Understanding the Subscriptions Summary Dashboard in Gladstone Reporting
Problem
You want to understand what information is available within the Gladstone Reporting Subscriptions Summary Dashboard and how it can be used to monitor Subscription activity, membership trends, engagement, retention and potential churn risk.
Resolution
What does the Subscriptions Summary Dashboard show?
The Subscriptions Summary Dashboard provides an at-a-glance view of Subscription and membership performance, engagement, retention and potential churn risk.
The Dashboard brings together reports covering areas such as:
- Total Members and current Subscriptions;
- New Subscriptions;
- Subscriptions Ending;
- Net Gain;
- Frozen Contacts;
- Subscriptions by Payment Method;
- Days Since Last Interaction;
- Longer-term Subscription and Member trends;
- Member Retention;
- Member Churn;
- Member Risk Assessment.
The Dashboard can be used to understand both current Subscription movement and longer-term changes within the membership base.
Where supported, select a Widget to access its Drill Down for additional information.
What does Total Members show?
Total Members shows the distinct number of Contact Records with a current Subscription, together with the total number of current Subscriptions represented by those Contacts.
For the purposes of this Dashboard, a Member represents a Contact Record associated with a qualifying current Subscription.
One Contact Record can hold more than one current Subscription. The number of current Subscriptions can therefore be higher than the number of Members.
When interpreting the Dashboard, consider whether a measure represents Contact Records or Subscription records, as these answer different reporting questions.
What does New Subscriptions show?
New Subscriptions shows the number of Subscription records with an Original Start Date in the current month.
The vs Last Month value shows the percentage change compared with the previous month.
New Subscriptions measures Subscription records starting during the reporting period. It should not automatically be interpreted as the number of completely new members joining the organisation.
A Contact Record may have held previous Subscriptions, and new Subscription records can be created in different Subscription lifecycle scenarios.
What does Subscriptions Ending show?
Subscriptions Ending identifies qualifying Subscription records that are expected to end during the current month.
The report uses Subscription lifecycle information including:
- End Date;
- Auto Renew;
- Renewal Stop Date.
This allows the Dashboard to identify Subscriptions reaching their End Date that are not set to automatically renew, together with qualifying Subscriptions where renewal has been stopped.
The vs Last Month value shows the percentage change compared with the previous month.
A reduction in Subscriptions Ending is represented as a positive movement because fewer Subscription records are currently identified as ending.
What does Net Gain show?
Net Gain shows the difference between New Subscriptions and Subscriptions Ending during the reporting period.
The calculation is:
Net Gain = New Subscriptions - Subscriptions Ending
For example, if 500 Subscriptions start and 400 Subscriptions end, Net Gain is +100.
The Last Month value applies the same calculation to the previous month, allowing the current month's movement to be compared with the previous period.
Net Gain is a Subscription movement indicator rather than a direct measure of changes in unique Member numbers.
Scenarios such as re-joiners, upgrades, downgrades, freezes and Contacts holding overlapping Subscriptions are not separately accounted for within the Net Gain calculation.
What does Total Frozen show?
Total Frozen shows the number of Contact Records currently associated with a Frozen Status.
Contact Status values are customer-configurable. The meaning and use of a Frozen Status should therefore be interpreted according to your organisation's configured processes.
What does Subscriptions by Payment Method show?
Subscriptions by Payment Method provides a breakdown of current Subscriptions according to their Payment Method.
This can help understand the composition of the current Subscription base across methods such as:
- Cash;
- Direct Debit;
- Recurring Card Payment;
- other configured Payment Methods.
What does Days Since Last Interaction show?
Days Since Last Interaction shows how recently Contact Records associated with current Subscriptions have interacted with the organisation.
A Contact's last interaction is determined from the most recent qualifying:
- Attendance;
- Booking;
- non-subscription Sale.
Contacts are then grouped according to the number of days since their most recent interaction.
This can help identify groups of Subscription holders with little or no recent recorded engagement for further investigation.
