Customers who only ever bought once sit in that last category and stay out of the way, because two orders is a coincidence, not a rhythm.
Where do I get the order list, and what if my trade is seasonal?
Export sales by customer and date from whatever you invoice with — three columns, date, customer and value, and paste; one or two years is plenty. If your trade is seasonal, set gone quiet to three of their own gaps instead of two, since a customer who skips the same quarter every year will have that skip inside their own average anyway. Only three things are typed per account on the Customers tab.
Does it work in Google Sheets or do I need Excel?
Both — it is built as .xlsx for Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, and it loads into Google Sheets through File then Import then Upload. LibreOffice opens it too. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription: you download the file and it is yours.
Is this a CRM, and will it win customers back?
No on both counts — it is not a CRM, pipeline or contacts system, not an email or marketing tool, not invoicing or credit control, and it is connected to nothing, so nothing syncs and nothing logs in. It tells you exactly who has stopped, how far past their own rhythm they are, and which ten to ring first, ranked by what the silence has already cost in gross profit — in the worked book the top ten alone were $24,075. I never ask for a password, your accounts or your customer list.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes accounts that reorder on a rhythm of their own, read from a plain list of dates, customers and values. If yours works differently — a subscription on direct debit where silence means a failed payment rather than a lost customer, seasonal trade where the same quarter is skipped every year, or a book where one buying group covers a dozen separate delivery points — I can build the same own-rhythm test around the way your customers actually buy.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.