Hours spent preparing monthly reports
The direct time saving from automating data assembly.
IT managed service providers · KPI and pipeline dashboards
Know which agreements make money without exporting PSA reports every week
MSP owners usually know their MRR. Fewer know their effective hourly rate by agreement, which clients consume the most support hours per seat, or how utilization differs between the service desk and the project team. The data exists in the PSA, accounting system and RMM, but pulling it together means spreadsheets every Monday that are out of date by Wednesday.
How it often works today
- The owner or controller exports time entries, agreements and invoices into Excel each month to estimate profitability, which takes most of a day.
- Service managers track SLA attainment in the PSA, but the definition of a breach differs between boards, so the numbers do not compare.
- Agreement additions and seat changes are billed late or not at all because nobody reconciles RMM device counts with billed quantities.
- Leadership meetings debate whose numbers are right instead of deciding what to do about them.
We would define a small set of metrics that drive your decisions, connect the sources once, and build dashboards for the owner, service manager and account managers. Each person sees the numbers they act on, refreshed automatically, with definitions written down so everyone reads them the same way.
The improved workflow
Agree the metrics and definitions
Choose eight to twelve KPIs, such as MRR, effective hourly rate, SLA attainment, utilization and tickets per endpoint, and write a one-line definition for each.
Connect the sources
Pull time entries, tickets, agreements and invoices from the PSA and accounting system, and device counts from the RMM, into one reporting layer.
Build role-based views
The owner sees profitability and growth, the service manager sees SLA and backlog, and account managers see their clients, all from the same underlying data.
Review weekly and adjust
Use the dashboard in the weekly leadership meeting for a month, then remove metrics nobody acts on and fix any definition that causes debate.
How we deliver this: AI automation for small business or fractional CTO leadership, scoped in writing and run over 90 days. See pricing or the sample scope.
What we would measure
Unbilled seats and devices found
Billing reconciliation often recovers revenue quickly.
Agreements below target effective rate
Turns profitability into a list of specific accounts to act on.
Where people stay in control
- Metric definitions are approved by the owner and finance lead, and changes to them are logged so trends stay comparable over time.
- Individual tech utilization is shared carefully and used to plan capacity, not to rank people publicly.
- Financial dashboards are restricted to leadership, with client-level revenue hidden from roles that do not need it.
Example
Finding the agreements that lose money
For example, an illustrative 20-person MSP builds its first effective hourly rate view and finds most agreements well above target, but five clients sit far below it. Three of those have added staff without seat count updates, and two have line-of-business apps that generate constant tickets. The owner bills the missing seats, schedules repricing conversations at renewal for two clients, and asks the service manager to propose a project that removes the recurring app issue.
Tools typically involved
What the first 30 days look like
In the first 30 days we would collect the reports you use today, agree KPI definitions with the owner and service manager, check data quality in the PSA and accounting system, and build a first version for the weekly leadership meeting.
Common questions
Isn't BrightGauge the standard answer here?
It is a common choice among MSPs and connects well to the major PSA platforms. Power BI, or the reporting already built into your PSA, can work too. The tool matters less than agreeing definitions and cleaning the data underneath. We would choose based on what you own, your data sources and who will maintain it.
Our time entries are inconsistent. Will the dashboard be accurate?
Not at first, and the dashboard will make that obvious. Effective hourly rate depends on techs logging time to the right ticket and agreement. Part of the work is fixing time entry habits and work types, which usually improves billing accuracy as a side benefit.
How many KPIs should an MSP track?
Fewer than most people think. A leadership view with eight to twelve numbers that someone acts on is more useful than forty charts nobody reads. We would start small, review which metrics change decisions, and add only when there is a clear question the new number would answer.
The business case
Does it pay for itself?
Illustrative defaults for a managed service provider. Replace them with your numbers.
What this workflow costs today
a month in staff time, before any lost sales
Monthly fee + assumed tools +
Break-even: new clients a month (at first-year value)
Or: staff hours recovered and redeployed
Break-even additional revenue
Value of +1 point of win rate
First 90 days, service fee
Worth a closer lookTest the assumptions
Illustration only, not a forecast or guarantee. Recovered staff time becomes a cash saving only if spending actually declines or the time goes into paid work. Tool costs are an assumption; we replace every number here with yours before recommending a scope.
KPI and pipeline dashboards in other industries
Architecture firmsAuto repair shopsConstruction and general contractorsDental practicesElectrical contractorsEngineering firmsHVAC companiesLogistics and freight companies
KPI and pipeline dashboards: full guide
Related guides
Your first 90 days with a fractional tech leadHow to automate invoicing in QuickBooks OnlineA practical guide to CRM data cleanupHow to automate recurring client reports
Terms used here
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