Every business intelligence consultant will tell you to "track the metrics that matter." Helpful advice—except it doesn't tell you which metrics actually matter for your specific business.
The truth is, the KPIs that drive a retail operation are completely different from those that drive a consultancy. A manufacturer needs visibility into production efficiency; a recruitment agency needs to track candidate pipelines. Generic dashboard advice leads to generic dashboards that nobody uses.
Here's what actually matters, broken down by sector.
Professional Services: Consultancies, Agencies, Accountants
Your business runs on people's time. If they're not billing, you're not earning. These metrics keep professional services firms healthy:
Utilisation rate is the percentage of available hours that are billable. Target 70-80%. Below 65% means you're overstaffed or underselling. Above 85% means burnout is coming and quality will suffer.
Revenue per employee tells you whether your team is productive. Compare it month over month and against industry benchmarks. Declining revenue per head often signals pricing problems or scope creep.
Work in progress (WIP) shows unbilled time and disbursements. Too much WIP means cash is trapped in work you haven't invoiced yet. Track WIP ageing—anything over 30 days should trigger an invoice or a writeoff decision.
Pipeline by stage for new business. How much is at proposal stage? Verbal agreement? Contract negotiation? If your pipeline is thin at the top, you have a marketing problem. If deals stall at proposal, you have a conversion problem.
Client concentration reveals risk. If one client represents 30%+ of revenue, you're vulnerable. Track your top-five client dependency and actively work to diversify.
Retail and E-Commerce
Retail is a margins game. Small improvements in conversion or basket size compound dramatically. These metrics matter most:
Sales per square foot (for physical retail) or revenue per visitor (for e-commerce) tells you how efficiently you're using your space or traffic. Compare across locations or time periods.
Gross margin by product category reveals which parts of your range make money. Many retailers discover their best-selling lines have the worst margins when properly analysed by a data analytics agency.
Stock turn measures how quickly inventory moves. Slow-moving stock ties up cash and warehouse space. Fast turn means efficient buying. Track by category and set minimum thresholds.
Customer acquisition cost vs lifetime value determines whether your marketing spend makes sense. If it costs £50 to acquire a customer worth £40, you're destroying value with every sale.
Basket size and items per transaction indicate upselling effectiveness. Track trends over time—declining basket size often signals a merchandising or pricing problem.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing dashboards focus on production efficiency and quality. Every minute of downtime and every defective unit costs money:
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) combines availability, performance, and quality into a single score. World-class is 85%+; most SME manufacturers run 60-70%. Small OEE improvements drive significant profit gains.
Scrap and rework rate shows quality issues as a percentage of output. Track by machine, shift, and product. Rising scrap often indicates equipment problems or training gaps.
On-time delivery measures whether you're meeting customer commitments. Track both by order count and by value—a few late large orders might hide behind good averages.
Capacity utilisation shows how much of your production capability you're using. Too low means fixed costs are spread thin. Too high means no buffer for rush orders or equipment failure.
Construction and Trades
Project-based businesses need visibility into job profitability and pipeline:
Gross margin by project is essential. Many construction businesses quote jobs profitably but finish them at a loss due to scope creep, material price changes, or labour overruns. Track actual vs quoted margin on every job.
Labour cost per £ of revenue shows whether you're pricing labour correctly. Rising labour cost ratio means quotes aren't keeping pace with wage inflation.
Project pipeline by value and stage forecasts workload. Construction has long lead times—you need visibility six to twelve months out to make hiring and equipment decisions.
Hospitality
Restaurants, hotels, and leisure businesses manage perishable inventory and variable demand:
Revenue per available seat hour (RevPASH) for restaurants or revenue per available room (RevPAR) for hotels. These combine price and utilisation into a single efficiency metric.
Food cost percentage (for restaurants) should typically run 28-32% of food revenue. Track weekly—it's too easy for food costs to creep up through waste, theft, or portion drift.
Labour cost percentage is your other major controllable expense. Track by day and daypart to optimise scheduling.
Building Your Dashboard
A good Power BI agency, business intelligence consultancy, or data analytics partner in London or across the UK will help you identify the right metrics for your specific situation. The KPIs above are starting points, not comprehensive lists.
Start with five metrics—the ones that would tell you the most about your business health if you could only see five numbers. Build dashboards around those. Add complexity gradually as you prove the value.
The best dashboard is the one your team actually uses. That usually means fewer metrics, not more.