Data can be mind numbing sometimes, and it's often difficult to pull out the information you need and know what you’re looking for. That's where visual KPI’s come in. 

Visual KPI’s transform raw data into actual insights using graphs and charts. These visual powerhouses break down complex business metrics into easily understood visuals.

They serve as a compass through an overwhelming sea of data. Like all KPI’s, they involve metrics, time frames, targets, and serve as the chronological backbone of your graph. 

Your visual KPI may also include trend lines, and that's something similar to what you see in your email campaigns when you want to view how many opens you’ve had and when you had them. Another aspect is annotations. They’re useful in highlighting important events that may have affected your studio’s performance.

The final, and crucial element are legends and labels. These are key to understanding your graph! You want your colors, symbols, and lines to be easily interpreted. 

Before you get overwhelmed with creating a graph, you can utilize QuickBooks Performance Center to create them with your financial data. 

We’re going to introduce you to a few different options, and what kind of data each is best at representing.

Line Graph: This visualization is the best to show trends over periods of time! This is a graph that you would see in your email marketing dashboard. Your trend line moves from left to right, and when changes take place, the slope can either move up or down. Multiple lines will provide you with a visual comparison such as year-to-year, or in the case of emails week-to-week. This allows you to see if one day on a regular basis is more favorable for email opens. 

Bar graphs: These are a favorite for comparing numbers across different categories. This representation makes it easy to compare values side by side. It’s a perfect visual for comparing things like social media marketing performance. It’s going to help you to identify what is or what is not working, and then you can properly allocate funds. 

Pie Chart: This Is a visual representation designed to show proportional data, as each slice of the pie represents a portion of the whole. It allows for a quick comparison between categories. These work best when you have small numbers of distinct categories to compare, or when you’re looking to highlight the relative size of each category within the whole. 

When looking to show how proportions change over time, skip the pie and utilize the line chart. 

Studio owners can often be remiss in following which area of the studio are performing best. A pie chart is perfect to figure this out! You can separate your competitive, recreational, and preschool programs to see just how large they are. You may think a specific category is doing better, but you may put it into the pie chart and see it’s fairly small compared to something else! 

Bullet Chart: This is an ideal tool when looking to demonstrate your current performance against a target. The main bar is used to display your current performance (actual value) and the vertical marker is used to display your target value (what you want) 

When it comes to bullet charts, keep it simple. You want to use them to convey one main point, not to compare multiple categories. They are used for key metrics, not for showing data. Use them in prominent places to showcase your most important results at a quick glance.

Heat Maps: These are a great tool for identifying how well your website is performing! This is crucial for converting online visitors into lifelong customers. Heat maps measure what pages people visit, how far down they scroll, and where they click. These use a variety of colors to indicate performance. The cooler the color, the less the activity. 

If you are a creative person and you want to visualize how your business is doing in certain areas, ask your finance team to help you with the Quickbooks Performance Center! You could create for yourself a KPI backboard, and see real time data right away. 

We hope you figure out which graph works best for you! If you would like to learn even more about KPI’s, check out our subscription site Studio Owner Solutions. www.dancebookkeeping.co/studio-owner-solutions