Measure the share of customers or contracts you lost in a period, and the share you kept.
Customers lost = start + new − end.
Churn rate = lost ÷ start × 100. Retention = 100 − churn.
A commercial cleaning company starts the quarter with 120 contracts, signs 15 new ones and ends with 126. It lost 9 contracts, a churn rate of 7.5% and retention of 92.5%.
Use it for subscription businesses and for service companies with recurring contracts, such as cleaning, security or maintenance.
Count new customers separately so growth does not hide losses.
A pest control company starts March with 340 recurring accounts, adds 22 new ones from spring mailers and ends with 351. It lost 340 + 22 – 351 = 11 accounts. The monthly churn rate is 3.2% and retention is 96.8%.
Churn here is lost customers divided by the starting count, so new customers who leave in the same period raise churn even though they were never in the starting group. The figure can mislead in months with heavy sign-ups or seasonal pauses, such as pool or lawn accounts that stop for winter. It counts accounts, not dollars, so losing one large contract looks the same as losing one small one.
Counting accounts treats a $200 a month contract the same as a $4,000 one. Revenue churn uses monthly contract value instead.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Monthly revenue at start | $96,000 |
| Lost from canceled contracts | $7,200 |
| Lost from downgrades | $1,800 |
| Gross revenue churn | 9.4% |
| Added from upgrades | $3,000 |
| Net revenue churn | 6.3% |
Gross revenue churn is lost and downgraded revenue divided by starting revenue. Net revenue churn subtracts upgrades from existing customers first. New customers are left out of both, so growth from sales does not hide losses.
No. Turnover measures employees; churn measures customers.
Choose one and keep it consistent.
Use revenue values instead of counts for a revenue view.
Often missed visits or inconsistent quality, which shift records can help you see.
Dividing yearly churn by 12 gives a rough figure but not an exact one, because each month’s losses come from a smaller base. For a true monthly rate, run the calculator on each month’s own start, new and end counts.
Yes. Include them in new customers; since they are not in the end count, they show up as lost. That captures people who left after the first service, which often points to a pricing or first-visit problem.
You probably lost fewer but larger accounts. Look at who left, not only how many.
More for the same job
Instead of adding up timesheets before you open the customer churn rate calculator, let EZTime total employee hours. Book a demo to see it with your team.