Metric

A measure with a written definition: formula, sources, period, inclusions, level and the identity that checks it.

DefinitionA measure with a written definition: formula, sources, period, inclusions, level and the identity that checks it.

A metric is a computed number that two people would compute the same way from the same data. The definition is what makes it one: what is divided by what, from which export, over which period, including and excluding what, at which level, reconciling to what. Without it the number is a label, and meetings are spent on whose version is right.

How it is used

A number becomes a metric when its definition is written down: formula, source of each input, period, inclusions and exclusions, the level it is computed at, and the identity that checks it.

Example

Revenue per active account: net invoiced revenue over the trailing twelve months, divided by accounts with at least one invoice in that window, from the ledger, excluding intercompany.

Where it goes wrong

A label with no definition. Two analysts produce two numbers and the meeting is about which is right.

Articles that use this term

Data quality and reconciliation

A CRM data quality scorecard: five fields, five checks, one number per rep

How to score CRM data quality from the export rather than from complaints: five fields that every coverage and pipeline measure depends on, owner, close date, stage, activity date and account identifier, the check for each, the completeness and validity rate per rep, why the score is reported beside the measures that depend on it, and the rule that a measure computed on data under a stated score is shown greyed.

16 Sept 20263 min read Data quality and reconciliation

Account hierarchy: parents, subsidiaries and the level you actually sell to

How to build and use an account hierarchy for sales analytics: the levels that exist in most customers, group, legal entity, site, department, the one level where the buying decision is made and every measure is computed, the levels beneath kept as dimensions, the dated parent mapping that survives acquisitions, the identity that revenue sums identically at every level, and the two mistakes that produce forty customers where there is one and one where there are forty.

16 Sept 20263 min read Territory, capacity and quota planning

Activity and outcome measures: which belong in compensation, and which do not

Why paying reps on activity measures produces activity and paying them only on outcomes produces sandbagging, the three tests a measure passes before it goes into a plan, the rep controls it, it cannot be gamed by logging, and it reconciles to a ledger, which coverage and outcome measures pass, which fail, the coverage-at-cadence exception that passes all three, and the identity that every credited dollar in a plan is a ledger dollar once.

16 Sept 20263 min read How-to guides

Answer-first writing for commercial measures: the template behind every page on this site

The seven-part template every measure page on this site follows, and why: the answer in one paragraph, the formula in a line, the rows needed with identifiers only, one worked table, the roll-up and its identity, the four mistakes, and the three questions answered in full. What each part is for, the order and why it is fixed, the length each part gets, and how a company can use the same template for its own definitions document.

16 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Finance and FP&A teams

Bookings, billings and revenue: one reconciliation before anyone reports a number

Why sales, finance and the board each quote a different figure for the same quarter, the three definitions behind them, the bridge from bookings to billings to recognised revenue with the timing and the adjustments that separate them, the identity that ties the three together, and the governance rule that every report names which of the three it is showing.

16 Sept 20262 min read AI and self-service analytics

Citations on every number: what a citation from an analytics tool must contain

A number in a report or an assistant's answer is a claim until it carries a citation, and a citation has five parts: the table, the row, the period cut, the definition version, and the upload it was computed from. Why each part is there, what a reader does with it, the difference between a citation and a link, how a citation survives a re-upload, and the three shortcuts that turn a citation into decoration.

16 Sept 20263 min read