The audit finds the one or two places your program leaks most, so the next month goes there. It’s also the fastest way to learn whether anyone on the team knows how the program is doing, as opposed to how much revenue it books.

Open your subscription app (Recharge, Skio, Loop, Stay, Ordergroove or whatever runs billing), your email and SMS platform, your payment processor’s dashboard and your store’s checkout. Score each check 0 to 2: 0 if it failed or nobody can answer it, 1 if partly true, 2 if clean. “The app probably does that” is a 0 until someone has looked.

Do two of the checks by hand rather than by report. Sign up for your own subscription on a phone, and then cancel it. Time both. Most teams haven’t done either since launch, and the cancel path is often not what anyone remembers building.

If nobody on the team has canceled your subscription this quarter, nobody knows what your customers go through.

The twelve checks

1. Churn is defined, and split by cause · 5 minLook at: Last month’s churn rate, and how it was calculated.
   Good: Lost subscribers divided by subscribers active on the first of the month, reported as two numbers: canceled by the subscriber, and ended on a failed payment.
   Cost if wrong: You fix the wrong leak. Failed payments and real cancellations need opposite fixes.
   Read next: Churn, Counted Properly
2. A survival table by start month · 4 minLook at: Of subscribers who started in each month, the share still active after renewals one, two, three, six and twelve.
   Good: It exists, it’s updated monthly, and someone reads it.
   Cost if wrong: A big month of new starts hides a falling survival rate for a quarter or more.
   Read next: Churn, Counted Properly
3. You know what a subscriber is worth over a one-time buyer · 4 minLook at: 12-month contribution per subscriber, against one-time buyers of the same first product.
   Good: A dollar difference, after the subscription discount, that someone can produce today.
   Cost if wrong: The discount may cost more than the subscription adds, and nothing on the dashboard would show it.
   Read next: What a Subscriber Is Worth
4. The terms are clear before payment · 3 minLook at: Your subscribe option on a product page and in checkout, on a phone.
   Good: Price per delivery, how often, what happens to the price after the first order, and how to cancel, all visible before the card is entered. The subscription box is never pre-checked.
   Cost if wrong: Surprised customers cancel at the first renewal, dispute the charge, and complain to regulators.
   Read next: The Rules on One Page
5. Canceling online takes a few taps · 5 minLook at: Cancel your own test subscription from the customer account, on a phone. Count the screens.
   Good: Found without searching, finished online in the same place they signed up, with any save offer shown beside a visible way to finish canceling.
   Cost if wrong: Chargebacks, complaints, and in several states, a violation.
   Read next: The Rules on One Page
6. The first-order offer is priced on contribution · 4 minLook at: The subscription offer on your top landing page, and first-renewal rate by offer.
   Good: Someone has checked what each first-order discount does to the first renewal, and there’s no free or near-free first order running without that proof.
   Cost if wrong: You fill the program with people who wanted one cheap box.
   Read next: The Offer That Starts It
7. The first two renewals are managed · 4 minLook at: What a new subscriber receives between the first order and the second charge.
   Good: A reminder before each of the first two renewal charges, with one-tap skip, change date and change frequency. How-to-use content timed to the product.
   Cost if wrong: The product piles up and the second charge becomes the reason to cancel.
   Read next: The First Two Renewals
8. Failed payments are worked, not written off · 5 minLook at: The retry schedule in your billing app, whether the card updater is on, and the failed-payment emails.
   Good: Retries spread over one to two weeks, an account updater switched on, a plain notice with a one-tap card update, and no retries after a decline that says never retry.
   Cost if wrong: You lose subscribers who never decided to leave.
   Read next: A Declined Card Isn’t a Goodbye
9. The cancel flow asks why and answers it · 4 minLook at: The reasons your cancel flow offers, and what each one leads to.
   Good: Each common reason gets the option that fixes it: skip, delay, change frequency, swap, pause, a smaller size. A discount is one option among several, not the default.
   Cost if wrong: You pay everyone to stay, including those who would have stayed for a skip.
   Read next: The Cancel Flow
10. Saves are judged at 60 days · 3 minLook at: How the team reports the cancel flow’s results.
    Good: Saved subscribers still active 60 days later, by the option they took. Not “save rate.”
    Cost if wrong: The flow reports a win while most saves leave at the next renewal.
    Read next: The Cancel Flow
11. Winback has a reason and a holdout · 3 minLook at: What former subscribers receive, and when.
    Good: Sent at a moment that gives them a reason (a new product, a season, a fix to what they complained about), with a random group held back to measure it.
    Cost if wrong: A coupon on a timer teaches people to cancel and wait.
    Read next: Coming Back
12. One weekly scorecard · 3 minLook at: Where the team sees the program’s health each week.
    Good: Active subscribers, starts, churn by cause, failed-payment recoveries, saves and their 60-day survival, in one place, every week.
    Cost if wrong: Problems surface in the monthly revenue number, a month late.
    Read next: The Scorecard

Score as you go; your band appears when all twelve are in.

Read your score

One exception to fixing in check order: if check 4 or check 5 scored 0, fix those first, whatever else scored. Everything else in this guide is about earning more from the program. Those two are about whether you’re allowed to run it.