KPIs & Reporting for SMBs: From Anecdote to Signal

The five-number scoreboard

Most SMB dashboards fail by measuring everything. The working alternative: five numbers — one per critical function — reviewed at the same time every week. Each number has an owner, a target and an agreed response when it goes red. Fewer numbers, more consequence.

• One number per function: sales, delivery, cash, team, pipeline
• Leading indicators over trailing where possible
• Same five numbers for at least a quarter — stability builds signal

Choosing the right KPIs

The right KPI is the one that changes a decision. For each candidate ask: who owns it, what’s the target, and what will we do differently when it misses? If there’s no answer to the third question, it’s reporting theatre. Use the KPI Selector tool in our library for a per-industry starting set.

Wiring numbers into the weekly rhythm

The scoreboard opens the weekly meeting: two minutes of green/amber/red, then time goes only to the reds. Monthly, zoom out: trends, not points. Quarterly, re-examine whether these are still the five numbers that matter.

Dashboards without the BI project

You don’t need a data warehouse. A disciplined spreadsheet — or the dashboard module of the project system you already run — beats an abandoned BI tool. Automate the collection of two or three numbers first; manual entry for the rest is fine at SMB scale.