Every SaaS business runs on the same core metrics. MRR tells you where you are. Growth rate tells you how fast you're moving. Churn tells you if the bucket is leaking. CAC and LTV tell you whether the economics work. This guide shows you how to track all of them in Google Sheets, structured the way investors and operators actually want to see them.
MRR and Growth Rate
Set up a monthly MRR table: one row per month, columns for New MRR, Expansion MRR, Contraction MRR, Churned MRR, Net New MRR, and Total MRR. (See the full MRR tracking guide for how to calculate each movement from your subscription log.)
Add a Month-over-Month Growth Rate column:
=IF(B2=0, 0, (B3-B2)/B2)
And an Annualized Growth Rate (ARR growth):
=(1+B3/B2)^12-1
Track both. MoM growth is what you monitor weekly. Annualized is what you show investors.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
CAC is total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers acquired in the same period:
=C2/D2
Where C2 is total S&M spend and D2 is new customers. Calculate monthly and track the trend. A rising CAC without a corresponding rise in LTV is a warning sign.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
LTV is average revenue per account divided by monthly churn rate:
=E2/F2
Where E2 is average MRR per customer (total MRR / customer count) and F2 is monthly churn rate. This gives you the expected revenue from a customer over their lifetime.
LTV:CAC Ratio
The ratio of LTV to CAC tells you whether your unit economics work:
=G2/H2
Where G2 is LTV and H2 is CAC. A ratio above 3 is healthy. Below 1 means you're spending more to acquire a customer than they'll ever pay you.
CAC Payback Period
Payback period is how many months it takes to recoup the cost of acquiring a customer:
=H2/E2
Where H2 is CAC and E2 is average monthly revenue per customer. Under 12 months is good. Over 24 months is a cash flow problem for most startups.
Putting It Together on a Dashboard
Arrange these metrics in a clean grid at the top of your dashboard sheet. Use large text for the most important numbers (Total MRR, MoM Growth, LTV:CAC). Add sparklines for MRR and churn rate to show the trend without a full chart.
The Easy Way: Using SheetXAI in Google Sheets
Example 1: You have subscription and spend data already in the sheet.
"I have monthly subscription data on Sheet 1 and S&M spend on Sheet 2. Build a SaaS metrics dashboard showing MRR, MoM growth, churn rate, CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, and payback period, with sparklines for the key trends."
SheetXAI reads both sheets, calculates all metrics, and builds the formatted dashboard.
Example 2: Your data lives in Stripe and your accounting software.
"Connect to Stripe for subscription data and to QuickBooks for S&M spend. Build a SaaS metrics dashboard with MRR movements, churn, CAC, LTV, and payback period."
SheetXAI pulls from both sources and builds the full investor-ready dashboard.
Try SheetXAI free and see what it builds for you.
Published May 2026. See also: How to Calculate MRR in a Spreadsheet, How to Analyze Customer Churn in Google Sheets, and Google Sheets AI Guide.
