Understanding Your Monthly Earnings Report
Your monthly earnings report is your window into how your page is doing: what you earned, who's subscribing, and what's working. This guide walks through what that report is designed to show and how to read it.
Heads up — creator sign-up is opening soon. This article describes the designed creator experience, including the monthly earnings report. It's a preview of what reporting will look like once the creator app goes live, not a tour of a feature you can open today. The numbers in every example below are illustrative — they show how the report is laid out, not what you'll earn.
When You Get It
Once your page is live, the plan is for a monthly earnings report to land in your inbox at the start of each month. The report is designed to give you:
- An email summary of how last month went
- A downloadable record you can keep or hand to your accountant
- A view that updates as your real numbers come in
Each report covers the previous calendar month (your June report covers June 1–30).
What You See First: Your Earnings
The top of the report leads with the number that matters most to you — what you earned. That's it. No split to decode, no platform-side math to wade through. Your report shows your take-home, plainly.
For a creator on the suggested $6.99/month price, each active subscriber works out to roughly $4.89 a month in your pocket. Most creators set their price somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99, so your own per-subscriber figure depends on the price you choose.
Every figure here is illustrative. We anchor examples to the suggested $6.99 price (~$4.89/subscriber) so the math is easy to follow. They're examples of how the report reads — not a forecast of your earnings, and not a promise.
A sample earnings summary is designed to read like this:
Your earnings this month: ~$490
Active subscribers: 100
New this month: 28
Subscribers who stayed: ~95%
Notice what's not there: there's no "platform" line to reconcile against, and no percentages. Your report is about your earnings and your growth — full stop.
Your Forecast (and Why It's a Floor, Not a Ceiling)
Before you have real earnings data, your report and your home screen are designed to show a forecast instead — an early estimate of where you're headed.
The forecast is framed exactly the way it appears in the designed experience:
Your forecast — an early estimate that updates with your data. On pace for ~$12,000/mo. A floor, not a ceiling — your real numbers replace this in 30–60 days.
Three things to hold onto here:
- It's an estimate, not a promise. The forecast is a model output based on your audience size, your price, and how often you post and link. It is not guaranteed earnings.
- It's a floor, not a ceiling. The model is built to be conservative. Following your 90-day launch plan and posting consistently is what moves the number up.
- It gets replaced by reality. Within 30–60 days, your actual subscriber and earnings data takes over, and the forecast fades into the background.
Milestones Come First
Big monthly totals come later. In your first weeks, the report and home screen are designed to celebrate milestones — the small, concrete wins that show your page is working:
✓ Your first 10 Founding Subscribers
✓ Your first $100 payout
→ Your day-90 goal
This is on purpose. "On pace for some big number" is abstract on day one. "Your first 10 Founding Subscribers" is something you can actually go earn this week. The report keeps your next milestone in front of you so there's always a clear next step.
Reading the Detailed Sections
Beyond your headline earnings, the report is designed to break performance into a few sections you can act on.
1. Subscriber Movement
This shows how your subscriber count changed over the month:
Started the month with: 72 subscribers
Joined this month: +33
Left this month: −5
Ended the month with: 100 subscribers
What to watch:
- Is your new-subscriber count holding steady or climbing?
- Are more people leaving than usual?
- Are you closing in on your next milestone?
2. What's Driving Subscribers
The report is designed to show which content brings people in, so you can make more of what works:
| Content | Views | New subscribers | |---------|-------|-----------------| | Signature recipe #1 | 1,200 | 28 | | Weekly meal plan A | 950 | 22 | | Signature recipe #2 | 780 | 14 |
What to watch:
- Which recipes pull the most interest?
- Which meal plans turn browsers into subscribers?
- Are there themes among your top performers?
3. Who's Subscribing (and Staying)
A simple read on engagement and retention:
Subscribers who stayed this month: ~95%
Most-loved category: Quick weeknight recipes
Where people cook: Mostly mobile
What to watch:
- Are subscribers sticking around month to month?
- Which categories keep them engaged?
- Where and how are they using your recipes?
4. Where New Subscribers Came From
So you know which channels are pulling their weight:
Your Instagram ~60%
Word of mouth ~20%
Search & discovery ~13%
Other PrepSmart pages ~7%
What to watch:
- Which channel is doing the heavy lifting?
- Is your email list converting as well as it should (it usually converts highest)?
- Are people finding you organically yet?
Turning the Report Into Your Next Move
The point of the report isn't to admire the numbers — it's to decide what to do next. The rhythm is simple:
- What's working? Do more of it.
- What's underperforming? Experiment or set it aside.
- Why did anyone leave? Your retention data points at the gap.
- What's your next milestone? Aim there for the month ahead.
A worked example of how that looks:
You see: Your quick-weeknight recipes drive the most new subscribers, and "signature recipe #1" is your top performer.
You do: Make a few more quick weeknight recipes next month and feature them early.
The aim: More new subscribers, better retention, and you reach your next milestone sooner.
You're Not Reading It Alone
You won't be left to interpret a wall of numbers by yourself. The designed creator experience pairs you with a Growth Strategist — a real person on the PrepSmart team who's your single point of contact from day one. Your Strategist is there to help you read your report, spot the opportunities in it, and turn it into a plan.
The Strategist is part of a broader team of experts — the real specialists (using AI-assisted tools to move faster) who build your profile, recipes, and brand voice and deliver it to you in a review meeting you approve. Once you're live, your Strategist is your ongoing point of contact for everything that follows, including making sense of each month's report.
That guidance is part of being on PrepSmart — there's no separate tier to unlock for it.
Common Questions
Q: Why isn't my earnings number exactly (subscribers × my price)? A: Your report is designed to show what actually lands with you, after payment processing and the occasional failed or refunded charge. That can nudge the total slightly below a clean "subscribers × price."
Q: When does the report arrive? A: The plan is for a report at the start of each month, covering the month just ended.
Q: Can I give the report to my accountant? A: Yes — it's designed to be a clean record you can keep or forward to a tax professional.
Q: What if I think something's wrong? A: Reach out to support@useprepsmart.com and your Strategist, and we'll look into it.
Setting Goals From Your Report
Once reporting is live, the idea is to use each month's report to set a clear target for the next one. A few examples of the kind of goal that works:
- Steady: "Keep most of my subscribers and add a handful of new ones this month."
- Ambitious: "Reach my next milestone by posting more often and linking my page in every post."
- Engagement: "Get more subscribers cooking weekly by featuring their submissions."
Milestone-first beats chasing a big aggregate number. Hit the next small goal, then set the one after it.
Next Steps
Want the bigger picture on how creator earnings work? Read how creator earnings work.
Curious about the Strategist and the team behind your page? Meet your team of experts.
Wondering what happens after your launch? Explore the Creator Success Program.
Questions about your report? Contact PrepSmart Creator Support at support@useprepsmart.com.