What are KPI dashboards?

KPI dashboards are tools that unite data sources and provide at-a-glance visual feedback showing how your business is performing against your key performance indicators (KPIs).

Try free

Benefits of a comprehensive KPI tool

KPI dashboards provide users with:

A fast, easy solution to trackKPIs and other business metrics.
A unified view of data that improves company health visibility.
Customizable data visualization with performance and status indicators.

By building your KPI dashboard with the same tool or platform that you use to define your KPIs, you’ll have everything you need in the same place. As you modify your KPI definitions, data sources, or targets, these updates will populate automatically into your dashboards—saving you valuable time and effort.

Create compelling data visualizations with Power BI

Keep your organization’s strategic goals on track—use Microsoft Power BI to build KPI dashboards, charts, and other interactive data visualizations that quickly provide decision makers with a unified view of data into company health.

What is a KPI?

A key performance indicator is a measurable value that shows how effectively you’re meeting your goals. Think of KPIs as your company’s scorecard, a way of measuring whether or not you’re delivering on your objectives.

Why KPIs matter

Tracking KPIs helps you stay on course—or pivot when needed—saving time and money. When used effectively, KPIs let you:

Monitor financial health
Track progress toward goals
Spot issues early
Adjust strategies in real time
Motivate your team
Make faster, smarter decisions

Choosing a KPI

To identify the right KPIs, start with clear strategic objectives, company-wide or by department. Choose KPIs that directly reflect those goals and can be measured accurately.

Set both short- and long-term targets and involve your team in refining them. Goals should be ambitious but achievable, and within the team’s control. Finally, assess your current position to establish a clear starting point.

What are the 4 main KPIs?

Identifying the right KPIs is easier when you understand the type of data analysis required to track and evaluate them effectively.

Quantitative KPIs are all about measurable facts that can be represented with a number. Think stats, percentages, and dollar signs.

Qualitative KPIs involve human interpretations and can’t be quantified with numbers. Think opinions, feelings, and experiences.

Lagging KPIs measure what’s already happened in the past to predict success or failure. Think of looking back at what you’ve already accomplished, or where you’ve struggled.

Leading KPIs measure performance to predict future success and long-term trends. Think of looking forward to where you’re headed.

Assign an owner and tracking frequency for each KPI within your KPI tool. Use the platform to collaboratively define each metric, capture contextual data, and unify everything into a single dashboard.

KPI dashboard examples

Effective KPI dashboards bring together all the KPIs you need to track your strategic goals, establishing a visual representation of all your relevant metrics side by side, in one place. Take a look at these KPI dashboard examples and consider some of the key associated metrics you’d likely want to track:

Marketing effectiveness

Keyword performance

Average time on page

Conversion rate

Average lead score

Website traffic lead ratio

Customer service

Customer satisfaction score

Cost per call

First response time

Customer retention rate

Average resolution time

Financial health

Profit and loss

Current ratio

Operating cash flow

Burn rate

Vendor expenses

IT performance

Mean time to repair

Server downtime

IT ROI

Unsolved tickets per employee

Projects delivered within budget

Create KPI dashboards for any of your business needs with just a few clicks

Understanding real time insight with KPI reporting

What is KPI reporting

KPI reports build on dashboard data by offering deeper insights and analysis. They help stakeholders spot trends, bottlenecks, and performance shifts over time to support better decision-making.

Common reporting topics include:

Operational insights

Financial performance vs. targets

Trends and patterns in the data

Strategic analysis for decision-making

Creating an effective KPI report

Define your audience and reporting goal (e.g., Q3 progress toward revenue targets)

Use report templates available in your KPI tool

Set a regular reporting cadence

Choose static or interactive formats based on audience needs

Focus only on relevant KPIs tied to your objective

Ensure the report is clear, concise, and actionable

Explore built-in KPI report templates that may already be included in your platform, such as Power BI Report Server

KPI best practices

To help you successfully harness the power of KPIs, we’ve compiled a few tips to get you started.

Identifying KPIs:

Only designate metrics as KPIs if they directly support your strategic objectives. While it’s important to track various business metrics, focus on those that truly move the needle.Make sure that there’s a core team responsible for defining them.

Monitoring KPIs:

Explore the data dashboards, charts, and templates in your KPI tool to choose those that best support your goals. Include baseline data to show performance over time, and set a clear monitoring cadence—daily, weekly, or otherwise—along with a plan for when and how to take action.

Using KPIs to drive action

Don’t just track KPIs, act on them. Whether you’re ahead or behind, your KPIs should inform decisions and prompt timely responses to stay aligned with your goals.

Bringing data to life with visuals can help businesses step into action

KPI dashboards that integrate with ERP systems can visualize real-time business data, turning complex operational metrics into actionable insights.

Bring your data to life with Microsoft Power BI

Make complex topics more compelling and accessible with eye-catching, interactive data visualizations tailored to your organization and industry.

How Microsoft Power BI aligns with your evolving business goals

As your business grows and priorities shift, Power BI evolves with you. Its scalable architecture supports everything from individual reporting needs to enterprise-level analytics, making it easy to adjust KPIs, dashboards, and data sources as your goals change.

Power BI Pro offers advanced sharing, collaboration, and publishing features for teams and organizations.

Learn more

Contact Sales

Chat with Sales

Available M-F 6 AM to 3 PM PT.

Chat now

Request we contact you

Have a Power BI sales expert contact you.

Send a request

Call Sales