Subscription Box Churn & Cohort Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet works out what share of each month’s signups is still subscribed one, three, six and twelve months later, and what each plan is worth against what a subscriber costs to get.
Total subscribers is the number every platform shows you, and it can rise for a year while every group of people underneath it leaks faster than the group before. Recurring revenue is not one number; it is two dozen, each with its own rate, and they only line up if you measure every intake at the same point in its own life.
What is in it
- Six linked tabs, from Start Here through to a one-screen Overview.
- Setup — one date and three numbers, including the one people leave out: what it costs you to get a subscriber.
- Plans — 10 rows: price, goods, postage, payment fee, and the contribution a box actually leaves.
- Subscribers — 600 rows: five columns you type, five that calculate.
- Cohorts — twenty-four months down the side, thirteen across the top; a cell only fills in once that group has actually been going that long.
- Overview — the whole list on one screen: months subscribed, worth per subscriber and what came back for every dollar of acquisition.
Who it is for
Subscription box businesses, and anything else billed monthly with people joining and leaving: memberships, coffee clubs, gyms, software, retainers.
The worked example
The worked list holds 420 subscribers on three plans across twenty-four cohort months and 2,428 boxes billed. $69,870.00 of revenue leaves $30,825.57 of contribution after goods, postage and fees. The average subscriber stays 5.8 months, is worth $73.39 and cost $14.50 to acquire — 5.1x back for every dollar spent.
Blended across every cohort, 75% are still there after one month, 63% after two, 53% after three, 41% after six and 32% after twelve: nearly half of every intake gone before the fourth box, and then the curve flattens almost completely. By plan, the $19.00 taster leaves $7.85 a box and is worth $45.79 per subscriber, against $117.81 on the $48.00 deluxe — 3.2x acquisition cost against 8.1x.
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. WhatsApp’tan sipariş ver — $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 build a cohort retention grid for my subscribers?
You type five columns per subscriber — the file fills in the other five — and it lays out twenty-four join months down the side and thirteen month-numbers across the top, filling a cell only when that group has actually been going that long. Blended across every cohort in the worked file, 75% are still there after one month, 63% after two, 53% after three, 41% after six and 32% after twelve. Read it down a column, not across a row: a column is the same moment in every group's life, which is the only honest way to ask whether last month's intake is behaving better than the one two years ago.
Does this only work for subscription boxes?
No — memberships, retainers, software, gyms and coffee clubs all behave the same way: anything billed monthly with people joining and leaving. It also prices each plan properly. In the worked file a $19.00 taster returns 3.2x its acquisition cost, a $32.00 standard returns 5.8x and a $48.00 deluxe returns 8.1x — the cheapest plan is the easiest sale, the fastest cancellation and the worst investment on the list.
What data do I need, and what if I have more than 600 subscribers?
You need a reference, the plan, the join month and the leave month if they have gone — that is it, and most platform exports already contain it. Each file holds 600 subscriber rows, 10 plans and 24 cohort months; if you have more, split by year or by plan and copy the workbook, because the cohort grid works exactly the same on either half. Pauses and reactivations are not modelled: somebody who leaves and comes back is a second row with a second reference.
Will it work in Google Sheets, and is there a subscription?
It works in Google Sheets through File then Import then Upload, and in Excel 2016 or newer on Windows and Mac and in LibreOffice. It is a .xlsx file with no macros and no add-ons — nothing to install, no account to create and no subscription to pay. You download the file and it is yours.
Do I have to put customer names in it?
No — there is nowhere to put them, because the file is about months, not people; a reference is enough. It is not a billing system or a subscription platform, so nothing charges anybody, and it is not a customer list or a CRM. It connects to no shop, processor or courier, and it is not tax or accounting advice.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes monthly billing, one box per subscriber per month, and a single acquisition cost across the list. If yours works differently — an annual prepay plan sitting alongside the monthly one, skip and pause months that should not count as a cancellation, or postage bands that change the contribution by region — I can build the same cohort arithmetic around the way your subscriptions actually run.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.