Blog · Board and management reporting
Sixty KPI examples grouped by team: finance, sales, customer and account, planning and FP&A, operations, procurement, marketing and service, each with its formula. Eight are worked from one quarter's figures, and the last section covers how to choose four to six for a dashboard.
KPI examples worth copying have three things in common: a formula anyone can rebuild, a target, and an owner who acts on it. Below are 60 sample KPIs grouped by team, each with its formula, and eight of them worked from one quarter's figures. No team needs all sixty; pick four to six per team.
A key performance indicator is a metric chosen because it tracks a goal. To earn the name it needs five things: the goal it serves, an exact formula, a target, an owner, and a review frequency. Revenue is a metric; revenue against a quarterly quota, owned by the sales VP and reviewed weekly, is a KPI. The full distinction is in KPI vs metric vs measure.
Public companies face the same test in their filings. The SEC's 2003 MD&A guidance says companies should discuss "key performance indicators, including non-financial performance indicators, that their management uses to manage the business." Its 2020 guidance on KPIs expects "a clear definition of the metric and how it is calculated" alongside each one. That is a good standard inside a company too.
One quarter of 90 days, in USD: revenue 3,600,000; cost of goods sold 2,340,000; operating expenses 900,000; closing receivables 1,800,000; sales and marketing spend 540,000; 400 customers at the start, 30 new, 14 lost; open pipeline for next quarter 10,800,000 against a quota of 3,600,000; 120 deals closed, 42 of them won.
Gross margin = (Revenue − COGS) / Revenue
DSO = Receivables / Revenue × days in period
CAC = Sales and marketing spend / New customers
| KPI | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | (3,600,000 − 2,340,000) / 3,600,000 = 1,260,000 / 3,600,000 | 35.0% |
| Operating margin | (1,260,000 − 900,000) / 3,600,000 = 360,000 / 3,600,000 | 10.0% |
| Days sales outstanding | 1,800,000 / 3,600,000 × 90 | 45 days |
| Customer acquisition cost (USD) | 540,000 / 30 | 18,000 |
| Customer churn (quarter) | 14 / 400 | 3.5% |
| Pipeline coverage | 10,800,000 / 3,600,000 | 3.0x |
| Win rate | 42 / 120 | 35.0% |
| Net customer growth | (30 − 14) / 400 | 4.0% |
DSO uses 90 days because the revenue is one quarter's; with a year's revenue, use 365. Churn and net customer growth share a denominator, the 400 customers at the start, so they reconcile: 400 + 30 − 14 = 416 customers at the end, and 416 / 400 − 1 = 4.0%. Operating income of $360,000 is gross profit of $1,260,000 less $900,000 of operating expenses; if those two figures do not tie to the P&L, the margins are built on different numbers.
| KPI | Formula |
|---|---|
| Revenue growth | (This period revenue − Prior period revenue) / Prior period revenue |
| Gross margin | (Revenue − COGS) / Revenue |
| Operating margin | Operating income / Revenue |
| EBITDA margin | EBITDA / Revenue |
| Net margin | Net income / Revenue |
| Days sales outstanding (DSO) | Receivables / Revenue × days |
| Days payable outstanding (DPO) | Payables / COGS × days |
| Days inventory outstanding (DIO) | Inventory / COGS × days |
| Cash conversion cycle | DSO + DIO − DPO |
| Working capital | Current assets − Current liabilities |
| Budget variance | Actual − Budget, and as % of budget |
| Free cash flow (USD) | Operating cash flow − Capital expenditure |
| KPI | Formula |
|---|---|
| Revenue vs quota | Revenue / Quota |
| Win rate | Deals won / (Deals won + Deals lost) |
| Pipeline coverage | Open pipeline / Remaining quota |
| Average deal size (USD) | Won revenue / Deals won |
| Sales cycle (days) | Average of close date − created date, won deals |
| Sales velocity (USD per day) | Opportunities × Win rate × Average deal size / Sales cycle days |
| Quote conversion | Quotes accepted / Quotes issued |
| Price realization | Realized price / List price |
| New logos | Count of customers with a first order in the period |
| Revenue per rep (USD) | Revenue / Quota-carrying reps |
| Discount rate | (List value − Invoiced value) / List value |
| Forecast bias | (Forecast − Actual) / Actual, signed |
Exact definitions, including which deals count as closed, are in sales analytics KPI definitions.
