Executive dashboards: Which metrics should you track and why? | Geckoboard blog
You want to grow and strengthen your company, but you can’t do that if all of your important data is buried in spreadsheets or held by dozens of different people across the organization.
Uncover key information with an executive dashboard. This display provides an overview of your most essential company metrics on a single screen, so you can easily get the insights you need to make crucial decisions. No more wasting time digging through different reports.
We’ve picked out eight of the most important metrics that company leaders should track on their dashboards to monitor key business objectives.
1. Monthly recurring revenue
Who should track: SaaS and subscription companies
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is the amount of revenue that your company expects to receive each month:
MRR = Average revenue per customer * total number of active customers
It's one of the most important metrics for subscription businesses, which must track MRR to predict cash flow and understand their company's financial health.
This example CEO dashboard in Geckoboard puts MRR right at the center...
On your executive dashboard, you could track MRR as a single metric to get an overview of your monthly revenue, or you could split it into categories to see how different areas of the business are performing:
- MRR gained from new customers
- MRR gained from upsells and account expansions
- MRR lost through customer churn
- MRR lost from downgrades and account contractions
2. Gross MRR churn rate
Who should track: SaaS and subscription companies
Gross MRR churn rate is the percentage of total monthly recurring revenue lost from customers that canceled or paused their contracts. It lets you see the financial impact of lost customers and downgrades on the company.
Gross MRR churn rate (%) = (Total amount of lost revenue / MRR at the start of the month) * 100
Track gross churn on your executive dashboard to give yourself a clear idea of how many customers are leaving your business.
Need a primer on calculating churn? We’ve got an in-depth article on MRR churn rate.
3. Revenue per customer
Who should track: All companies
Revenue per customer is the average amount of revenue you generate from each customer. Tracking this over time will help you understand if you’re generating more or less revenue from each customer.
- Ecommerce and transactional companies: Track average order value
- SaaS or subscription companies: Track average revenue per account ( ARPA)
4. Burn rate
Who should track: Startups
Burn rate is how much money your startup spends in a month:
Burn rate = Total cash at the start of the month - Total cash at the end of the month
5. Cash runway
Who should track: Startups
Cash runway measures how long your money will last:
Cash runway (months) = Cash balance ($) / Monthly burn rate (S)
6. Customer retention over time
Who should track: SaaS and subscription businesses
Track customer retention on your executive dashboard to gauge the health of your subscription business.
7. Number of customers
Who should track: All companies
Tracking the number of customers over time helps you see whether you’re gaining or losing customers overall.
8. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score
Who should track: All companies
CSAT is the percentage of customer satisfaction survey responses that are positive:
CSAT (%) = (Number of positive responses / Total number of responses) * 100
Create an executive dashboard that helps you make your best decisions
An executive dashboard’s design should make it easy to see your company’s most important metrics. When designing your dashboard, less is more: a cluttered dashboard is difficult to read.
Download our dashboard design guide to learn the best practices for creating a clear and easy-to-understand dashboard.