Skip to content

Management dashboards and reporting

Ask the same question and the sales spreadsheet gives one number while the accounting report gives another, and the meeting is spent working out which one is right. If no one has written down what each figure means and where it comes from, a new dashboard just moves that debate to another screen. Krafera builds the dashboard by first writing down where each figure comes from and what it measures.

Figures scattered across systems

When figures sit separately in the sales screen, the accounting software, and spreadsheets, the month-end report depends on someone adding them up one by one. In a setup like that, “did last month's change work?” can go unanswered too.

What gets checked at the source of the figures

  • Which figures management looks at, and for which decisions
  • Which systems those figures come from, and whether those systems can share data
  • Who prepares the report, how long it takes, and which steps it involves
  • Whether figures with the same name are defined differently in different places
  • What the written proposal could use as criteria: manual work going into the report, how current the dashboard is, the share of metrics with a written definition, and whether the dashboard is in use

The form of the dashboard and summaries

The first piece of a management dashboard is a one-page metric glossary that defines each figure and names its source; sometimes that page is enough on its own. Where more is needed, Krafera adds the steps below in order, and the dashboard stays as current as the source systems allow.

  1. A metric glossary, plus setting up the built-in report screens in the software you already use
  2. A one-page management dashboard fed by data connections or regular exports from the source systems, with its upkeep defined in the proposal
  3. Weekly and monthly summaries generated from the same record, with a before-and-after comparison of a change where useful
Example drawing, two states. Today: figures sit in a few scattered clusters, and one is at the edge of the crowd, left out of the reports. After setup: the same dots line up in the rows of a shared record and flow into columns inside a frame. The columns don't show real data.

Possible deliverables for reporting

  • A metric glossary: what each figure means, where it comes from, and how often it updates
  • Data connections or regular exports from the source systems
  • A one-page management dashboard
  • Weekly and monthly summaries
  • A short guide to reading the dashboard

Limits on data accuracy and scope

  • You decide which figures go on the dashboard and how they're defined; Krafera suggests definitions.
  • Krafera doesn't audit accounting data; that's the job of your accountant or auditor.
  • The dashboard shows profit and cost figures only as accurately as the source data allows.
  • If a source system can't share data, the dashboard is fed by manual exports and is only as current as those exports.
  • The dashboard favors totals wherever it can, and details about individuals stay in the source system, with Turkey's data protection law (KVKK) in mind.
  • Krafera sets up connections with the narrowest access needed and doesn't ask for shared passwords.

The figure that gets argued over most in your meetings may be where the dashboard starts.

Request a call about your priority