What concrete weekly measurables should we track for our accounting and IT seats to keep them accountable without resorting to subjective check the box metrics?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Back office roles like accounting and IT often get excused from scorecard accountability because their work is transactional or project based. This is a mistake that leads to operational drag. Every seat on your Accountability Chart must have weekly, objective numbers.

For your accounting seat, look at the key drivers of cash flow and accuracy. Good weekly measurables include:
- Days sales outstanding to track how fast cash is coming in
- Accounts receivable over sixty days to spot overdue collections early
- Weekly cash balance compared to your baseline operating cash requirement
- Percentage of vendor invoices paid on time to avoid late fees

For your IT or systems seat, focus on system reliability, security, and user support. Effective weekly measurables include:
- Critical system uptime percentage to ensure operations never stall
- Number of open support tickets older than forty eight hours
- Number of weekly data backup successes
- Average resolution time for high priority support tickets

These numbers are binary, measurable, and completely free of subjectivity. They give your back office leaders clear targets to hit and provide the rest of the leadership team with peace of mind that the engine room is running smoothly.