Software to forecast subscription income

Membership organisation looking for a way to forecast subscription income

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We are a corporate membership organisation that offers membership at six different levels and in three different currencies.  I have always used excel to model subscription levels for budgeting purposes on both an accruals basis and cash flow basis as we had one renewal point - 1st January - regardless of when a new member joined.

This has now changed to 12 renewal points as a member will renew on the anniversary of their join date (to the nearest month end) and my excel model no longer works.

My variables are now:

  • type of membership
  • currency / region
  • renewal date
  • accrual or cash flow

Can anyone recommend any software they use successfully in similar scenarios?

Thank you

Replies (9)

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
29th Jul 2020 17:40

Fundamentally your output will only be as good as your input.

Modelling your assumptions will be keym, I don't see how a package will help

Me? Id do it in excel as its infinitely flexible. it sounds pretty straightforward to knock up, and then filter in some variable assumptions, eg drop in revenue %'s., variable sign ups so you can test your resilience

Is there someone else there that can use excel over a basic level? Your external accountants might be happy to model it, its really bread and butter stuff for bean counters.

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
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By lucyflan
30th Jul 2020 08:35

I have been doing it on excel but our variables have changed so my modelling no longer works. We have three currencies, 6 different types of membership, 12 renewal points and have to factor in leavers and new members at various points of the year. With the covid pandemic affecting membership I am trying to forecast income up to 2023 on both an accrual basis and a cashflow basis. I manually add the number of leavers and new members (guessed from experience) but need the ability to change these as events happen and the numbers to then all update. Guess my excel capabilities just aren't good enough.

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By WhichTyler
29th Jul 2020 21:16

+1 for Excel

There are some techniques that will make it easier (separate input, workings and output tabs, named ranges etc).

But monthly columns for each level with # of renewals in each month for each currency would be my starting point...

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Replying to WhichTyler:
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By lucyflan
30th Jul 2020 08:36

Thank you - I think I need to find an expert who can help me with this.

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John Toon
By John Toon
29th Jul 2020 22:33

Plenty of apps that can do this but how do you actually initiate the membership subscription transactions?

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Replying to johnt27:
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By lucyflan
30th Jul 2020 08:18

We have Microsoft Dynamics that shows when a membership is due - they are annual. Dynamics then send a proforma invoice to our contact at that company. If it is a new membership that comes through our website we do that manually and then add to Dynamics for annual renewal.

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By Andy556
03rd Nov 2020 10:35

Excel definitely! It can do this no problem.

PM me if you want me to pass your details on to a guy I know who produces spreadsheets full time.

Or just spend a few hours, if you've been using Excel so far then it won't take many tweaks to get a spreadsheet that would work for your new model

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Replying to Andy556:
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By Andy556
03rd Nov 2020 10:37

Sorry I thought this was a latest question, no idea why it popped up when I was on the latest screen.

Hope you've got it sorted by now

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Replying to Andy556:
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By lucyflan
03rd Nov 2020 10:51

Thank you Andy - yes we have using excel. Thank you for your offer.

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