The Dashboard Numbers That Matter

Why this matters

A dashboard is supposed to tell you in ten seconds whether the business is healthy. Most do the opposite. They show forty tiles, half of them flat, and the owner's eye glazes over and nobody looks at it again. A dashboard that nobody reads is worse than no dashboard, because it creates the comfortable illusion that you are watching the numbers. The fix is ruthless editing: a few tiles that change what you do today, sized so the most important one is the biggest thing on the screen.

A dashboard is a glance, not a report

Know the difference. A report is something you sit down and study for ten minutes when a question comes up. A dashboard is something you glance at while your coffee is still hot and walk away knowing if anything is on fire.

That difference dictates the design. A dashboard has room for maybe five to seven things. Everything else belongs in a report you open on purpose. If you find yourself wanting to add a tenth tile, you are building a report and calling it a dashboard.

The tiers of a good dashboard

Lay it out so your eye lands in the right order. Three tiers.

• Top tier, biggest tiles: the pulse. Revenue this period, jobs in progress or scheduled, average ticket. These are the "are we busy and is it worth it" numbers. They should be the largest things on the screen because they are what you check first.
• Middle tier: the leading indicators. Open estimates and close rate, upcoming scheduled work, jobs completed per tech. These tell you what next week looks like before it arrives.
• Bottom tier, smaller: the watch list. Overdue invoices, callbacks, anything past due. These are quiet most of the time and should stay small until one turns red.

The layout itself teaches priority. A new manager should be able to read the screen top to bottom and know what matters most without being told.

Make it answer the morning question

The honest test of a dashboard is whether it answers the question you actually have at 7 a.m.: is today under control, and is anything slipping? Walk the tiles against that question.

• Can you see at a glance whether today is staffed and scheduled? If not, add it.
• Can you see whether money owed to you is piling up? If not, add it.
• Can you see whether estimates are sitting un-followed-up? If not, add it.

If a tile does not help answer that morning question, it is taking up space that a tile which does could use. Cut it.

Trend beats snapshot

A single number is a fact with no meaning. "Revenue is X this month" tells you nothing until you know whether that is up or down from last month and from the same month last year. Build comparison into the tile, not into a separate report you never open.

• Show this period next to last period, or as an up or down arrow against it.
• For anything seasonal, compare to the same month a year ago, not just last month. A landscaper in November should compare to last November, not to October.
• A small trend line on a tile is worth more than a bigger font on the current number.

The reason is simple: you act on direction, not on level. A revenue number that is high but falling is a worse sign than one that is lower but climbing.

Color is a signal, not decoration

Use color to mean something or do not use it. The discipline: a tile is neutral when it is fine and only changes color when it needs attention.

• Green and neutral states should look the same and quiet. If everything is green, your eye learns to ignore green.
• Reserve red and amber for "look at this." An overdue tile that turns red only when it crosses your threshold pulls the eye exactly when it should.
• Set the thresholds yourself. The dashboard should go red at the point where you would actually do something, not at an arbitrary default.

A screen where one thing is red and everything else is calm does its job in one glance. A screen lit up like a Christmas tree trains you to look away.

What to leave off

The things that feel important and are not.

• Lifetime or all-time totals. Impressive, static, and they change no decision. Put them in an annual review, not a daily glance.
• Vanity counts (web visits, followers). See related: The Data You Should Actually Track.
• Anything you cannot act on before lunch. A dashboard is for today and this week. Long-horizon analysis is a report.

The mental model to keep

Design the dashboard for the tired version of yourself glancing at it on a busy morning, not the focused version studying it on a quiet Sunday. Few tiles, the most important one biggest, color only when something needs you, and every number carrying its own trend. If it does not change what you do today, it does not belong on the glance.

References

• U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), small business performance measurement
• Trade-standard practice for field-service reporting
• See related: The Data You Should Actually Track; Cash vs Profit