Unit economics are the lifeblood of any SaaS business. If you don't know your LTV/CAC ratio, you're flying blind.
In this post, I'll show you how to build a simple unit economics dashboard in Google Sheets using just three formulas:
1. LTV (Lifetime Value)
= (1 - COGS/MRR) * (1 / Churn Rate)
Example: Gross Margin 80%, Monthly Churn 5% → LTV = $16,000
2. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
= Total S&M Spend / New Customers
3. LTV/CAC Ratio
= LTV / CAC — target ≥ 3.0 for healthy SaaS.
Using these, you can build a cohort analysis tab (retention by month) and a scenario model to stress-test changes.
I've packaged this as a pre-built Google Sheets template with 5 tabs, pre-filled examples, and conditional formatting. Grab the full version here (free version available too): SaaS Unit Economics Calculator
Happy building!
