What numbers should be on a small business dashboard?

A small business dashboard should carry only the numbers the owner would change a decision over, usually six to eight: cash on hand and due, open pipeline, jobs in progress, margin by line, stock on hand, and one or two that are specific to the trade. Anything more becomes a report nobody reads.

Can the dashboard read from our accounting software?

The dashboard reads from QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zoho Books directly, and from most point-of-sale and CRM systems by API. Where a system will only export a file, the dashboard reads the export on a schedule. The data read at the start confirms which.

Do we need a dashboard tool like Power BI or Looker?

A dashboard tool like Power BI or Looker is the right answer for a business with an analyst and many people who need different views. For one owner and a manager, a built screen with the right eight numbers is faster to use and cheaper to keep, and it can grow into a proper tool later.

The numbers you run the business on, on one screen, every morning

The numbers exist. They are in the point of sale, the accounting package, the CRM and a spreadsheet, and assembling them takes someone half a day. So it happens monthly, late, and by then the decision it would have informed has already been made by feel.

A reporting dashboard pulls the handful of numbers you actually decide with from the systems you already run and puts them on one screen every morning, built for a Southwest Florida owner in two to three weeks, scoped in writing, on your own accounts.

Send me the situation How it works

I read every one and reply within the day. When an off-the-shelf product covers it, I tell you which one and stop there.

Built from Fort Myers for Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties
A written scope and a fixed price before a line is written
Code in your repository, runbook and tests included
No vendor pays me, so build-or-buy is answered honestly

Twelve

companies operated, six of them his own, on software he built

790+

products in a catalogue that started at 105, run from one internal tool

15,868

records synced between two systems every run, zero failures

Thirty

live sites generated and shipped from one engine

What it costs to leave it

A business run on the bank balance and a feeling makes its worst decisions in its best months. Stock ordered because cash looked good. Staff hired because the phone was busy. The report that would have shown the margin was three weeks away from being built.

How reporting dashboard gets built here

The starting point

The report is defined once, with you: the six or eight numbers you would actually change a decision over. Cash, pipeline, jobs, margin, stock, whatever your business turns on.

The build

It reads from the systems directly. No exports, no formulas somebody edited. When a number is wrong, something is wrong, and that is useful.

What runs by itself

Every number links to the records behind it. A bad margin is two clicks from the job that caused it.

What you own

Thresholds warn you. Cash below a line, a job over budget, a pipeline gone quiet. The warning is often more valuable than the dashboard.

Scope and timing

A reporting dashboard is a two to three week build once the systems can be read, and it is the cheapest first project on this site. It includes the definition, the connections to your accounting, CRM, point of sale or job system, the screen, the alerts, and a month of tuning while you discover which numbers you actually look at. If your data does not agree with itself, that surfaces here, and a billing and collections or inventory build usually follows. A spreadsheet is the honest answer for a business with one system and one owner, and I say so when it is.

Straight answers

What numbers should be on a small business dashboard?: A small business dashboard should carry only the numbers the owner would change a decision over, usually six to eight: cash on hand and due, open pipeline, jobs in progress, margin by line, stock on hand, and one or two that are specific to the trade. Anything more becomes a report nobody reads.
Can the dashboard read from our accounting software?: The dashboard reads from QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zoho Books directly, and from most point-of-sale and CRM systems by API. Where a system will only export a file, the dashboard reads the export on a schedule. The data read at the start confirms which.
Do we need a dashboard tool like Power BI or Looker?: A dashboard tool like Power BI or Looker is the right answer for a business with an analyst and many people who need different views. For one owner and a manager, a built screen with the right eight numbers is faster to use and cheaper to keep, and it can grow into a proper tool later.

The same tool, by trade

Precious metalsMetals dealers, coin shops, refiners and vault operators running the counter on a point-of-sale, a pricing spreadsheet and a filing cabinet.Luxury retailJewelers, watch dealers and galleries whose client book is a salesperson's notebook and whose repairs live on paper tickets.ConstructionContractors and trades estimating from a price list in a spreadsheet, scheduling on a whiteboard and invoicing from memory.Legal servicesSmall law firms and referral groups whose intake is an email inbox and whose practice software stops at the matter.Real estateBrokerages, locators and property managers running transactions, commissions and lease dates across agents' private spreadsheets.

Usually built alongside it

Inventory systemOne count that is true, on a screen your staff will use, tied to what you sold and what it cost.Intake and schedulingEvery request captured once, put on the right calendar, and visible to everyone who needs it.Dispatch and job trackingEvery job from booked to paid on one board, with photos, notes and the crew's progress from the field.Billing and collectionsInvoices raised when the work happens, reminders on a schedule, and a cash position you can read on a Monday.

Shipped to businesses across Fort Myers · Naples · Cape Coral · Bonita Springs · Estero · Punta Gorda. What each market asks of a tool.

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