Days Since Last Interaction is different from the Engagement component of Member Risk Assessment. Days Since Last Interaction considers Attendance, Bookings and non-subscription Sales, while Member Risk Assessment Engagement is based specifically on Attendance activity.
What does Subscription & Member Count show?
Subscription & Member Count provides a longer-term trend of Subscription and Member totals over the previous 36 months.
Subscription figures identify Subscription records represented as active during each historical period using their Original Start Date and End Date.
Member totals show the associated number of Contact Records represented by those Subscriptions.
This can help identify longer-term growth, stability or decline in the Subscription and membership base.
Historical results can be affected by the Expired Subs Retention Period configured against Subscription Types. Where historical Subscription records have been removed, they may no longer be available for historical reporting.
What does Member Retention show?
Member Retention shows the proportion of the starting Member base retained during the previous month.
The calculation is:
Retention Rate % = ((ME - MN) / MS) x 100
Where:
- ME = number of Contacts at the end of the period;
- MN = number of new Contacts acquired during the period;
- MS = number of Contacts at the start of the period.
By removing new Members from the closing Member population, the measure focuses on how much of the existing Member base remained at the end of the period.
Results can be affected by Subscription configuration, the historical data available and circumstances where Subscription data has been added or migrated in bulk.
What does Member Churn show?
Member Churn shows the proportion of the starting Member base that was lost during the previous month.
The calculation is:
Churn Rate % = (MC / MS) x 100
Where:
- MC = number of Contacts lost during the period;
- MS = number of Contacts at the start of the period.
A higher Churn percentage indicates that a greater proportion of the starting Member base was lost during the period.
Results can be affected by Subscription configuration, the historical data available and circumstances where Subscription data has been added or migrated in bulk.
What is the Member Risk Assessment?
The Member Risk Assessment is an early-warning indicator designed to highlight Contact Records with a current Subscription that may be showing signs of disengagement or potential churn.
It is not a prediction that an individual Member will cancel.
The assessment combines three areas:
- Engagement Risk — based on recent Attendance activity;
- Payment Risk — based on recent refunded Payments;
- Lifecycle Risk — based on the position of the current Subscription within its lifecycle.
These components are combined into an overall risk score used to group qualifying Contacts into Low, Medium or High Risk.
Use the assessment to support further investigation rather than treating the result as confirmation that an individual Contact will cancel.
How can I use the Dashboard to monitor Subscription growth?
Use New Subscriptions, Subscriptions Ending and Net Gain together to understand current Subscription movement.
For example, increasing New Subscriptions may initially appear positive, but if Subscriptions Ending is increasing at a similar or faster rate, overall growth may remain limited.
Use Subscription & Member Count to place current movement into a longer-term historical context.
How can I use the Dashboard to investigate engagement and retention?
Use Days Since Last Interaction to understand how recently current Subscription holders have interacted with the organisation.
Combine this with Member Retention, Member Churn and Member Risk Assessment to investigate different aspects of membership behaviour.
These reports answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable measures.
For example, Member Risk Assessment can help identify Contacts showing multiple warning signals, while Member Retention and Member Churn describe changes that have already occurred within the Member population.
Notes
- Members and Subscriptions are different reporting measures. One Contact Record can hold more than one current Subscription.
- New Subscriptions and Subscriptions Ending measure Subscription records rather than unique Member movement.
- Net Gain is a Subscription movement indicator and should not be interpreted as the direct change in unique Member numbers.
- Contact Status values, including Frozen Status, can have organisation-specific meanings.
- Historical Subscription and Member reporting can be affected by the Expired Subs Retention Period configured against Subscription Types.
- Member Retention, Member Churn and Member Risk Assessment answer different reporting questions and should not be treated as interchangeable.
- Member Risk Assessment is an indicator intended to support investigation and should not be interpreted as a prediction that an individual Member will cancel.
- Dashboard and Drill Down results can be affected by active filters.
- Available reporting content may vary according to customer configuration and user permissions.