Revenue
Month, YTD versus plan, and recurring or contracted revenue - so growth is measured against the operating plan, not last month's mood.
Resource module
Executive KPI Dashboard Template
One page, nine areas, one honest view of the business. Financial performance sits beside delivery, people, AI adoption, cybersecurity, and compliance - with target, actual, trend, red/yellow/green, owner, and the action if off-track.
Formatted as a single landscape page. Edit the Word version to swap in your own metrics, targets, and data sources, then keep the structure fixed so periods stay comparable.
Profit
Gross margin, operating income, and cash on hand with runway. Revenue without margin and cash context is a vanity number.
Pipeline
Qualified pipeline value, coverage ratio against the remaining plan gap, and win rate with cycle length.
Delivery
On-time delivery, count of engagements off plan, and rework hours - the leading indicator of margin erosion.
Customer satisfaction
NPS or CSAT with response rate, escalations past their commitment date, and retention or renewal rate.
Employee utilization
Billable utilization, open roles and time to fill, and rolling voluntary turnover.
AI adoption
Active users of approved tools, use cases in production, and validated hours or cost saved. Adoption is a number, not an anecdote.
Cybersecurity
MFA and SSO coverage, critical vulnerabilities open past SLA, and phishing simulation failure rate.
Compliance
Findings open or overdue, required training completion, and policies past their review date.
How to implement it
Four steps to a dashboard people trust.
- 1
Assign an owner to every line before your first review - an unowned KPI is a slide, not a metric.
- 2
Set targets and fill in the definition and data source column so the number means the same thing every period.
- 3
Complete it on the same day each period and keep the prior value visible; the trend is the conversation.
- 4
In the review, spend time only on red and yellow lines and require a named action with a date.
Dashboard rules
What keeps it useful.
- One page, nine areas - if it does not fit, it is a department report, not an executive dashboard.
- Every KPI has a definition and a data source, so it cannot be quietly redefined.
- Red, yellow, green is assigned against the target, not against how the week felt.
- Off-track lines carry an action and an owner before the meeting ends.
- Non-financial risk - AI adoption, cybersecurity, compliance - sits on the same page as revenue.
Put it on a cadence
A dashboard only works if something reviews it.
Build the weekly and monthly cadence with the Operating Rhythm Framework, run the meetings with the Executive Meeting Toolkit, and prepare for them with the CEO Weekly Planning Worksheet.
Disclaimer
Nothing on this page or in any accompanying template, assessment, checklist, or report constitutes legal, financial, or compliance advice. These materials are general-purpose starting points drawn from professional experience. Review all information thoroughly against your own internal needs, company structure, contractual obligations, and regulatory environment, and have your legal counsel review anything you adopt before you rely on it.