A client recently showed us his accounting dashboard. It had 47 metrics on it. Forty-seven. Charts, graphs, trend lines, ratios, and percentages covering every corner of his screen.
"How often do you look at this?" we asked.
"Honestly? Almost never. It is overwhelming."
That is the problem with more data. It does not automatically lead to better decisions. In fact, it often leads to paralysis. After working with hundreds of small businesses, we have distilled financial tracking down to seven numbers that actually matter.
1. Revenue Growth Rate
What it tells you: Is your business expanding, stagnating, or declining?
Calculate it: (Current period revenue minus prior period revenue) divided by prior period revenue, times 100.
Track monthly with a year-over-year comparison to remove seasonality. Growth is good, but context matters. Twenty percent growth fueled by unsustainable spending is not healthy growth.
2. Gross Profit Margin
What it tells you: How efficiently you deliver your product or service.
Calculate it: (Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold) divided by Revenue, times 100.
Healthy ranges: Service businesses 50-70%. Restaurants 55-65%. Contractors 35-50%. If this number is declining, you are either underpricing or your direct costs are rising faster than your revenue.
3. Net Profit Margin
What it tells you: What you actually keep after everything is paid.
Calculate it: Net income divided by revenue, times 100.
Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity. You can have $2 million in revenue and still lose money. This tells the real story.
4. Current Ratio
What it tells you: Can you pay your short-term bills?
Calculate it: Current assets divided by current liabilities.
Below 1.0 means you owe more in the short term than you can cover. That is a crisis. Target 1.5-2.0.
5. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
What it tells you: How long it takes to collect after you deliver work.
Calculate it: (Accounts receivable divided by revenue) times the number of days in the period.
Every day of improvement puts real cash in your account. Under 30 days is healthy. Over 45 means your collections need attention.
6. Cash Runway
What it tells you: How long you can survive if revenue stopped tomorrow.
Calculate it: Cash on hand divided by monthly operating expenses.
Target 3-6 months minimum. Seasonal businesses should lean toward the higher end.
7. Revenue Per Employee
What it tells you: How efficiently your team generates revenue.
Calculate it: Annual revenue divided by full-time equivalent headcount.
This helps you understand when to hire and whether new hires are generating returns. Benchmarks vary by industry, but tracking the trend matters more than hitting a specific number.
Build Your Dashboard in 15 Minutes
You do not need fancy software. A single spreadsheet with these seven numbers, updated monthly, gives you more actionable insight than any 47-metric dashboard. Add columns for prior month and same month last year. Color code green for improving, yellow for flat, and red for declining.
Then spend 15 minutes at the beginning of each month actually reviewing it. That discipline alone puts you ahead of most business owners.