KPI dashboard: a template to copy, a worked example and how to keep it filled

A KPI dashboard is one screen that shows the handful of numbers that say whether the business is on track, each next to its target and its recent trend. The useful ones hold five to ten KPIs, one per goal, refreshed on a fixed schedule from the systems where the data lives. Below is a template, a filled-in example and a way to keep it current without exporting anything by hand.

The template

Start with a definitions table, because a KPI nobody can define gets argued about instead of acted on:

| KPI | Definition and formula | Source | Owner | Cadence | Target | Better when |
|-----|------------------------|--------|-------|---------|--------|-------------|
|     |                        |        |       |         |        | Higher / Lower |

Then the dashboard itself, one row per KPI:

| KPI | This week | Last week | Change | Target | 6-week trend | Status |
|-----|----------:|----------:|-------:|-------:|--------------|--------|
|     |           |           |        |        |              | On track / Watch / Off track |

In Google Sheets, the trend column can be a sparkline over the last six values, such as =SPARKLINE(B2:G2). In a doc, write the six values out.

Example: a KPI dashboard for a small software company

Two rows say Watch. Trial conversion fell below target for the first time in six weeks, and active users are growing, but not fast enough to reach 5,000 this month. That is the job of a KPI dashboard: on Monday the team discusses two numbers, not twelve.

How to choose your KPIs

• One KPI per goal. If the goal is "grow revenue efficiently", MRR and gross margin cover it; ten revenue charts add nothing.
• Mix leading and lagging. MRR and churn report the past; trials, activation and pipeline predict next month. A dashboard of only lagging numbers reports problems too late to act on.
• Write the formula down. "Active user" and "churn" each have several honest definitions. Pick one, record it in the definitions table, and keep it. The MRR and churn pages show the common formulas.
• Give each KPI an owner, the person who explains the number when it moves.
• Match the cadence to how fast you can act. Weekly for sales, product and support; monthly for margin and runway; daily only for problems you would fix the same day, such as failed payments.
• Show a target and a status. A number without a target invites "is that good?"; a status word answers it.

Leave out vanity numbers, like all-time signups or page views without context, and anything nobody would change a plan over.

Keep it filled with agents

Dashboards die when filling them is a chore. Each KPI above lives in one system, and an agent skill can read it there on a schedule:

• Weekly founder metrics: MRR from Stripe, sessions from Google Analytics and weekly active users from PostHog, every Monday, each with its change.
• Stripe weekly MRR report: MRR with net new MRR split into new, expansion, contraction and churn.
• Google Sheets KPI tracker report: if your KPIs already live in a spreadsheet, it checks each one against its target every Friday and flags rows nobody updated.

To fill the table in one go, give your agent the template and the rules:

Every Monday, read MRR from Stripe, new trials and weekly active users from PostHog, and median first response time from Intercom for the last 7 days. Fill this KPI table: [paste it]. Add this week, last week, the change and a status against these targets: [targets]. Mark a KPI Watch when it is within 5% of its target on the wrong side, and Off track when it is further away.

Each skill posts a metric card to your Briefkin board, and the board keeps every value it receives, so each card carries its own history chart. Side by side, those cards work as a KPI dashboard that refreshes on its own schedule, with no exports and no copy and paste.