We are transitioning our business to run on EOS, but our leadership team is struggling to move away from monthly profit and loss statements. How do we pick our first 5 to 15 weekly leading indicators when we are used to only looking at lagging financial results?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Monthly profit and loss statements are lagging indicators. They tell you what happened thirty days ago, which is like trying to drive your car by only looking in the rearview mirror. By the time you see a bad monthly financial statement, the damage is already done.

To pick your first five to fifteen weekly metrics, you must look upstream from your financial results. Every financial outcome is the result of a series of operational activities. Your job is to identify those activities.

Start with your revenue goal. If your monthly revenue target is dependent on closed sales, look at what happens before a sale is closed. You must track proposals submitted, sales presentations delivered, and inbound leads generated. These are your weekly leading indicators.

Next, look at your operational delivery. To protect your margins, do not wait for the monthly P and L. Track weekly metrics like project milestones achieved on time, billable utilization rates, or customer support tickets resolved on the first contact.

Do not try to make your scorecard perfect on day one. Pick five simple, activity-based numbers that you can track weekly. If you are unsure, start with the absolute basics of sales activity, customer satisfaction, and operational capacity. Over the next several weeks, you will naturally refine these numbers until you have a true pulse on the business.