Seasonal Trading & Quiet Month Tracker Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet that measures what your quiet months actually cost, how long the run lasts, and how much has to be in the bank before it starts.
Every seasonal business knows it has a quiet spell. Almost none of them know what it costs, whether it falls in the same months every year, or how much has to be in the bank in the autumn to walk into it without flinching. Annual accounts average the year and hand you one number, which is exactly the number that hides the problem.
What is in it
- Setup — five numbers and one short list of the costs that keep running.
- Months — 48 rows, which is four years; six things a month, one of them the date.
- By Calendar Month — every January against every January, as a multiple of an ordinary month.
- The Quiet Run — the longest unbroken run of losing months, when it started and what it cost.
- Cover & Break-Even — how many months you could have lasted, worked out month by month.
- Fixed Costs and Overview — what a month with no work in it costs, and two years on one screen.
Who it is for
Anything with an uneven year: a school supplier, a wedding business, a seaside trade, a tax practice, a farm, a heating engineer, a holiday operator. A trading year that does not run January to December is handled — each row is labelled with the trading year it belongs to, so a July-to-June year works properly. One year of figures is enough to start; the second is when a season stops being an opinion.
The worked example
Two complete years are filled in: $1,161,725 of sales at a 50.1% gross margin, $435,364 of fixed costs and $147,138 of operating profit. 16 of the twenty-four months made money and made $201,021 between them; the other 8 lost $53,883 — so the quiet months ate 26.8% of everything the good ones earned.
The quietest month is January, but the bank is emptiest in April. It is fullest in November at $110,369 and $71,392 lower the following April, with cover falling from 5.0 months to 1.8. A month with no work in it still costs $22,060, and the longest unbroken run of losing months is 4 months — then the same four months again the following year.
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 work out what my quiet season actually costs?
Put each month in a row with its sales, its own gross margin and your fixed costs, and the file finds the months that lost money and the longest unbroken run of them. In the two worked years sixteen months made $201,021 and eight lost $53,883, so the quiet months ate 26.8% of what the good ones made; the busiest calendar month ran 4.8 times the quietest, and the longest losing run was four months — November to February, and then the same four months again the following year.
Is this only for the trades, and what if our year doesn't run January to December?
No — it fits anything with an uneven year: a school supplier, a wedding business, a seaside trade, a tax practice, a farm, a heating engineer, a holiday operator. Each row is labelled with the trading year it belongs to, so a July-to-June year works properly, which most seasonal ones need.
I only have one year of figures, and what counts as a fixed cost?
Start with the one year — the file works from the first row and simply gets more useful with the second, because that is when a season stops being an opinion. A fixed cost is anything that would still leave the bank in a month with no work in it: rent, insurance, the people you keep through the winter, vehicle finance, software, the accountant, plus whatever you take out each month. In the worked example that floor is $22,060 a month, $264,720 a year.
Does it open in Google Sheets, and are there macros or add-ons?
Yes — the file is built as .xlsx, so it opens in Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, goes into Google Sheets through File → Import → Upload, and works in LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription. You download a file and it is yours. Forty-eight month rows — four years — with two complete worked years filled in, a blank copy and a plain-English PDF guide.
Is this a forecast or a cash flow planner?
No — it measures the year you actually had, which is a different job and the one that has to happen first; it is not a budget, a cash planner, accounting software or tax advice, and nothing syncs or logs in. It will not make January busier. It tells you what January costs, how long the losing run is, and when the bank is really at its lowest — fullest in November and $71,392 lower the following April in the worked file, with cover falling from 5.0 months to 1.8.
Need it built around your business?
This one assumes a business with a single seasonal curve and one bank balance. If yours is different — two seasons in a year rather than one, a trading year that starts in July, or several branches whose quiet months do not line up — I can build the same arithmetic around your own calendar.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.