A weekly scorecard is one page of numbers that tells you, every Monday, whether the business is on track and where it's about to go wrong. It should hold 8 to 12 numbers, each with one named owner, a target and a red line. Reviewed in a short, fixed weekly meeting, it does more to catch problems early than any monthly financial report. This guide shows you how to choose the numbers, lay out the page and run the meeting.
Leading versus lagging numbers
Answer first: a leading number changes before the result does; a lagging number confirms it afterwards. Your scorecard needs mostly leading ones.
Revenue, profit and cash at month-end are lagging. They tell you what already happened. Enquiries this week, quotes sent, next week's booked hours and invoices over 30 days are leading: they tell you what's about to happen while there's still time to act.
A good test for any number: "If this moved badly this week, could we do something about it before it hurts?" If the answer is no, it belongs in the monthly review, not the weekly scorecard.
Step 1: Pick numbers in four groups
Start with two or three numbers in each of four groups. That keeps the page balanced and stops one area, usually sales, from crowding out the rest.
- Demand. Are enough people asking? New enquiries, calls answered against calls missed, website or walk-in enquiries.
- Conversion. Are we turning them into work? Quotes sent, quotes won, median days from enquiry to quote.
- Delivery. Can we do the work well? Booked hours next week as a share of available hours, callbacks or rework, on-time starts.
- Cash. Are we getting paid? Invoices issued, receivables over 30 days, cash balance.
Step 2: Adapt to your kind of business
The groups stay the same; the numbers change. Here are starting points for three common Coquitlam business types.
Field crew (renovation, landscaping, painting, electrical)
| Number | Owner | Target | Red line |
|---|---|---|---|
| New enquiries | Office coordinator | 25 | Below 15 |
| Quotes sent | Owner | 12 | Below 8 |
| Median days enquiry to quote | Owner | 3 | Over 6 |
| Quotes won (rolling 4 weeks) | Owner | 35% | Below 25% |
| Booked crew hours next week | Crew lead | 160 | Below 130 |
| Booked crew hours in two weeks | Crew lead | 120 | Below 80 |
| Callbacks this week | Crew lead | 0–1 | Over 2 |
| Receivables over 30 days | Coordinator | Under $8,000 | Over $15,000 |
Clinic or studio (physio, dental, massage, fitness)
| Number | Owner | Target | Red line |
|---|---|---|---|
| New patient or client bookings | Front desk | 20 | Below 12 |
| Practitioner utilisation next week | Clinic coordinator | 85% | Below 70% |
| No-shows and late cancellations | Front desk | Under 5% | Over 10% |
| Recall list contacted | Front desk | 100% | Below 75% |
| Unbilled visits | Coordinator | 0 | Over 3 |
Shop or restaurant
| Number | Owner | Target | Red line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staffed hours against plan | Manager | Within 5% | Off by over 10% |
| Average sale or cover | Manager | Set from history | 10% below history |
| Stock-outs on top items | Buyer | 0 | Over 2 |
| Staff schedule published | Manager | 14 days ahead | Under 7 days |
The targets above are examples to show the format, not benchmarks. Set your own from your last eight to twelve weeks of history.
Step 3: Give every number an owner, a target and a red line
Answer first: a number without an owner is a number nobody acts on. Each line needs one name, not "the team".
The owner collects the number and explains it in the meeting. The target is where you'd like it to be. The red line is the point at which the number goes on the meeting agenda automatically. Red lines matter most, because they turn the scorecard from a report into a trigger for action.
Step 4: Lay out the page
Keep it to one screen. A simple layout works best:
- one row per number
- columns for owner, target, red line and the last 8 to 13 weeks
- a cell that turns red when this week crosses the red line
Put the scorecard where the team already works: a shared spreadsheet, a dashboard in your job-management software, or a printed sheet on the wall for crews who don't sit at a desk.
Step 5: Run the weekly meeting
The scorecard only works if you look at it together every week, at the same time, with the same agenda. Forty-five minutes is enough for most businesses with up to 30 people.
- Scorecard (10 minutes). Each owner reads their number: "on track" or "off track". No discussion yet.
- Red lines (15 minutes). For each number over its red line: what's the cause, and what will we do this week?
- Open items (10 minutes). Review the list of unresolved problems, oldest first.
- Decisions (10 minutes). Read back every decision with a name and a date.
Hold it on the same day and time every week, even when it's inconvenient. A meeting that moves once moves every week.
A worked example: seeing the gap early
Here's what a good scorecard buys you. Suppose your crew needs 160 booked hours a week to cover wages and overhead. On a Monday, the scorecard shows:
- booked hours next week: 152 (on track)
- booked hours in two weeks: 88 (over the red line)
- quotes sent last week: 6 (over the red line)
- median days to quote: 8 (over the red line)
Without the scorecard, you'd notice the problem in two weeks, when the crew has nothing to do. With it, you can see the cause today: quotes are going out slowly, so fewer jobs are being won for the week after next. The fix, a protected quoting block and calls to five recent enquiries, can happen this week. Filling even 40 of the 72 missing hours at a $95 charge-out rate protects $3,800 of revenue.
Step 6: Review after 60 days
After eight weeks, look at every number and ask whether anyone acted on it. Remove the ones nobody used and add any you found yourself wishing you had. Adjust targets to what's realistic, not what's hoped for.
Common mistakes
- Too many numbers. If it doesn't fit on one screen, cut it.
- Only lagging numbers. You'll always find out too late.
- Shared ownership. Two owners means none.
- Debating the number instead of the cause. Agree how each number is collected once, then stop arguing about it.
- Skipping weeks. A scorecard reviewed occasionally is just a spreadsheet.
What to do next
If your scorecard shows that problems are being caught but not fixed, the gap is usually missing written procedures or unclear ownership; our guide to promoting your first manager covers the second. If you'd like the scorecard built and the first meetings run with you, see our scorecard and meeting rhythm service and the pricing page, then call, text or email.
Frequently asked questions
Should revenue be on the weekly scorecard?
It can be, but it shouldn't be the main number. By the time revenue drops, the cause happened weeks earlier. Put the earlier signals, such as enquiries, quotes and next week's bookings, nearer the top.
What tool should I use?
A shared spreadsheet is enough for most businesses with under 40 people. Use whatever your team already opens every day; a scorecard in a tool nobody visits is useless.
What if a number can't be pulled automatically?
Give it to one named person to enter by an agreed time each week, such as Friday at noon. If it's still impossible to collect after a month, replace it with a number you can collect.
How long before the scorecard is useful?
Usually after four to six weeks, once you have enough history to see a trend and you've adjusted the targets to reality.