Two people reporting the same KPI with different definitions is worse than not reporting it, because the argument moves from the business to the arithmetic. This dictionary gives standard definitions for over forty finance KPIs, grouped by area, with an owner and a reporting frequency for each. Adopt the definitions, note any deliberate deviation, and publish it with your reporting pack. Pair it with our software category guides to see which tools fit your team. Once you have a shortlist, check the vendor profiles and the finance glossary for unfamiliar terms, then use our head-to-head comparisons before your first demo.
Built for: CFO, Controller, FP&A manager, AP manager, AR manager
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Pick a small set per audience. Board, executive team, and finance team need different KPIs. Choose eight to twelve for each audience rather than reporting all forty to everyone.
Fill a definition card for each KPI you adopt. Record exactly what is included and excluded, which system the numbers come from, and who owns it. Most KPI disputes are about inclusions, not formulas.
Name one owner per KPI. The owner is accountable for the number being right and for explaining movements. Shared ownership means nobody reconciles it.
Freeze definitions for the year. Change a definition only at a planned point, and restate prior periods when you do. A KPI that improves because its definition changed is noise.
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| KPI | Formula | What it tells you | Owner | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days to close | Business days from period end to books locked | Speed of the close; read with adjustments | Controller | Monthly |
| Post-close adjustments | Count and $ of entries after TB circulated | Quality of the close | Controller | Monthly |
More free templates finance teams use alongside this one.
Management reporting fails when the pack is long, late, and describes numbers without explaining them. This pack is built around a fixed structure that leadership learns to read quickly, a P&L that compares to both budget and prior year, and a three-part commentary framework: what happened, why, and what we are doing about it. It ships on a set business day every month.
A good board deck is a decision document, not a quarterly diary. Directors should be able to read it in advance, arrive knowing where the company stands against plan, and spend the meeting on the two or three questions that need their judgment. This outline gives each slide a purpose, the content that serves it, a chart that fits, and the mistake that most often undermines it.
The cash conversion cycle measures how many days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers: DSO plus DIO minus DPO. This calculator works it out for each period from figures you already have on the balance sheet and P&L, and shows the cash value of one day of DSO so improvements can be sized in dollars rather than days.
It depends on the audience. Boards usually focus on revenue growth, gross margin, operating or EBITDA margin, cash runway, and for SaaS companies ARR and net revenue retention. Finance teams add operational KPIs such as days to close, DSO, and forecast accuracy.
Take the ARR from customers at the start of the period, add expansion, subtract contraction and churn from those same customers, and divide by the starting ARR. New customers acquired during the period are excluded. It is usually reported on a trailing twelve-month basis.
DSO uses all receivables, while best possible DSO uses only current, not-yet-due receivables. The gap between them shows how many days of collection delay come from customers paying late rather than from your payment terms.
Net burn divided by net new ARR for the same period. A burn multiple of 2 means the company burned two dollars of cash for every dollar of net new ARR added. Lower is more efficient.
