Operational data and KPIs

Track non-financial monthly data points like headcount and units, import them from QBO or Xero custom fields or CSV, and feed them into KPI calculations.

Operational data is a per-company grid of non-financial monthly metrics. You record values such as employee headcount, new hires, units sold, square footage, and pipeline value. You can also override accounting-derived metrics like invoice counts and vendor bill totals. Each value flows into the KPI calculations that depend on it.

Overview

You track operational data on a 12-month grid keyed by month and data point. Each cell holds three values:

Synced value — the number imported from your accounting integration (QuickBooks Online or Xero), if applicable.
Override value — the number you typed in or imported from CSV.
Effective value — the value used downstream. The override wins when set; otherwise the synced value is used.

Data points are grouped into:

Customer / Invoice — customers invoiced, invoice count, invoice total, credit notes, overdue invoices. Synced from QBO or Xero.
Vendor / Bill — vendors billed, bill count, bill total. Synced from QBO or Xero.
Workforce — employee headcount, new hires, terminations. Manual entry only.
Customer Acquisition — new customers, customers lost. Manual entry only.
E-Commerce — transactions, unique customers, units sold. Manual entry only.
Other — square footage, pipeline / backlog value. Manual entry only.

View operational data

Open the company.
Go to Business Economics > Operational Data.
Use the 12-month window navigator at the top of the page to select the period you want to view.
Click a group header to collapse or expand its data points. Use Collapse All or Expand All to toggle every group at once.

The grid shows one row per data point and one column per month. Each cell shows the current effective value.

Import from QuickBooks Online or Xero

The Customer / Invoice and Vendor / Bill data points sync from your accounting integration. You do not enter these values manually unless you want to override them.

Connect QuickBooks Online or Xero on the integrations page.
Wait for the operational sync task to complete. It aggregates invoices, bills, credit notes, and payments per month.
Open Business Economics > Operational Data. Synced cells display the imported values.

Synced metrics include:

Customers invoiced, invoice count, invoice total, credit note count and total, overdue invoice count and total, average days from invoice to payment.
Vendors billed, bill count, bill total, average days from bill to payment.

Manual data points (Workforce, Customer Acquisition, E-Commerce, Other) are not synced from QBO or Xero. Enter them in the grid or import them from CSV.

Import from CSV

Use CSV import to load multiple months and data points at once.

Click Template to download a CSV template prefilled with every data point key and the visible 12 months as columns.
Fill in numeric values. Leave cells empty to skip them.
Click Import CSV.
Drag the file into the upload area or click to browse. Maximum file size is 10 MB. The server limit on raw CSV content is 1 MB after decoding.
Review the preview. Rows with unknown data point keys are flagged and skipped.
Click Import to commit. The summary shows imported values, skipped empty cells, and any per-row errors.

CSV format requirements:

The first column header must be dataPoint.
Period columns must use YYYY-MM format.
Cell values must be numeric. Empty cells are skipped.
Unknown data point keys are skipped with an error in the summary.
Imported values write to the override field. They take precedence over synced values from QBO or Xero.

Edit values manually

Click any cell in the grid.
Type a numeric value and press Enter or click outside the cell.
The value saves automatically after a short delay. A toast confirms the save.

A blue indicator shows when a cell has an override on top of a synced value. Hover the cell and click the Reset to import icon to clear the override and restore the synced value.

Click Undo in the page header to revert your most recent edit. The undo stack is per-session and clears on page reload.

Manual data points without a synced source store the value as manual. Synced data points store overrides as override while preserving the original synced value for reference.

How values feed KPIs

Every KPI that depends on operational data reads the effective value for the month it needs.

KPIs that consume operational data include:

Employee growth rate, revenue per employee, cost per employee — read employee_headcount.
Net customer growth, customer churn rate, customer retention rate — read new_customers_acquired and customers_lost.
Average invoice size, overdue invoice percent, invoice dispute rate, customer concentration risk — read invoice and credit note metrics.
Average vendor bill size, days payable outstanding, net payment position — read vendor bill metrics.

When you change a value in the grid or import a CSV, a pre-generation pass recomputes affected KPIs and dashboards in the background. Changes typically appear on KPI pages within a few minutes.

Permissions

Action	Required role
View operational data	Member with read access to the company
Edit cells, undo, reset	Member with write access to the company
Import CSV	Member with write access to the company

You must have an active organization session and access to the company. Without read permission, you cannot open the page.

Limitations

The grid shows 12 months at a time. Use the window navigator to view earlier periods.
CSV imports are limited to 10 MB on upload and 1 MB after base64 decoding on the server.
Bulk override saves are capped at 500 entries per request. The grid batches your edits automatically.
Cell values must be numeric. Text, currency symbols, and percentage signs are rejected.
Periods are stored at month start in UTC. Day-level precision is not supported.
Only data points listed in the grid are accepted. Custom data point keys are not supported.
Workforce, Customer Acquisition, E-Commerce, and Other metrics are never synced from QBO or Xero. They are populated only by manual entry or CSV import.
Clearing an override on a synced cell reverts to the synced value. Clearing a manual cell soft-deletes the row.
KPI recomputation runs in the background and is not instant. Refresh the KPI page after a minute or two to see updated values.

Budgets

KPIs and Financial Ratios