A CEO dashboard is one page, readable on a phone, with six numbers: each shown against its target and against last period, each with a twelve-month sparkline so the direction is visible without a chart, and each with a named owner. For most businesses the six are revenue against budget, gross margin percent, cash (with runway), overdue debt, pipeline coverage, and one operational number that explains the P&L (utilisation, on-time delivery, occupancy, orders in hand, depending on the business). Everything else, every breakdown and every chart, is one click below the tile it explains, not on the page. The reason most "executive dashboards" fail is that they try to be the whole business on one screen, twenty tiles deep, and the person they're for stops opening them within a month.
Which six numbers?
The test for each: if this number moved a lot, would the CEO act today? If not, it isn't one of the six.
| Number | What it is | Source system | Owner | Why it's on the page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue vs budget | Invoiced revenue this month and YTD against budget | Accounts (Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Business Central) | Sales or commercial director | Whether the top line is on plan |
| Gross margin % | Revenue less direct cost, as a percentage | Accounts | MD / FD | Whether the top line is worth having |
| Cash and runway | Bank balances now; months of cash at the trailing net outflow | Accounts / bank feed | FD | The number that ends businesses |
| Overdue debt | Sales ledger past due, with the over-90 figure | Accounts | Credit control | Cash that should already be here |
| Pipeline coverage | Weighted open pipeline ÷ remaining target | CRM (HubSpot, Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce, Pipedrive) | Sales director | Whether next quarter's revenue exists yet |
| The operational number | Utilisation (services), on-time-in-full (manufacturing/distribution), occupancy (venues/care), orders in hand (make-to-order), first-response time (support-led) | Timesheet, ERP, booking, service desk | Ops director | The leading indicator for margin |
Source: my working set from the leadership reports I build. Swap the operational number for the one that explains your P&L; the other five are nearly universal.
Two things to notice. Four of the six come from the accounts system. That makes the first version of the page a single-source build, which matters for how quickly it can exist (below). And every row has an owner: a number nobody owns is decoration.
Why six, and why one page?
Because attention is the constraint. A CEO opens the page for about thirty seconds, on a phone, between other things. In thirty seconds a person can absorb six numbers with arrows. They can't absorb twenty.
One page also forces the argument about what matters to happen at design time, once, instead of every month in the meeting. If the leadership team can't agree on six, that's the most useful thing the dashboard project will reveal.
The detail isn't gone. Each tile drills to its own page: revenue by customer and product, margin by line, cash by account with the four-week view, debtors by customer with owners, pipeline by stage with slippage, the operational number by team or site. Those pages are for the owner of the number; the six tiles are for the CEO.
The design rules
I've written more about report design elsewhere, but for this page specifically:
- Value, target, arrow, sparkline. Nothing else on the tile. The value in large type, the target and the variance in small type, an arrow against last period, a twelve-month sparkline. No gauges, no speedometers, no radial anything.
- Colour means status, not decoration. Green on target, amber within tolerance, red outside it. The tolerances are written down. A page where every tile is a different colour for no reason is unreadable, and about one in twelve men can't see the red-green difference anyway, so use shape or position as well as colour.
- Greyscale test. Print it in black and white. If the story disappears, the design is relying on colour.
- Phone first. Design at phone width. If it works there, it works on a laptop. The reverse is never true.
- The as-at time is printed. "Data as at 06:15 today." The CEO needs to know whether it's this morning's number or last week's.
- A definitions page. One click away: what each number means, the formula, the source, the owner. The argument about "what does that mean" happens once.
- No scrolling. If it scrolls, it's two pages, and the second one won't be seen.
Where does it start?
With the four numbers from the accounts system. Revenue against budget, gross margin, cash, overdue debt: one source, one page, four tiles and the drill-through pages behind them. That's a single-source build and it's what the First Report is for: one system, one report answering one written question ("are we on plan and is the cash safe?"), the headline figure reconciled back to the ledger to the penny, published to your own workspace, £1,950 fixed, ten working days (see the First Report).
Then the CRM tile (pipeline coverage), which is a second source, and the operational tile, which is a third. Each is a join on a shared key and each is a Reporting Sprint if done properly, with the reconciliation and the drill-through pages.
Power BI Pro is £10.80 per user per month on Microsoft's UK page as of September 2026, paid yearly, excluding VAT, for everyone who opens the page; for a CEO dashboard that's usually the leadership team, so six to ten licences.
What usually goes wrong
Too many tiles. Someone adds a seventh, then a twelfth. Hold the line at six and put the rest on the drill-through pages.
Numbers with no owner. If nobody's name is on it, nobody moves it.
Definitions that drift. Gross margin including a cost this month and excluding it next month. Write it down, print it on the definitions page, and don't change it without saying so.
A spreadsheet in the middle. If any tile is typed in by hand each month, that tile will be late, then wrong, then ignored. Every number on the page should be calculated from a connected system.
No reconciliation. The revenue tile should match the P&L. If a CEO ever finds it doesn't, the page is finished. A reconciliation page one click away, showing the model's totals against the ledger's, every refresh, is the insurance.
Built for the imagined CEO. Ask the actual one which six numbers they'd act on. The answer is usually shorter than the finance team expects.
Common questions
What should be on a CEO dashboard?
Six numbers, each against target and last period with a twelve-month sparkline and a named owner: revenue vs budget, gross margin %, cash and runway, overdue debt, pipeline coverage, and one operational number that explains the P&L. Everything else drills down from those.
How many KPIs should an executive dashboard have?
Six. Ten at the absolute most. If the leadership team can't name them from memory, there are too many. The detail lives on drill-through pages, not on the front.
Where does the data for a CEO dashboard come from?
Four of the six numbers come from the accounts system; pipeline coverage comes from the CRM; the operational number comes from the timesheet, ERP, booking or service desk system. Start with the accounts-only version and add the others one at a time.
Should a CEO dashboard be in Excel or Power BI?
Excel can do the accounts-only version for one reader. Once it needs to update itself daily, be read on a phone, join a second system, or show each director only their own drill-down, it's a Power BI job. The line is drawn in Power BI vs Excel: When the Spreadsheet Is the Right Answer.
How do I stop the dashboard becoming a wall of tiles?
Hold the count at six, give every number an owner, put every breakdown on a drill-through page, and make the argument about what belongs on the front happen once at design time. When someone asks for a seventh, ask which of the six it replaces.
How much does a CEO dashboard cost to build?
The accounts-only version (four of the six tiles, with drill-through and reconciliation) is a First Report at £1,950 fixed, ten working days. Each additional system joined (CRM, operations) is a Reporting Sprint. Power BI Pro is £10.80 per viewer per month on Microsoft's UK page as of September 2026.
What's the difference between a CEO dashboard and a board pack?
The board pack is a monthly document with commentary, read in a meeting (A Board Report Template That Gets Read). The CEO dashboard is a live page checked between meetings. They share numbers and definitions; the pack adds the narrative.