Proceed with Caution or Step on the Gas? Your Dashboard will Help You Decide!

I am not a fast driver and my kids pick on me all the time for my cautious tendencies. I look frequently at the dashboard for details. They didn’t laugh so hard when I noticed a signal indicating that I was losing tire pressure rapidly. The signal allowed me to react quickly and get off the road before I had a major blow out!

Similarly, a business dashboard can provide you with data and show you warning signals, such as, “There are too many cancellations!” “Your collections are low and will cause a cash flow crisis!” On the other business dashboard can give you some good news to celebrate, such as, “You met the goal of adding three new nontraditional referring providers!”

In a simple form, a business dashboard is a system that comprehensively manages the company’s data and metrics. EMRs may include reports that can be included in a dashboard but I personally do not see an EMR as a dashboard in its entirety. I use excel—good ole excel but much of the data comes from the EMR but also the fax and other sources. Here are three things that I prefer in a dashboard.

1) All KPIs included—Key Performance Indicators. These are the measurable metrics that are watched on at least a weekly basis to determine if the business is moving in the right directions towards the Strategic Action Plan—you do have a Strategic Action Plan, right? Ok, if not, let’s talk!

2) The KPIs that have a dynamic relationship are interactive within the system. For example, if the number of cancellations is on one page and the total number of visits projected and actually completed visits are on another, one does not have to go in and enter data on each page. The system would populate the actual visits by subtracting the cancellations from the projected visits. An efficiency prayer answer for real!

3) Last but not least, the dashboard should be able to create reports from year to year. I should be able to compare data from April 2019 and April 2020 (which looks very differently due to COVID-19) as well as Quarter One of 2019 and Quarter One of 2020—you get the picture? What story is your dashboard saying over a period of time?

The whole picture can be seen in a dashboard, including the warning signals during the Level 10 meeting (next article if you are wondering what the heck is a level 10 meeting). Not only however will the dashboard give you an opportunity to see red flags but it can also tell you to speed up a little, maybe even scale to a new level and I don’t mind doing that at all as long as it’s not on the road, just ask my kids! 

Tomeico Faison is a business consultant and certified business coach on a mission to help at least one million therapy entrepreneurs create fun, profitable and service-oriented lifestyle businesses. She partners with universities, organizations and therapists to increase therapy entrepreneurship globally. Check out her website for more information about her services and click here to purchase her #1 Best Seller on Independent Contracting: Occupational Therapy: Ten Simple Steps to Independent Contracting