Quarterly Business Review Template: An Agenda and 5 One-Page QBR Examples

Every example was made with MakeOnepagers. Each one opens as a template you can edit for free: every word, chart and color.

What goes in a quarterly business review

A QBR is a meeting held every three months to review results and agree the next quarter's priorities. It can be with a client (a customer QBR), with your own leadership (an internal QBR) or with investors and a board. Whoever it's for, the page answers the same five questions:

1. How did the quarter go? Three to six numbers, each against the plan or last quarter.
2. Why? What drove the result, good and bad, in three short lines.
3. What's still open? Problems from last quarter that aren't solved yet. Leaving them out is how a QBR loses trust.
4. What's the plan for next quarter? Three priorities, each with an owner and a month.
5. What do you need? One decision, approval or introduction, stated plainly.

A one-page quarterly business review template

Send it two days before the meeting. People who have read the numbers come ready to talk about the plan.

A 45-minute QBR agenda

Spend the most time on next quarter. The results are already on the page, so the meeting is for what happens next.

5 one-page QBR examples

1. Client QBR (account review)

Edit this template

A sample client QBR: the account in four numbers, fixed against still open, next quarter's three actions and how likely the renewal is.

What to copy:

• Every number against last time. "$412K, up 18%, vs $349K" shows the client the value grew.
• "Still open" next to "Fixed". Naming the warehouse module at 31% adoption builds more trust than hiding it.
• Renewal confidence as a number. 78%, up from 61%, with the one thing that would move it: warehouse adoption.

Edit for free: client QBR template.

2. Operations QBR (manufacturing plant)

Edit this template

A plant leadership review: every result against plan, then where the hours were lost.

What to copy:

• Each result against its plan. Equipment effectiveness 78% against 82%, shipped on time 96.4% against 95%.
• Downtime by cause, month by month. Changeovers fell from 62 to 41 hours, while waiting for steel rose from 18 to 30.
• Actions with an owner and a date. A second steel supplier on contract, Will Abara, by October 31.

Edit for free: manufacturing plant QBR template.

3. Customer success QBR

Edit this template

A software vendor's review with its customer: usage, adoption and last quarter's promises.

What to copy:

• What you promised last quarter, ticked. Moving the Reno yard onto the route planner: done.
• Seats used against seats bought. 1,184 of 1,250 is the renewal conversation before anyone raises it.
• One decision with its cost. Turn on maintenance alerts at two yards, at no extra licence cost.

Edit for free: customer QBR template.

4. Agency client QBR

Edit this template

A marketing agency shows a dental group what its ad budget bought.

What to copy:

• The funnel to the business result. 18,900 clicks became 1,412 leads, 611 bookings and 512 patients in the chair.
• Results by location. Cost per lead runs from $34 at Northgate to $44 at Cedar Hills, so the weak office is plain.
• What did not work, too. Writing down the losing tests is what makes the winning ones believable.

Edit for free: agency client QBR template.

5. Supplier QBR

Edit this template

A grocery chain scores its produce supplier and decides on next year's contract.

What to copy:

• A scorecard with goals. Fill rate 97.1% against 98%, on time 93.8% against 96%, shrink 3.4% against under 3%.
• The problem traced to a region. The Valley dropped from 95% to 89% on time; the other regions barely moved.
• The contract decision on the page. Renew for 12 months with a 96% on-time floor.

Edit for free: supplier QBR template.

How to prepare a QBR in 5 steps

1. Pull the numbers against the plan. Three to six figures that matter to this audience, each with last quarter or the target beside it.
2. Write the quarter in one line. If the result needs a paragraph, you haven't found the story yet.
3. List what's still open. Go back to last quarter's page and check every promise.
4. Set three priorities for next quarter. Each with an owner and a month. More than three means none get done.
5. Write the ask. One decision, approval or introduction. Put it where it can't be missed.

If the numbers already sit in a report, a spreadsheet or last quarter's deck, MakeOnepagers reads the file and builds the one-page QBR from what's in it, which you then edit.

QBR mistakes

• A 30-slide deck nobody reads. Send one page before the meeting and use the time for the plan.
• Results without the plan. "$4.1M booked" means nothing until the reader sees the $6.0M quota.
• Skipping what went wrong. The other side remembers last quarter's problems. Raise them first.
• No owner on the next steps. A priority without a name and a month comes back unchanged next quarter.
• No ask. If you need nothing, the meeting could have been an email.