What should a small business dashboard show?
A small business operations dashboard should fit on one screen and show what came in, what is being done, what was won and what is owed. That means new inquiries and where they came from, how fast you replied, jobs booked and in progress, inquiries won, lost or still open, money invoiced and still unpaid, and how much capacity you have left. Leave off numbers that change no decision.
What belongs on the screen
| Number | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| New inquiries, by source | Is work arriving, and from where? Sources: search, AI answer, social, referral, paid, email, campaign or direct. A returning customer counts as direct. |
| Time to first reply | How long does a new customer wait to hear from you? |
| Jobs booked | What is on the calendar? |
| Jobs in progress | What is being worked on now, and is anything stuck? |
| Won, lost or still open | What happened to the inquiries you received? |
| Money invoiced | What have you billed? |
| Money outstanding | What billed work is still unpaid, and for how long? |
| Capacity | How many open appointment slots or crew hours are left in the next few weeks? |
What to leave off
- Followers, likes, reach and raw visits. The related answer on vanity metrics explains why these can rise while inquiries fall.
- Marketing detail, such as what each source cost and what changed this month. That belongs in a marketing report; the related answer on what a marketing report should show covers it.
- Anything nobody acts on. If a number never leads to a decision, remove it.
- Anything you cannot trace back to your own records.
- Several charts of the same thing. One clear number usually beats three versions of it.
How often to look
These are starting points. A business with few jobs may need only the weekly look.
| How often | What to check |
|---|---|
| Daily | New inquiries nobody has answered yet, today's jobs, anything overdue. |
| Weekly | Won, lost and still open, unpaid invoices, and capacity for the coming weeks. |
| Monthly | Totals against last month and the mix of sources. |
Where the numbers come from
Each number should come from a place where every inquiry and job is recorded as it happens. A spreadsheet can do this at first; the related answer on CRMs covers when a spreadsheet is enough and what a customer record should hold.
Spot-check a few numbers against the original bookings and invoices. If the screen needs scrolling, remove something. A dashboard you do not trust can soon stop being opened.
Related answers
- What should a marketing report show a small business owner?
- What are vanity metrics, and which numbers should a small business care about?
- What is a CRM, and does a small business need one?
Custom software and apps
Off-the-shelf tools get you most of the way. When the last stretch is where the time goes, we build the part that fits: the dashboard, the portal, the internal tool or the app.