KPI Report

Learn how to create KPI reports for quicker, data-driven decisions. This guide provides examples and practical advice to help you create a best-in-class KPI report of your own.

A laptop showing a KPI report of retail sales data on the monitor

What is a KPI Report?

A KPI report allows business leaders to quickly and easily review and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) and thereby know how their organization is performing against specific strategic goals. A modern KPI report uses interactive KPI dashboards with all the underlying data just a click away for deeper exploration. In this way, a KPI report makes it easy for even non-technical users to see trends, recognize relationships or uncover outliers in their data. These insights lead to actions and better business results.

KPI Report Examples and Templates

An effective KPI report streamlines data and showcases only the KPIs organizations or teams need to measure performance over time for specific strategic objectives. The examples below should help you create a best-in-class KPI report of your own.

Types of KPI Reports

Executive Report

A workforce diversity KPI report shows demographic data to optimize for inclusion.

Operational Report

A tactical kpi report tracks progress toward a goal, providing insight into whether and when further action is needed.

Tactical Report

An analytical KPI report provides a comprehensive view of business data to drive decision making.

Analytical Report

Don’t just measure. Measure what matters.

Download the KPI Planning Guide to learn:

  • 10 steps to strong KPIs

  • Which questions help you define your KPIs

  • 170 KPI examples and templates

KPI Report By Industry

A healthcare KPI report analyzes patient care and operations indicators to improve quality.

Healthcare Report

A financial services KPI report shows customer and team indicators to drive top-line growth while reducing costs.

Financial Services Report

A retail KPI report highlights relevant shopper engagement and associate performance indicators to maximize profits.

Retail Report

A manufacturing KPI report shows supply chain and operational efficiency indicators to optimize costs.

Manufacturing Report

A public sector KPI report shows citizen experience and regional indicators to gain efficiencies.

Public Sector Report

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KPI Report By Job Function

A financial services KPI report shows customer and team indicators to drive top-line growth while reducing costs.

Finance Report

A Human Resources KPI report shows employee engagement to maximize retention.

Human Resources Report

A Marketing KPI report shows Net Promoter Score and product group indicators to maximize loyalty.

Marketing Report

A Sales KPI report shows forecast and performance indicators to maximize sales.

Sales Report

Business Intelligence Dashboard - A supply chain KPI report shows complex data relationships to mitigate risk.

Supply Chain Report

KPI Report By Job Role

CMO Dashboards provide a real-time view of performance around KPIs across the entire marketing funnel.

A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) report shows performance across the entire marketing funnel to identify opportunities for improvement, featuring KPIs such as:

  • Total visits

  • Opportunities by quarter

  • Net-new logos by quarter

KPI Report By Initiative

A workforce diversity KPI report shows demographic data to optimize for inclusion.

A workforce diversity report shows demographic data by country to optimize for inclusion, featuring KPIs such as:

  • Employees by region

  • Workers by ethnicity

  • Salary by country

The Difference Between a KPI Report and a KPI Dashboard

An interactive KPI report which allows for exploration and analysis is very similar to a modern KPI dashboard. But a traditional KPI report, produced as a static document that is distributed to stakeholders, is quite different from an interactive dashboard.

Pros

Cons

Traditional, Static KPI Report

Simple for all stakeholders to review

Represents a snapshot in time which means data can be out of date

Does not allow for exploration

Interactive KPI Dashboard

Data is up to date (even real-time)

Users can explore the data deeper

Stakeholders need the confidence to explore the data on their own

How to prepare a KPI report: best practices

Creating a KPI report should be easier and more straightforward than it is. Because it’s not, these are some best practices:

  • Strategic assessment ­– Create a direct link between your KPIs and your goals so audiences can evaluate the success of the current strategy at a glance.

  • Glossary – Be sure to define all necessary terms in a glossary as well as KPI formulas in case external parties that may not understand the measures used will be consuming the report.

  • KPI relevance ­– Include an explanation about why the performance indicators used are relevant or valid as a measure of success to help audiences better process the information.

  • Future targets – Establish a forward-looking orientation that helps readers estimate the potential for success and provides a basis for assessing future performance.

  • Trend data ­– Use historical trend graphs to establish context so audiences grasp how much performance has improved or gotten worse over time, and to evaluate the success of existing strategies.

  • Benchmark – Provide a comparison of performance to set it in context and help readers understand positions.

Inspire Action With Your KPIs

10 ways to take your data visualizations to the next level. Learn how to choose the right ones to highlight your KPIs and metrics.

FAQs

Why is a KPI report important?

A KPI report is a critical business performance tool because they provide a clear and accurate picture of organizational performance, well-being, and potential for growth. These reports help authors communicate to specific audiences about how well parts of the business or initiatives are meeting objectives. They inspire action and investment. They enable management to identify potential opportunities and challenges early, evaluate the success of existing strategies, and fail fast, when necessary.

What are some different types of KPIs?

There are all kinds of KPIs, depending on business objectives. For example, financial KPIs such as revenue growth rate or net profit margin, sales KPIs such as net sales or sales by region, customer service KPIs such as Net Promoter Score or average resolution time, and marketing KPIs including traffic-to-lead ratio and cost per lead. There are also operational KPIs such as order fulfillment time and time to market. See all KPI examples.

See KPI Dashboards in Action