Accounting Churn Rate Calculator Examples
Worked examples show how customer churn, retention, ending customers, and recurring revenue churn are calculated.
These examples use gross churn: customer losses are measured against the opening customer base, while new customers are used only to estimate the ending customer count.
Monthly subscription business churn
Monthly customer retention reporting
Input Summary
Starting customers
500
Customers lost
25
New customers
40
Starting recurring revenue
$50,000
Recurring revenue lost
$3,000
Calculation Breakdown
- 1Customer churn(25 / 500) * 1005.00%
- 2Customer retention100 - 5.0095.00%
- 3Ending customers500 - 25 + 40515 customers
- 4Revenue churn(3000 / 50000) * 1006.00%
Result Summary
Revenue churn
6.00%
Accounting Churn Rate Calculator
The business lost 5.00% of opening customers and 6.00% of opening recurring revenue, ending with 515 customers.
Quarterly low-volume service business
Quarterly client retention review
Input Summary
Starting customers
80
Customers lost
4
New customers
6
Starting recurring revenue
$24,000
Recurring revenue lost
$900
Calculation Breakdown
- 1Customer churn(4 / 80) * 1005.00%
- 2Customer retention100 - 5.0095.00%
- 3Ending customers80 - 4 + 682 customers
- 4Revenue churn(900 / 24000) * 1003.75%
Result Summary
Revenue churn
3.75%
Accounting Churn Rate Calculator
Customer churn was 5.00%, while recurring revenue churn was 3.75%.
Annual enterprise account churn
Annual recurring-revenue reporting
Input Summary
Starting customers
120
Customers lost
6
New customers
10
Starting recurring revenue
$360,000
Recurring revenue lost
$54,000
Calculation Breakdown
- 1Customer churn(6 / 120) * 1005.00%
- 2Customer retention100 - 5.0095.00%
- 3Ending customers120 - 6 + 10124 customers
- 4Revenue churn(54000 / 360000) * 10015.00%
Result Summary
Revenue churn
15.00%
Accounting Churn Rate Calculator
The customer count increased to 124, but annual recurring revenue churn was 15.00%.
How to Read Your Results
Customer churn is a loss rate based only on customers present at the start of the period.
Customer retention is the share of the opening customer base that remained.
Ending customers combines opening customers, losses, and new customers.
Recurring revenue churn highlights whether lost revenue is higher or lower than expected from customer losses.
Compare results only when periods and customer classifications are consistent.
Assumptions & Important Notes
- All figures relate to the same month, quarter, or year.
- New customers are excluded from the gross churn denominator.
- Recurring revenue figures exclude one-time sales unless your reporting method explicitly includes them.
- Customer and revenue losses are classified consistently across periods.
Related Examples
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a business grow while having customer churn?
Yes. New customers can exceed customers lost, producing a higher ending customer count while gross churn remains positive.
Why can revenue churn exceed customer churn?
It can occur when lost customers had higher-than-average recurring revenue or when material downgrades are included.
Can revenue churn be lower than customer churn?
Yes. This can happen when departing customers had lower-than-average recurring revenue.
Are quarterly churn results comparable with monthly results?
They can be reviewed together, but they should be labeled clearly because each covers a different time period.
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