How to create a revenue reporting dashboard that drives growth

Revenue dashboards are strategic assets that can transform how your business makes financial decisions. Whatever the stage of your company, having clear visibility into your revenue streams is critical for sustainable growth and profitability. 

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about building effective revenue dashboards that drive better decision-making and growth. 

What is a revenue dashboard?

Revenue dashboards (used for revenue analysis and reporting) offer a highly visual  snapshot of your most important revenue-related metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) during a defined time period, e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. Typically expressed as a collection of charts and graphs, they communicate visually, making sense of data that would otherwise require stakeholders a lot more time to  understand. 

As a finance professional managing data from multiple revenue streams, and who all too often has to dig through multiple spreadsheets to find the answers to your revenue-related questions, revenue dashboards can be your best friend. 

Like other types of financial dashboards, revenue dashboards can help you keep different teams and stakeholders across the entire business well-informed. 

For example, your sales team probably needs constant access to revenue data. Or maybe the CEO wants to know what the top-performing products or sales channels are for the business. In these situations, strategic decision-making can be pretty challenging (not to mention time-consuming) if you don’t have a way to serve up that information on-demand and in a way they understand. 

A well-designed revenue dashboard solves that problem, presenting complex financial information in an easy-to-understand format that supports informed decision-making. The dashboard also functions as a critical instrument for financial analysis, identifying and mitigating potential issues as well as facilitating more accurate forecasts. 

Why revenue dashboards are important for SaaS businesses

• Real-time financial visibility: A revenue dashboard facilitates effective financial health monitoring and business performance review in real-time. For example, you can conduct a budget variance analysis by comparing actual performance against forecasts across key metrics like monthly recurring revenue (MRR), churn, and customer acquisition cost (CAC). This enables SaaS CFOs and finance teams to quickly identify underperforming areas and adjust strategies. 
• Visual data interpretation: Engaging visuals like charts and graphs ensure that leadership teams and external stakeholders are able to easily understand and analyze complex metrics. Having a comprehensive visual perspective helps them see things that rows of data in a spreadsheet can’t, such as new growth opportunities or risks they might need to mitigate. For example, looking at charts showing data for customer segments, pricing tiers, and acquisition channels visually can help identify patterns and trends—such as which customers deliver the highest lifetime value or segments with unexpected churn.
• Cross-departmental collaboration: Revenue dashboards democratize financial information making it easy for everyone to understand. They are especially powerful when created with a financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software that consolidates all dashboard data into a single source of truth, making collaboration easy. Marketing can optimize campaign spend based on actual CAC: LTV ratios, while sales teams can focus efforts on high-performing segments. This operational alignment eliminates silos and enhances overall efficiency, ensuring everyone works toward common growth objectives. 

Revenue dashboards vs. sales dashboards

Before we dive into the different types of revenue dashboards you might build for your SaaS business, it's important to note that the terms “revenue dashboards” and “sales dashboards” are often used interchangeably. However, they are actually different types of dashboards that serve distinct purposes.

In SaaS, sales dashboards (also known as sales analysis or sales reporting dashboards) track sales activities, pipeline metrics, conversion rates, and individual performance. They can be used to answer specific questions like “How many new subscriptions were sold this month?” or “Which sales rep is closing/has closed maximum deals?”

Revenue dashboards, on the other hand, provide a broader financial perspective, focusing on direct revenue or revenue-related metrics like MRR, annual recurring revenue (ARR), customer churn, expansion revenue, and customer lifetime value (LTV).

The fundamental difference comes down to timing and SaaS-specific accounting principles. Sales dashboards track committed subscriptions that represent deferred revenue. In contrast, revenue dashboards show the recurring revenue from subscriptions that is recognized in accordance with SaaS accounting standards. These standards involve some pretty complex revenue recognition rules for SaaS businesses regarding how they report subscription revenue and remaining performance obligations (RPO).

Despite these differences, successful SaaS companies can leverage these complementary dashboards to gain a complete picture of the health and long-term profitability of their business.

Types of revenue dashboards for SaaS businesses

These are just a few revenue dashboard examples you might want to build to support  different types of revenue analysis and reveal deeper revenue insight into your business.  

• Executive dashboard: Displays the most critical “high level” revenue metrics in a simple, digestible format for senior leadership, facilitating more data-driven, strategic business decisions. Key revenue performance metrics include total revenue, revenue growth rate, revenue by product line, gross margin, CAC, LTV, along with gross revenue retention (GRR) and net revenue retention (NRR). 

• Sales performance dashboard: Closely related to the sales reporting dashboards we mentioned in the previous section, sales performance dashboards track revenue but from a sales perspective. They typically focus on conversion metrics and pipeline health. This dashboard is particularly useful for sales leaders to identify which teams are driving the most revenue and where bottlenecks might exist in the sales process. Key metrics for this type of dashboard include new bookings, pipeline coverage ratio and total pipeline value, conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, and revenue by sales rep or territory.‍
• Subscription revenue dashboard: Helps monitor the health of recurring revenue streams. This is a critical dashboard for SaaS companies, especially for product and finance teams, to review business performance and financial health and identify opportunities for expansion revenue. Key metrics include ARR, MRR and MRR movement (new, expansion, contraction, churn), net revenue retention, logo retention rate, and subscription lifetime value. 
• ‍Revenue cycle dashboard: Tracks revenue through various stages, from bookings to billings, enabling finance teams to identify bottlenecks in the revenue cycle process. Key metrics include days sales outstanding (DSO), accounts receivable aging, billing accuracy, revenue leakage, and the timing of  revenue recognition.

