A monthly dashboard example for SMEs and startups: the complete template

When an owner asks me for a monthly dashboard example, they are not after yet another list of metrics. They want to see the finished page: which sections, in what order, with what numbers inside, and how to read it on a Monday morning between two meetings. That is what this article does. I build the dashboard of a fictional company line by line, then we read it together. The format holds up across the vast majority of SMEs and startups I work with, whatever the sector.

Format before content: one page, five sections, four columns

The first decision has nothing to do with which metrics to pick. It is the format. A monthly dashboard fits on a single page. No exceptions. If it spills over, you have a report, and nobody reads a report every month; I have seen carefully built ones end up in a folder nobody opened past March. The page splits into five sections, always in the same order, because the order carries the reading logic: survival first, then activity, then profitability, then explanation, finally decision.

• Section 1, cash: the bank balance, its monthly change, and the projected low point over the next three months. Four lines at most.
• Section 2, activity: revenue invoiced this month, the cumulative figure since January, and the signed order book. Three lines.
• Section 3, profitability: gross margin, payroll as a percentage of revenue, and cumulative EBITDA. Three to four lines.
• Section 4, customers and working capital: receivables, DSO, and any significant overdue invoices. Three lines.
• Section 5, alerts and decisions: three written sentences, not numbers. What worries you, what is decided, what to watch.

Every numeric line reads across four columns: the month just closed, the budget for that same month, the previous month, and the same month last year. Those four columns answer the only two questions that matter: are we on plan, and is the trend right? A fifth column, the variance to budget in euros, helps readers in a hurry.

The worked example: a consulting firm at €2.4M

Take a fictional company: a technical consulting firm of twenty people, €2.4M of annual revenue, roughly €200,000 a month, run by its founder. It is early June and she is reading the May dashboard. Here is what the page shows, section by section, in round numbers.

• Cash: balance at the end of May €180,000, versus €210,000 at the end of April, a change of –€30,000. Cash in €190,000, cash out €220,000. Projected low point: €130,000 in July, driven by summer vacations and a tax installment.
• Activity: revenue invoiced in May €210,000, against a budget of €200,000 and €180,000 in May last year. Cumulative through May: €1,050,000 versus €1,000,000 budgeted. Signed order book: €480,000, a little over two months of activity.
• Profitability: gross margin for the month 58%, against a 60% target. Payroll €105,000, or 50% of revenue, in line with plan. Cumulative EBITDA through May: €95,000 versus €120,000 budgeted.
• Customers and working capital: receivables €470,000, a DSO of 68 days against an alert threshold of 60. Of that, €90,000 is more than 60 days overdue, concentrated on two customers. Payables: €130,000.

Section 5 comes down to three written sentences: “Cash is falling while invoicing is rising, so the issue is collection, not sales. Decision: the founder calls the two overdue customers this week, target €60,000 collected before the end of June. Watch item: if the July low point drops below €120,000, the hire planned for September slips by a quarter.”

The decisions section is the only one that justifies all the rest. A dashboard that does not end in a sentence of action is a weather report: interesting, but useless.

The five minute read

The same reading path, every month, in the same order. Minute 1: the cash balance and the low point over the next three months. If the low point is comfortable, you can read the rest calmly; if not, nothing else matters. Minute 2: revenue for the month and the cumulative figure against budget. Here, activity runs €50,000 ahead, so the sales engine is doing its job. Minute 3: margin and cumulative EBITDA. The €25,000 gap comes from two lost points of gross margin, probably projects sold too tight. Minute 4: the customer section, which explains the paradox: the company invoices more but collects less, because €90,000 sits with two customers. Minute 5: the three decision sentences, which you confirm or correct.

Three questions structure that read: survival (cash holds through the next quarter), trajectory (the cumulative figures track budget), and change (what moved since last month and why). In our example, the answer fits on one line: activity is fine, margin is slipping slightly, and the real topic of the month is collection. An owner who holds that line in five minutes steers better than one who spends two hours in the general ledger. I see it every month with our clients.

What to leave out

A good dashboard shows its quality in what it refuses as much as in what it displays. The temptation to add lines never stops, and each one sounds reasonable on its own. Everything below belongs somewhere, in an appendix or in the accounting software. Not on the monthly page.

• The detailed income statement: forty expense lines do not help you decide. If EBITDA drifts, you open the detail at that moment, not before.
• Metrics without an alert threshold: a number that never triggers anything is decoration. Every line on the page needs a known threshold that provokes an action.
• Ratios that do not move month to month: asset turnover or balance sheet structure gets reviewed once a year, not twelve times.
• Decorative charts: a curve with no threshold and no budget takes up space without carrying a decision. Four columns of numbers say more than a pie chart.
• Vanity metrics: the number of quotes sent or website visits flatters, but only the signed order book commits future cash.

Setting up your own

The mechanics are simple: a fixed date (the 5th of the month is a good standard, as soon as the bank and invoicing are reconciled), one person responsible for the update, and thirty minutes of reading with the leadership team. The first month will be rough. Some numbers will be missing, some thresholds badly calibrated. That is normal; a dashboard gets tuned over three months, like an instrument. In my experience the second month is where it lives or dies: that is when you either hold the date or let it slip. What matters is starting with a page that looks like the example above, then removing every line that has not triggered a single decision in a quarter. After three months, most SMEs and startups discover that everything they need fits on fifteen lines, and that two hours of monthly reporting have become five minutes of reading and one real management conversation.

Frequently asked questions

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