- A good dashboard answers three questions quickly: how did the group do, which sites need attention, and is cash under control?
- Ten measures are usually enough; more than that and nobody reads it.
- The dashboard is only as reliable as the bookkeeping underneath it — location coding and accruals come first.
Start with the questions
Before choosing software or charts, decide what the dashboard needs to answer each month: How did the group perform against budget? Which sites are off track, and on which measure? Do we have enough cash for the next 13 weeks?
The ten measures worth tracking
- Sales ex GST by site — against budget and last year.
- Average transaction value and transaction count — to separate price from volume.
- Gross margin % by site.
- Labour % of sales by site — and hours worked.
- Occupancy % of sales by site.
- Royalties and levies — reconciled to sales.
- Site contribution in dollars and as a percentage of sales.
- Group EBITDA after shared costs.
- Cash position and 13-week forecast, including tax, super and loan repayments.
- Exceptions — anything outside an agreed tolerance, with a one-line explanation.
Adapt the list to your sector: membership numbers and churn for fitness, food cost for hospitality, parts and labour margin for automotive.
How to lay it out
- Top row: four or five group headline figures against budget.
- Comparison table: one row per site, the same ratios in the same order, with exceptions highlighted.
- Trend: a 12-month line or bar for sales and site contribution.
- Cash: the 13-week forecast low point and what drives it.
- Commentary: three to five sentences on what changed and what you’ll do about it.
Set it up so it can be trusted
- Every transaction coded to a site
- Wages, rent and royalties accrued to the right month
- Shared costs held separately
- Intercompany charges eliminated in group figures
- A month-end close timetable everyone follows
Who should see what
Owners need the whole picture. Site managers often benefit from their own site’s sales, labour and margin against target — with care about which figures are shared. Lenders and franchisors may require their own formats; build those from the same underlying data so there’s one version of the truth.
Software
Cloud accounting platforms with location tracking, combined with POS and rostering integrations and a reporting tool, are enough for most operators. The design and the discipline matter more than the brand of software.
This article is general information for Australian franchise businesses. It doesn’t take your circumstances into account and isn’t personal tax, legal or financial advice.
Talk it through
Every franchise is different. Ask us how this applies to yours.
