KPIs explained
What every dashboard metric measures and how it's calculated.
Overview
Reading the dashboard correctly depends on knowing what each number includes. This article walks through the canonical metrics — definition, source, and gotchas.
Prerequisites
- Owner, Admin, or Billing Staff role
- Some activity in the clinic to display non-zero numbers
Steps
Today's revenue. Sum of payments recorded today, regardless of when the invoice was created. Source: Payment records or kind=REGISTRATION_FEE. Gotcha: refunds reduce; cancelled-not-refunded payments are still in.
Today's appointments. Count of appointments scheduled to start today, regardless of status. Includes future-today (not yet started). Gotcha: cancelled appointments still count here unless filtered.
Patients in queue. Live count of patients with status CHECKED_IN or CALLED at your active location.
Average wait time. Mean of the duration between check-in and call across today's queue. Gotcha: longer wait usually means a slow morning, not necessarily a problem.
No-show rate (30 days). NO_SHOW count / total scheduled appointments × 100, last 30 days. Industry baseline is 5-10%; above 15% suggests reminder strategy issues.
Outstanding balance. Sum of unpaid invoices. Gotcha: includes invoices with payment plans on track — separate from "overdue" which shows past-due-only.
Patient growth. New patient registrations in last 30 days vs prior 30 days, expressed as percentage delta. Negative means fewer new patients than previous period.
Treatment plan acceptance. Approved plans / proposed plans × 100 in the trailing 30 days. A signal of patient communication effectiveness. Industry benchmark 60-80%.
Expected outcome
- Reading any dashboard metric, you know exactly what it counts
- You can correlate dashboard numbers with reports for verification
- Gotchas don't bite — you understand cancellations, refunds, payment plans
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Today's revenue ≠ cash-up total | Cash-up only counts cash + bank transfer | Reports → Daily Transactions for full breakdown |
| No-show rate higher than expected | Reminders not sending | Check Settings → Communications |
| Patient growth negative | Acquisition slowed | Use Reports → Patients to drill into source channels |
| Outstanding balance grows | Unpaid HMO claims accumulating | Reports → HMO Aging |
| Acceptance rate drops | Pricing or communication issue | Discuss with the team; A/B test plan presentation |