Owners tend to drown in reports or fly on instinct. Neither works as the business grows. A good dashboard is small: a dozen numbers, reviewed on the same day each week, each linked to a decision. If a number never leads to an action, remove it. Here are twelve that fit most UAE trading, contracting and service companies, with how to calculate them.
Cash and money owed
- Cash position: bank and cash balances today, plus the next four weeks of expected receipts and payments. Decision: do we need to chase, delay or borrow?
- Overdue receivables: total invoices past due, and the biggest five customers. Decision: who do I call? See credit control and cheque management.
- Days sales outstanding (DSO): receivables divided by credit sales, multiplied by days in the period. Target: close to your standard terms.
- Payables due this week and this month, including post-dated cheques issued. Decision: which payments are critical?
Sales and profit
- Sales this week and month to date against last year and against budget.
- Gross margin percentage: (sales less cost of sales) divided by sales. Watch it by product group and by customer, not only in total.
- Pipeline value and conversion: open quotations by stage, and the share that turn into orders. See CRM software.
- Top and bottom items or customers, by profit, not by sales.
Operations
- Stock days: inventory value divided by cost of sales per day. Rising stock days mean cash is trapped on shelves. See inventory valuation.
- On-time delivery rate: deliveries made by the promised date divided by total deliveries. A direct measure of customer trust.
- Open orders and backlog, by age, with the oldest ones listed.
People and compliance
- Staff cost as a percentage of sales, plus a list of visas, licences and insurance expiring within 60 days. See expiry tracking.
Variations by business type
| Business | Swap in |
|---|---|
| Contractor | Cost to complete and margin by project; unapproved variations; retention held and due |
| Consulting or agency | Billable utilisation; unbilled time; average hourly rate achieved |
| Retail | Sales per branch and per square metre; basket size; shrinkage |
| Clinic or school | Appointments or enrolments; no-show or drop-out rate; collection rate |
Layout on one screen
- Top row: cash, overdue receivables, sales to date, margin. Four large numbers with a colour for good, watch or action.
- Middle: two charts: sales against budget by month; receivables ageing by bucket.
- Bottom: short lists: top five overdue customers, items with stock days over target, orders overdue for delivery, documents expiring.
Each number should link to the detail behind it, so a question is answered in two clicks.
Make the routine stick
- Pick one weekday and a 30-minute slot.
- Review numbers first, then decide three actions with owners and dates.
- Start the next meeting by checking those actions.
- Review the list of KPIs every quarter and remove anything that has not driven a decision.
What your system needs
A dashboard is only as good as the data under it. That means invoices, payments, stock movements and quotations recorded in the system on the day they happen. If your numbers come from spreadsheets assembled on Thursday night, the dashboard will always be wrong by Friday. See ERP software in the UAE and the month-end close checklist. We build dashboards inside ERP systems shaped around the numbers each owner actually uses.