Quarterly cadence
Quarterly business review (QBR)
The 90-day strategic checkpoint. Goals reviewed, results documented, next quarter planned. Auto-rolls forward so this quarter's goals become next quarter's "did we hit them" section.
- 45 min setup
- 8 sections
- 4 data sources
Founders Circle pre-launch — we clone this template for your first 5 clients.
Executive summary
Strong quarter — revenue up 18.6% with CAC down 28%. Retention crossed the 92% target. Q3 plan focuses on enterprise tier rollout and a brand campaign in Sept.
Quarter over quarter
| Metric | Q1 | Q2 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $420K | $498K | 18.6% |
| Retention | 88% | 92.2% | 4.2pp |
| CAC | $58 | $42 | 28% |
| ARPU | $148 | $166 | 12% |
Wins
- Enterprise pilot signed (Acme)
- Email funnel relaunch · +31%
- Two new channels live
Goals for Q3
- Enterprise rollout · CEO
- Brand campaign (Sept) · CMO
- CAC < $40 · Growth lead
Best for
- Senior-buyer client relationships
- Retainers above $10K/month
- Multi-channel agency engagements
- Renewal conversation preparation
Pulls from
- GA4
- HubSpot
- Stripe
- Linear (or other PM)
Sections
What’s inside.
Every section is editable. Reorder, remove, or duplicate them per client.
- 01
Executive summary (1 page max)
- 02
Quarter-over-quarter metric table
- 03
Wins (with the specific decision that drove each)
- 04
Misses (with what we'd do differently)
- 05
Strategic context (industry / competitive shifts that affected results)
- 06
Goals for next quarter (with assignees + success criteria)
- 07
Decisions needed from the client
- 08
Approval log
Why this template#
The QBR is the highest-stakes deliverable in the agency calendar. It's where retainers get renewed, expanded, or cancelled. Most agencies treat it as a slide-deck production project; this template treats it as a structured artifact that becomes the canonical record of the engagement quarter over quarter.
What makes it work#
Three structural choices specific to QBRs:
- Executive summary is one page, hard cap. The senior buyer on the client side reads only this if the meeting is busy. The rest is reference material.
- Goals roll forward automatically. Last quarter's "goals for next quarter" become this quarter's "did we hit them" section. The QBR becomes a continuously-updating strategic record, not a one-off retrospective.
- Per-section approvers. Compliance routes to compliance, strategic recommendations to the engagement partner, the cover summary to the relationship lead. Sections move independently; the brief ships when all sections are green.
What you'll customize#
- Metric table structure: which 8-12 KPIs are the client's actual scorecard
- Wins/misses framing: some clients want this as bullet points, others as paragraphs
- Goals section format: assignees + criteria + cadence, or open-text strategic goals
- Strategic context section: required for some clients, skipped for others
When NOT to use this template#
If your client only has one or two stakeholders and the conversation happens informally, the monthly performance brief is probably enough. Don't force a QBR cadence on engagements that don't need it.
Clone Quarterly business review (QBR). Render in 18 minutes.
Founders Circle pre-launch — we clone the template, set up your first 5 clients, and run the first cycle alongside you. Capped at 25 agencies.