The first five KPIs for your dashboard
20 October 2026 · 3 min read
A first dashboard rarely fails because of the technology. It fails because it tries to do too much. Forty KPIs across three pages look impressive in the presentation and nobody opens them after two weeks.
The opposite works better: one data source, five KPIs, one page. Once that gets opened every Monday, the rest follows. Almost every small and mid-sized company needs these five KPIs, and the data for them usually already sits in the ERP, the invoicing system or the accounting software.
1. Revenue – against plan and last year
The question behind it: Are we where we wanted to be?
Revenue on its own says little. The comparison makes it a KPI: against plan, against the same month last year, and year to date. On the dashboard, one big number with the variance below it and a twelve-month line chart with actual and plan are enough.
Where it comes from: Invoices from the invoicing system. Many companies keep the plan in an Excel sheet – and that sheet can stay a data source.
Watch out for: Decide upfront whether the number is net or gross, and with or without credit notes. Otherwise the first meeting discusses the definition instead of the result.
2. Gross profit – by product or service group
The question behind it: What actually makes us money?
More revenue is not automatically better. Gross profit (revenue minus cost of goods) shows which groups carry the business and which only create work. A bar chart sorted by gross profit answers that at a glance.
Where it comes from: The ERP, with purchase or standard costs per item.
Watch out for: Items without a purchase price make their gross profit look unrealistically high. Show them in a separate row, “no cost price”, instead of quietly filtering them out.
3. Receivables – and how overdue they are
The question behind it: Who owes us money, and for how long?
A total of open items is either reassuring or alarming, but rarely useful. Ageing buckets make it useful: not yet due, up to 30 days, 31–60 days, more than 60 days overdue. Add a list of the ten largest overdue customers that accounting checks every Monday.
Where it comes from: The open items list from accounting or invoicing.
Watch out for: Partial payments and credit notes. Check the first version once against the balance list from accounting before you trust the dashboard.
4. Cash – the next eight weeks
The question behind it: Will the money last past the end of next month?
Today's bank balance is history. Management needs the outlook: current balance plus expected payments in (from open receivables) minus payables due, week by week. A column chart over eight weeks with a line for the minimum balance is enough.
Where it comes from: Open items on both sides and the bank balance. Fixed payments such as salaries or rent come from a small, maintained sheet at first.
Watch out for: Customers don't pay on the due date. Use their average payment behaviour, or apply a safety margin.
5. Order backlog – and capacity
The question behind it: What's coming in over the next weeks, and can we handle it?
Revenue shows last month; the order backlog shows the next ones. In manufacturing, trades and services, capacity belongs next to it: how many hours are planned, how many are available? In retail, inventory turnover often takes this place.
Where it comes from: Orders or quotes with their status from the ERP, capacity from time tracking or planning.
Watch out for: Keep confirmed orders apart from open quotes. Adding both together shows a workload that doesn't exist.
How to start
Pick one data source. Usually the ERP or invoicing system that the first three KPIs come from.
Define each KPI in one sentence. What counts, what doesn't, which date applies. That sentence later appears as a note right on the dashboard.
Use your existing Excel report as the template. It shows which questions people already ask today.
Build one page, not three. The five numbers at the top, one chart each below.
Use it for two weeks, then extend it. Whatever nobody looked at after two weeks goes. Whatever was missing comes in.
If your data sits on a local server, that's no obstacle. The smartlife BI gateway reads the database where it is. Nothing has to be exported first or copied into someone else's cloud.
Rather have it done for you?
With the setup package “Your first dashboard in 5 days” we connect one data source, build your first dashboard together with you and hand it over with a 60-minute training. Fixed price €890 one-time, plus VAT.
Request a demo · Questions to support@smartlifebi.com
Read more: Replace Excel reporting · Finance dashboards