The agency KPI dashboard
Built in Fathom on QuickBooks data, updated with every close
- Built in Fathom on QuickBooks
- Updated with every close
An accounting package gives you statements. A dashboard answers a question. This one was built around a client asking for exactly one thing: if you have five minutes, what's the happy face, sad face, how are we doing financially?
The short version
- Built in Fathom, reading QuickBooks Online, updated with every close.
- Six metric groups: revenue, profit, people, cash, receivables, comparison.
- Extended per client. Whatever question you keep asking becomes a chart.
- Included on Growth and Scale. A $200 a month add-on on Starter.
Want one of these on your numbers?
It gets built in your audit month, with your targets rather than defaults.
That question is the design brief. A five-minute look tells you whether the month is fine. A twenty-minute look tells you why.
What's on it
| Group | Metrics |
|---|---|
| Revenue | Month actual, target, rolling 12-month average, prior month, and mix by service line |
| Profit | Gross profit margin, operating profit margin, break-even point, margin of safety |
| People | People cost in dollars and as a percentage of revenue, with a rolling average |
| Cash | Cash on hand, operating cash flow, months of fixed-cost runway |
| Receivables | Accounts receivable balance and AR days |
| Comparison | Year to date this year against last year against forecast |
The one metric agencies underuse
People cost as a percentage of revenue, with a rolling average beside it.
One client watched that line bend down about four points while the team cost held flat and revenue grew. Dollars up 13%, revenue up 22%. The chart is what made it obvious.
The standard dashboard is a starting point
The useful ones get modified. Four things clients asked for, and what got built.
Four things clients asked us to add, and what got built
A service-line share chart
One agency's video work was running ahead of its target share of revenue and swinging month to month. The dashboard got a chart tracking that line as both dollars and a percentage, against the target.
A mini P&L for billable pass-throughs
Same agency: client travel, meals, advertising, billable and production expenses were all being spent and rebilled, and the books couldn't show whether the rebilling covered the spend. We consolidated all of it against the matching income, monthly and annual.
The aggregate came out positive, and wide enough that the owner decided to audit his own billing.
I want to make sure that we have integrity, so I'll check into this too.
A gross-profit-only report for a manager
One owner wanted to put a team member on a gross profit margin KPI, but couldn't give him QuickBooks access without exposing owner pay. Locking down visibility isn't enough: anyone who sees the P&L can work backward.
The report stops at the gross profit line. A high-level PDF with a granular sheet underneath, monthly, so he can see how the number was built and nothing below it.
Per-project margin from tracked hours
For a project-based client, the monthly pack includes margin by client built from time entries rather than estimates: hours, time cost, fixed cost, invoiced amount, margin and margin percent, for every engagement.
The spread between the best and the worst was wide enough to change which work they chase. That engagement is written up here.
Want to see one built on your books?
We'll walk through a live client dashboard on the call, numbers blurred.
A dashboard only works if it gets read
It doesn't ship alone.
Growth
- Quarterly financial health call
- A Loom walkthrough in the months between
Scale
- A call every month
- Plus the weekly financial report
The Loom is the part clients mention most, because a ten-minute video you watch on your own time beats a meeting you have to prepare for.
the detailed reporting and dashboards are easy to understand.
Access and setup
You get your own Fathom login, not a PDF.
It gets built during the Agency Financial Audit month alongside the forecast, so its targets are the ones you set in session 1 rather than defaults. They get updated when your goals change, two or three times a year.
Questions
The ones people actually ask on the first call
What software do you build the dashboard in?
Fathom, reading from QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks stays the single source of truth and the dashboard is the reporting layer on top of it. You get your own login rather than a PDF.
How often does the dashboard update?
With each month-end close. On the Scale tier it is joined by a weekly financial report covering income, cost of goods sold, expenses and net income week by week.
Can the dashboard track metrics specific to my agency?
Yes, and the ones that get used usually do. Clients have added a service-line revenue share chart against a target, a consolidated view of billable pass-through spend against the income that covers it, and per-project margin built from tracked hours.
Can I give a team member access without showing them owner pay?
Not through permissions alone, because anyone who can see the P&L can work backward to owner compensation. The approach that works is a separate report that stops at the gross profit line, which is what we build when a manager owns a margin target.
Is the dashboard included at every tier?
It is included on Growth and Scale. On Starter it is a $200 a month add-on, because agencies under $500K usually need clean books and a clean tax handoff more than they need a reporting layer.
Next step
Thirty minutes, and you'll know where you stand
Bring last month's P&L. We'll tell you what it's actually saying about your margin, your owner pay and your next hire. If we're not the right people to fix it, we'll say so on the call.
You bring
Last month's P&L. That's it. No prep, no forms.
We do
Read it live and tell you what it says about margin, owner pay and your next hire.
You leave with
The two or three things worth fixing first, whether or not you hire us.
No deck, no pitch. If we're not the right people for it, we'll say so on the call.