How to design and build a revenue dashboard

Step 1. Define the revenue objectives

It goes without saying that the first is to clearly articulate what you want your revenue dashboard to achieve within the context of the overall business strategy. Are you tracking overall company growth, monitoring specific product line performance, or analyzing subscription revenue health? Your objectives will guide the entire dashboard creation process. 

Step 2.  Identify the target audience

Different stakeholders need different revenue data and insights. For example, executives check high-level KPIs, while sales managers might need to be able perform a detailed funnel analysis. Finance teams focus on margins and forecasts, while product teams track feature adoption and usage. Understanding the audience for a certain type of dashboard makes it easier to determine the complexity, metrics, layout, and design. 

Step 3. Select relevant metrics

Choose metrics that directly support your objectives and provide value to your audience. When you’re thinking through this step, keep in mind that too many metrics can interfere with your objectives (the insights you want from the dashboard) and may confuse your stakeholders. A good practice to follow is the “30-second rule”, that is, your audience should be able to understand the key insights within 30 seconds of viewing the dashboard. 

Step 4. Choose the right dashboard software

‍Select a financial reporting software that balances your needs for data integration, visualization options, and user accessibility. Your team must be able to easily maintain it without constant help from the “customer support team” or specialized training. 

Step 5. Integrate the data sources

Your dashboard has to integrate seamlessly with all the relevant data, which is typically spread across different financial management tools and other types of software, such as your ERP and accounting systems, billing platform, and product analytics tools to ensure data accuracy and consistency. At this stage, you also need to set up your calculations and formulas for the metrics and models you want to build for your dashboard, as well as build in the necessary assumptions to ensure the insights generated are more accurate. 

‍Step 6. Design the dashboard layout

‍Create a clean, intuitive layout for your dashboard incorporating best practices in dashboard design. This includes grouping related metrics, using chart types appropriate for the different types of data you want to present, and implementing a visual hierarchy with the most important metrics prominently displayed. 

Step 7. Test and iterate

Before full deployment, test your dashboard with relevant departments and user groups to gather feedback on clarity, ease of use, and missing information. This also shouldn’t be a once-and-done exercise—the best dashboards are regularly reviewed and refined to ensure they continue to serve the purpose for which they were created. 

Features to include in your revenue dashboards 

A comprehensive revenue analysis and reporting dashboard includes a variety of components that work together to convey (and protect) key information.  

Data visualization elements

Visualization is one of the most important elements of any dashboard. It is important to incorporate and use intuitive charts, graphs, tables, scorecards, and other visual elements that communicate trends efficiently. For example, you can consider using line charts for time-series data, bar charts for comparisons, and color-coding for status indicators. 

Key financial metrics and KPIs

Metrics like MRR, ARR, churn rate, average revenue per user (ARPU), CAC, LTV, gross margin, and revenue growth rate form the foundation of your revenue analysis. These metrics also help track revenue recognition.  For SaaS businesses, tracking revenue recognition timing is particularly critical as it differs significantly from the revenue reflected in new sales. 

Financial statements 

Financial statements provide context for revenue performance against overall financial health. The status of your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement enables SaaS finance teams to better understand the business’ revenue state in relation to costs and profitability.

Customer revenue overview

Revenue segmented by customer type, industry, region, or deal size helps identify which customer segments generate the most value. This visualization reveals where you need to focus retention efforts and which segments offer the best expansion opportunities.

Revenue differentiation

Categorizing revenue by product line, subscription tier, or service category helps CXOs and other stakeholders analyze the business’ revenue composition more effectively and identify growth drivers. Doing so can help product teams prioritize development efforts on features that drive the highest revenue impact.

Customizable features

Remember, different stakeholders might need different views. The ability to filter data by time period, geography, product, or other relevant segments for specific insights provide the flexibility different users need to answer their questions. Also, if users wish to drill down into underlying data for deeper analyses, say, for root cause analysis, the dashboard should have the necessary capabilities.

Access control

Role-based permissions protect sensitive financial information by ensuring that users are able to access and use only the data relevant for their functions.

Forecasting and predictive insights

Forward-looking projections based on historical trends and pipeline data enable business leaders to adjust strategies and make more informed data-driven decisions.

Performance benchmarks

This feature is crucial to track progress and address any potential risks. Your revenue dashboard should display current business performance against targets, previous periods, and industry standards for context and analysis. Otherwise, just raw numbers lack meaning.

Cross-functional insights

Connect revenue data with marketing, sales, and customer success metrics to show relationships between departmental activities and revenue outcomes. This helps break down silos.

Accelerate growth with revenue dashboards and Drivetrain

A well-designed dashboard provides real-time visibility into financial performance and can transform business decision-making across all departments teams. 

Revenue dashboards are like the financial planning command center for SaaS businesses. By selecting the right metrics, designing intuitive visualizations, and tailoring dashboards to specific audiences, organizations can transform raw financial data into actionable insights that drive growth. 

While many tools (including Excel spreadsheets) can help business leaders and finance teams visualize revenue data, comprehensive FP&A requires specialized software that connects planning with execution. 

Drivetrain is a strategic, third-generation FP&A software that combines the power of a comprehensive revenue planning solution with robust reporting capabilities that include best-in-class visualizations. 

With 200+ integrations, the platform automatically integrates data from all of your key financial management systems to provide real-time and always up-to-date metrics with no manual intervention.  

Further, Drivetrain is also a powerful scenario planning solution giving you the ability to easily evaluate multiple scenarios and use a what-if analysis to better predict how changes in pricing, retention, and/or expansion rates might impact future revenue.

Learn more about how Drivetrain can help your SaaS business drive faster and more reliable growth!