CFO Selections Team, on Jul 12, 2023
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help measure the performance and effectiveness of different areas within a company. KPIs are very specific to each industry and company. The best KPIs will depend on the company's specific goals and objectives. In a manufacturing context.
Here are some widely used KPIs:
CFO Selections Team, on Oct 25, 2017
With so many variables across industries and business life stages to consider, a one-size-fits-all approach to KPIs will never succeed.
The most important metrics are those most closely related to what investors expect. For private companies this means tracking the KPIs that owners and financers need to make sound decisions. While the specifics can vary between businesses, the common thread is analyzing metrics which can inform short-term and long-term operations.
Overarching business goals such as profitability or liquidity will also influence KPI choices because KPIs can address different business objectives.
Knowing which KPIs to track is the first step towards financial awareness, but the real goal is to use that awareness to monitor the health of your business and inform intelligent business decisions. Business owners and top-level executives must understand how to use KPIs to formulate a financial analysis that is accurate, actionable, and predictive.
These KPIs should be provided by finance and/or accounting personnel to help bridge the knowledge gap at all levels of an organization. Transparency among business groups regarding key metrics is one of the most commonly recognized ways to effectively monitor business health and meet short and long-term business objectives.
Key performance indicators (KPI) are a set of quantifiable measures a company uses to gauge its performance over time. KPIs provide a way to measure how well companies, business units, projects or individuals are performing relative to their strategic and operational goals. KPIs can also compare a company's finances and performance against other businesses within its industry.
KPIs can help to reduce the complex nature of organizational performance to a small, manageable number of key indicators which are crucial to decision making and ultimately, to improving performance.
There are many, many KPI’s for every kind of organization. The following are illustrations of some of the more common and ubiquitous metrics.
Insights to better understand key performance indicators.
