10 finished slides

Quarterly business review deck

A ten slide QBR for a subscription business, including the quarter it did not win. It shows how to present a mixed result without hiding it in a wall of green.

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The full deck

Every slide as it was built, in order. All the content was written for this example, so the structure can be judged on real numbers rather than placeholder text.

Architectural photograph of a modern boardroom interior, long timber table, glass wall overlooking a city, soft evening light, wide calm composition, no text, no logos

Q3 FY26

Growth held, churn did not

Quarterly business review for the board

Presented

14 August 2026

By

Marcus Bell, COO

Company

Northgate Learning

Slide 1 of 10

Scorecard

The quarter against plan

Metric
Target
Actual
Variance
Status
New ARR
$1.60M
$1.74M
+9%
Ahead
Gross churn
3.0%
4.6%
+1.6pt
Behind
Net revenue retention
108%
101%
-7pt
Behind
Gross margin
76%
78%
+2pt
Ahead
CAC payback
14 mo
13 mo
-1 mo
Ahead
Support first response
2h
3h 40m
+1h 40m
Behind
Cash runway
20 mo
22 mo
+2 mo
Ahead
Variance is against the plan approved in May. Status is set by the metric owner.

02

Slide 2 of 10

Revenue and churn moved together

Monthly recurring revenue in thousands of dollars, against churned revenue for the same month.

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
0k150k300k450k600k
New MRR
Churned MRR

03

Slide 3 of 10

What onboarding changed

Cohorts before and after the March onboarding rebuild.

Measure

Before

After

Change

Time to first class

11 days

4 days

-64%

Setup completed

61%

84%

+23pt

Support tickets, week 1

3.4

1.9

-44%

Active in month 2

72%

86%

+14pt

Seats used in month 3

54%

71%

+17pt

Churn by month 6

9.1%

5.8%

-3.3pt

Cohorts signed up October to February
Cohorts signed up March to June

04

Slide 4 of 10

Pipeline

Where the quarter was won and lost

Qualified opportunities

486

Pilots started

214

Pilots converted

119

Live and paying

108

05

Slide 5 of 10

Objectives for Q4

Two objectives only. Everything else is business as usual and stays off this page.

Stop the churn in mid-market accounts

Gross churn to 3.2%

From 4.6 percent, measured on revenue, with the mid-market cohort reported separately.

Health score live

Usage based health score on every account over $20k, reviewed weekly by the CS team.

Save plays running

A documented save play triggered within 48 hours of an account going amber.

Make support match the promise

First response under 2h

From 3 hours 40, including the 8am to 6pm window across both time zones.

Two more agents

Hired and trained by the end of October, both with school sector experience.

Deflection at 25%

Help centre rewritten around the twenty questions that drive most tickets.

06

Slide 6 of 10

The next four quarters

What each quarter has to deliver for the FY28 plan to hold.

Q4 FY26

Churn program lands: health scores, save plays and two support hires. Pricing review completed with the board. Onboarding rebuild extended to the enterprise tier.

Q1 FY27

Renewals season. Every account over $20k gets a review meeting before its renewal date. Reporting module ships, the top request from mid-market accounts for two years.

Q2 FY27

Expansion focus: seat growth inside existing districts, backed by the usage data the health score now collects. First integration partner goes live.

Q3 FY27

New segment trial in vocational training, with three paid pilots. Decision at quarter end on whether it earns a dedicated team in FY28.

07

Slide 7 of 10

Watch list

Risks and what we need

Risks

Two mid-market renewals worth $410k are in doubt, both citing reporting gaps.

Support headcount is the single point of failure for the response time target.

One competitor has moved to per district pricing, which reads cheaper on first pass.

Term start in February compresses onboarding into a three week window.

Data residency questions are appearing in tenders and we have no formal answer yet.

What we are asking for

Approval for two support hires now rather than in the FY27 budget round.

Sign off to bring the reporting module forward by one quarter.

A board sponsor for the pricing review, with a decision by mid October.

Budget for a data residency assessment, roughly $40k and six weeks.

Agreement that Q4 ships nothing new outside the two objectives above.

08

Slide 8 of 10

The quarter in a line

We sold well and kept badly. Q4 is about holding what we already won.

Marcus Bell, COO

09

Slide 9 of 10

What happens next

Decisions requested today, actions start Monday

Approve the two support hires and the reporting module bring-forward, and name a sponsor for the pricing review. The churn program starts on Monday either way, but without those three decisions the 3.2 percent target moves out a quarter. Full metric detail and the account level churn breakdown are in the appendix pack sent on Tuesday.

Marcus Bell, COO, Northgate Learning

10

Slide 10 of 10

What makes this deck work

The scorecard shows misses

Targets, actuals and variance side by side, with three metrics marked behind. A QBR that is all green is not read closely.

Two objectives, not ten

The next quarter page carries two objectives with three key results each, so the plan can actually be held to.

Risks are paired with asks

Every risk on the left has a decision request on the right, which turns a status update into a working meeting.

Questions people ask

What should a QBR presentation include?

Results against plan, the trend behind them, what changed and why, next quarter objectives, risks and the decisions you need from the room.

How do you present a bad quarter?

Show the miss on the scorecard, explain the cause with one chart, and bring a plan with a measurable target for the next quarter.

How long should a QBR deck be?

Around ten slides for the meeting, with detailed metric tables in an appendix sent ahead of time.

Can I use my own metrics?

Yes. Generate the deck with your metrics described and the tables and charts populate around them, then edit anything in the builder.

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