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▶Content Calendar and Social Media Planner
Plan a post once. The calendar draws itself, the gap against your goal is counted, every caption is checked, and the monthly report writes itself.
It is the fifth of the month, you have a list of ideas and a few things scheduled, and no idea how many posts you are actually short. Most planners give you a grid. This one does the arithmetic.
- Posts still to plan against a posts-a-week goal per platform, and every day to month end with nothing scheduled, both worked out from the planner
- A month calendar that draws itself from the post planner: first post, status, title and how many more on every day, today in amber
- Captions assembled from hook, body and call to action and counted against each platform's limit, with hashtag groups counted against the cap
- Engagement rate per post, per platform, per pillar and per post type, the best day to post by weekday, and followers gained month by month
- Portable formulas that open in Excel 2016 and later, Google Sheets and Apple Numbers, when most of this shelf is Google-Sheets-only
Overview
Plan a post once. The calendar draws itself, the gap against your goal is counted, every caption is checked, and the monthly report writes itself.
It is the fifth of the month, you have a list of ideas and a few things scheduled, and no idea how many posts you are actually short. Most planners give you a grid. This one does the arithmetic.
You plan a post once: the date, the platform, the pillar, the title, the status. From that one row the file draws the month calendar, fills the week slot by slot, counts how many posts you still owe against the goal you set for each platform, checks every caption against the platform limit, works out the engagement rate of everything you have published, finds your best day to post, and writes the monthly report. In the shipped sample a small candle business on four platforms is ten posts short of a 34-post September on the fifth, with seven days that have nothing on them, a 4.6 percent engagement rate, and Tuesday as its best day.
What's Included
One workbook, 13 connected tabs, in four color editions:
- One ZIP with the workbook in four color editions plus the three-color bundle
- A two-page Quick-Start PDF: the four things to do first, what every tab is for, and the honest warnings
- A START-HERE file naming which file to open and how the colorways work
- A worked sample month in every tab, so nothing is blank until you replace it
- A link to the narrated video tutorial that walks every tab of the real file
Key Benefits
Why this one
Set a posts-a-week goal for each platform on Setup. The Dashboard scales it to the days in the month, counts every post on the planner dated this month, and says how many you still owe, then counts the days from today to month end with nothing on them. Raise the Instagram goal from three a week to five and the gap moves from ten posts to nineteen. Plan a post and it moves back.
Six weeks, Monday to Sunday, for the month in view. Every day shows the first post on it, the platform, the status, the title, and how many more. Today is amber, a day with a post is tinted, and an empty day is a gap you can see from across the room. Change the month on Setup and the grid redraws.
The Post Planner is the only place you ever type a post: date, time, platform, pillar, type, title, campaign and status, with dropdowns for every list. When a post is out you mark it Published and type its reach, likes, comments, shares and saves in the same row; the engagement rate, the weekday and the caption check are worked out beside them. Two hundred and fifty rows, which is a year of posting.
Type the hook, the body, the call to action and the hashtag group by name. The Captions tab assembles the full caption with blank lines between the parts, counts the characters against the platform limit on Setup, counts the hashtags against the cap, and says Fits or Over by how many. Copy the finished caption straight into the app.
Analytics reads the planner: this month by platform with goal, planned, published, reach, engagements and rate; the best day to post from the average engagement rate of everything you published, by weekday; the content mix against the targets you set; every post type; and the year month by month. Followers are the one thing you type here, once a month.
The Monthly Report puts posts published, reach, engagement rate and new followers at the top, then by platform, the top three posts by engagement rate, and a paragraph in sentences written from the numbers. Every figure is read from the planner. Print it, or send the tab to the client as it is.
Who It's For
Built for
- Small business owners posting on two to six platforms who want to know how far behind they are before the month is over
- Social media managers who owe a client a monthly report and would rather not build it by hand
- Creators who want the engagement rate, the best day to post and the content mix without a subscription
- Anyone who has tried a content calendar template and found a grid that does nothing
How It Works
Up and running in minutes
Open Setup and type the brand, the year, the month you are planning, and your platforms with a posts-a-week goal, a caption limit and a hashtag cap for each. Then your content pillars with a target share.
One row per post: date, platform, pillar, title, status. When a post is out, mark it Published and type its numbers.
The month is drawn. Every empty day is a day you have not planned yet.
Still to plan, days with nothing, engagement rate, the next seven days, this month by platform, the content mix, the top post.
At the end of the month the Monthly Report is already written. Print it or send the tab.
Why It's Different
Not another template
The shelf sells content calendars that are grids: a month view and a post list you fill in by hand, most of them Google-Sheets-only. This one counts what you still owe against a goal you set, draws the calendar from the list, checks every caption against the platform limit, works out what performed, and writes the report, in plain formulas that open in Excel 2016, Google Sheets and Numbers without asking for an account.
Delivery & Compatibility
Instant, and it opens in what you already use
As soon as your order is complete you get instant access to download the ZIP: the workbook in four color editions, the three-color bundle, a two-page Quick-Start PDF and a START-HERE file.
One ZIP, instant download. Portable formulas only — no macros, no add-ons, no account and nothing to cancel. Opens in Microsoft Excel (2016 or later, Mac or PC) and Google Sheets; to use Sheets, upload the .xlsx to Drive and open it with Sheets. Apple Numbers opens it too. The four colorways are the same workbook: pick one and stay in it.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does it post or schedule anything?
No. Nothing here connects to a platform. You type the numbers from each app's own insights, which is also why it works everywhere and never breaks.
Which platforms does it handle?
Any six you name on Setup, each with its own goal, caption limit and hashtag cap. The sample uses Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and Facebook.
Will it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Every formula is portable. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Sheets; formulas, dropdowns and conditional colors carry over.
Can I use it next month?
Yes. It is undated. Change the month and the year on Setup and the calendar, the Dashboard and the report follow; the planner keeps every post you have logged.
A planning and record-keeping tool that calculates from the posts and numbers you enter. It does not post, schedule or connect to any social media platform, and it does not pull analytics from anywhere. The workbook ships with an invented sample month so every tab has something in it; delete it and type your own.
