The Unit Economics Dashboard Template (Google Sheets)
Type: template
Stage: Stage 5: Payment Proof
Difficulty: advanced
Four-tab spreadsheet that calculates MRR, ARR, CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, and CAC payback period from raw Stripe export data. Tab 1: Revenue. Tab 2: Unit Economics. Tab 3: Cohort Retention matrix. Tab 4: Voluntary vs. involuntary churn breakdown. Takes 30 minutes to set up and 10 minutes per month to update. Use until $10k MRR.
Overview
This template gives you a pre-built spreadsheet that calculates your core Stage 5 unit economics from raw Stripe export data: MRR, ARR, CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, and CAC payback period. It also includes a monthly churn breakdown that separates voluntary from involuntary cancellations — the distinction that determines whether you have a product problem or a billing problem. Use this until you cross $10k MRR and need a dedicated tool like ProfitWell or ChartMogul. It takes 30 minutes to set up and 10 minutes per month to update.
The structure
The spreadsheet has four tabs.
**Tab 1 — Revenue:** Monthly MRR, new MRR (new customers × price), expansion MRR (upgrades), contraction MRR (downgrades), churned MRR (cancellations), net new MRR. Calculates ARR automatically.
**Tab 2 — Unit Economics:** ARPU (MRR ÷ active customers), monthly churn rate (churned customers ÷ starting customers), LTV (ARPU ÷ monthly churn rate), CAC (manually entered — your total acquisition spend ÷ new customers), LTV:CAC ratio, CAC payback period (CAC ÷ monthly gross profit per customer).
**Tab 3 — Cohort Retention:** A matrix with months along the top axis and signup cohorts down the left. Each cell shows the percentage of that cohort still active in that month. This is the view that tells you whether retention is improving or declining over time.
**Tab 4 — Churn Breakdown:** Voluntary churn (customer chose to cancel) vs. involuntary churn (payment failure). Enter manually from your Stripe cancellation data and your dunning tool's recovery log. Track the ratio monthly.
How to fill it in
Export your Stripe billing data monthly (Stripe Dashboard → Reports → Revenue). Paste the raw numbers into Tab 1. Tabs 2 and 4 calculate automatically from Tab 1 inputs plus two manual entries: your total acquisition spend and your voluntary vs. involuntary cancellation split.
Tab 3 requires manual entry of customer counts per cohort per month. Set aside 20 minutes on the first of each month to update it.
What the output tells you
When LTV:CAC falls below 3:1, you have a problem to solve before spending on growth. When your involuntary churn percentage exceeds 20% of total churn, you have a billing problem, not a product problem. When cohort retention in Tab 3 shows month-two retention declining across successive cohorts, something in the product changed and is hurting the experience for newer users.
These are the three diagnostic signals that determine your priorities at Stage 5. The dashboard makes them visible without requiring a paid tool.