| KPI | Formula |
|---|---|
| Customer churn | Customers lost / Customers at start |
| Net revenue retention | Revenue from start cohort this period / Same cohort's revenue a year earlier |
| Gross revenue retention | Same as NRR, with each customer capped at last year's revenue |
| Share of wallet | Customer's spend with you / Customer's total spend in the category |
| Account coverage | Accounts contacted or buying in period / Accounts assigned |
| Dormancy rate | Accounts with no order in N days / Active accounts |
| Customer concentration | Revenue from top 10 customers / Total revenue |
| Customer lifetime value (USD) | Annual gross profit per customer / Annual churn rate |
| KPI | Formula |
|---|---|
| Forecast accuracy | 1 − abs(Actual − Forecast) / Actual |
| Plan attainment | Actual / Plan, per line |
| Headcount vs plan | Actual FTEs − Planned FTEs |
| Cost per FTE (USD) | Total employee cost / Average FTEs |
| Revenue per employee (USD) | Revenue / Average FTEs |
| Variance explained | Variance attributed to named drivers / Total variance |
| KPI | Formula |
|---|---|
| OTIF | Orders delivered on time and in full / Orders delivered |
| Fill rate | Units shipped on first shipment / Units ordered |
| Inventory turnover | COGS / Average inventory |
| Weeks of cover | Inventory on hand / Average weekly usage |
| Lead-time variability | Standard deviation of supplier lead time, in days |
| Capacity utilization | Actual output / Available capacity |
| Cost to serve (USD) | Delivery, handling and service cost / Orders or customers |
| Order cycle time (days) | Average of delivery date − order date |
| Team | KPI | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Procurement | Spend under management | Spend through approved contracts / Total addressable spend |
| Procurement | Savings realized (USD) | (Baseline price − Actual price) × Actual volume |
| Procurement | Payment terms compliance | Invoices paid on agreed terms / Invoices paid |
| Procurement | Supplier OTIF | Supplier deliveries on time and in full / Deliveries |
| Procurement | Maverick spend | Spend outside contracts or approved suppliers / Total spend |
| Marketing | Customer acquisition cost (USD) | Sales and marketing spend / New customers |
| Marketing | Lead-to-opportunity rate | Leads converted to opportunities / Leads |
| Marketing | Cost per lead (USD) | Marketing spend / Leads |
| Marketing | Marketing-sourced pipeline (USD) | Value of opportunities created from marketing leads |
| Marketing | CAC payback (months) | CAC / Monthly gross profit per new customer |
| Service | First-contact resolution | Cases resolved on first contact / Cases |
| Service | SLA attainment | Cases resolved within SLA / Cases |
| Service | Repeat contact rate | Customers contacting again within 7 days / Customers contacting |
| Service | CSAT | Satisfied responses / Survey responses |
That makes 12 + 12 + 8 + 6 + 8 + 14 = 60. Sector-specific sets, for distributors, banks or software companies, are in KPIs by industry.
Pick four to six per audience, and give each a comparison: against target, against last year, or against plan. A number on its own invites no decision. Mix lagging measures (revenue, margin, churn) with leading ones that move earlier (pipeline coverage, quote conversion, dormancy), as set out in leading vs lagging indicators in sales. For the board, the subset in ten board metrics for a sales-led company is a tested starting point, and an Excel dashboard shows how to lay four of them out on one page.
Covirage computes each KPI from the uploaded files with versioned definitions, so the formula behind every figure is stated and stable; the external AI model explains movements and never calculates the KPI itself. Upload your files and get the KPIs computed, compared and explained in a board deck with every number cited: board reporting. For the finance set in detail, see financial KPIs, and for a ready layout, the KPI dashboard template.
There is no fixed five. A common finance set is revenue growth, gross margin, operating margin, cash conversion cycle and forecast accuracy; a sales set is revenue against quota, pipeline coverage, win rate, average deal size and churn. Choose by the decisions your team makes.
Days sales outstanding is a good example: a clear formula (receivables / revenue x days), an owner (the collections team), a target (for instance within ten days of payment terms), and a decision it drives (who to chase). A KPI without those four is just a metric.
A metric is any measured quantity. A KPI is a metric chosen because it tracks progress toward a specific goal, and it has a target, an owner and a review cadence. Every KPI is a metric; most metrics are not KPIs.
Usually four to six at the level a leader reviews each week or month. More than that dilutes attention. Supporting metrics can sit underneath for diagnosis, but they should not all be headline KPIs.