What should a property management KPI dashboard track?
A live, editable studio showing how boards, dashboards, and automated metrics turn scattered data into clear action
Short answer
Most agency dashboards track the front end well, because that’s where the revenue comes from: valuations, sales agreed, lets agreed, move-ins. What they rarely track is what comes out the other end, the cost and the risk, like complaints, escalations, money given away and work about to land. A good property management dashboard puts around ten numbers on one screen, covers sales, lettings and management, shows red or green at a glance, and looks ahead at whether risk is rising, so you can adjust before it turns into a complaint.
Why do most agency dashboards only show half the picture?
Agencies are very stat-heavy at the front end, and I don’t blame anyone for that, because that’s where the money comes in. Viewings, offers, sales agreed, lets agreed and move-ins get counted every week in most offices. What isn’t looked at nearly as often is what comes out the other end cost-wise: the repair that went back three times, the goodwill gesture after a complaint, the hours a manager spent putting something right that started as a missed call back.
What should a property management dashboard measure?
The numbers that sit next to your areas of risk. The aim isn’t only to avoid a fine. It’s to avoid a complaint, and especially one that ends up with the ombudsman, because of what happens when something escalates and how much time it adds. A half-hour or hour-long sit-down with someone early can feel like a lot in the moment, but it’s nothing next to a six-hour process later on.
Most complaints start off as something minor that was overlooked. So it isn’t enough to count breaches, like a certificate that’s out of date. You want to see the patterns that lead up to them, so you catch the small thing while it’s still small.
The ten numbers, across sales, lettings and management
| Area | Number | Why it matters | Red when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | Sales agreed, and how many have had no progress in 14 days | A stalled sale is a fall-through and an unhappy vendor in waiting | Any sale is quiet for more than your set number of days |
| Lettings | Lets agreed and move-ins booked | The front-end number you already track, kept on the same screen as the rest | Below the same point last year |
| Lettings to management | New lets handed to management with nothing missing | Where work changes hands is where things get dropped | Any handover is missing something |
| Management | Open repairs with no update in 7 days | This is where landlords and tenants start chasing, and chasing is where complaints start | Any over 7 days |
| Management | Repair spend this month against each landlord’s agreed limit | What’s going out, and whether jobs are being approved at the right level | Any job over the limit with no sign-off |
| Management | Safety certificates due in the next 60 days, and any overdue | The breach you want to see coming, not find afterwards | Anything overdue |
| Management | Move-outs and checkouts coming up in the next 8 weeks | Work that’s about to land, so you can plan for it | More than the team can cover |
| Whole business | Complaints opened this month, and what each one started as | The pattern behind the complaints, not only the count | Two from the same cause |
| Whole business | Money given away: goodwill gestures, fee discounts and write-offs | The back-end cost most dashboards never show | Higher than last month |
| Team | Who’s off against the busy weeks ahead, and workload per person | Whether the team can cover what’s coming | A busy week with people off and no plan |
Ten is a sensible number. Fewer and you miss the back end, more and nobody reads it.
Why red and green?
So that anyone in the office knows at a glance whether a number is good or bad, without asking or working it out. If a number needs explaining every time someone looks at it, it won’t get looked at. Decide in advance what turns each one red, write it next to the number, and keep it the same so people learn to trust it.
How do you look ahead instead of back?
This is where the tech helps now. Most reporting tells you what happened last month. The better question is whether the risk is likely to rise, and a lot of that can be seen in advance: people off and holidays booked, the weather, issues you can forecast, the workload coming in, how many checkouts you had this time last year, and the busier times of year for people to move, even if those shift a bit from year to year.
A checkout is a good example. Tenants’ notice to leave, and how many checkouts we had this time last year, meant we could predict our checkout workload, because we knew roughly when they were going to land. That meant we could turn the outsourced help up or down, be ready for a busy spell, and decide ahead of time who was in and who wasn’t. That level of insight is what you want for the rest of the business too.
Do I need special software for a property management dashboard?
No. A weekly sheet is a good place to start. The reason to move on to something connected to your existing systems later is that a lot of the tech out there can already pull out really useful data, which saves anyone from having to type it in. When it’s done by hand you get different standards from different people, and you have to trust the input is right, because checking everything twice is pointless and slow.
How often should we look at the dashboard?
All the time, which is why I’d always put it up on the wall. If you’ve got teams in different rooms, a screen in each room with the numbers means everyone knows where things stand without asking.
For the formal reporting, I always liked to give people a heads-up date. I’d send figures out on the Tuesday, knowing the Friday was when I’d take the final snapshot, with KPIs and bonuses set around that snapshot. The team and their leader knew when the figures were being pulled and how to pull them themselves, so if something was drifting away from where it needed to be, they had time to put it right before it counted.
Can I download the dashboard on this page?
No. The dashboard below is a made-up example to show what one can look like. If you’d like one built on your own data, get in touch, or if you’d like me to show you how to put something together for now, I’m happy to do that too.
See an example
(The existing example dashboard stays here, unchanged.)
Who can help
I’m Sam Olliver. I ran property management for 5,000 properties and I build dashboards like this for agencies myself, connected to the systems they already use. The Operations Scorecard is free and takes three minutes, or get in touch if you’d like one built on your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important KPIs for a letting agency?
The front-end ones you probably already track, like lets agreed and move-ins, plus the back-end ones most agencies don’t: open repairs with no update, complaints and what started them, money given away, and the work coming up in the next few weeks. Those are the numbers that warn you before a complaint lands.
How many KPIs should a property management dashboard have?
Around ten, on one screen. Enough to cover sales, lettings, management and the team, and few enough that people read them.
Do I need special software for a property management dashboard?
No. Start with a weekly sheet. Connecting it to your existing systems later saves typing and gives you one standard for the data, because figures entered by hand vary from person to person.
How often should we look at a property management dashboard?
Keep it visible all the time, ideally on a screen on the wall, and set a fixed day each week for the snapshot your KPIs are measured on, with the team told in advance when it’s being taken.
How many properties should a property manager look after?
There isn’t one right number, because it depends on how many repairs, complaints and moves come with the portfolio and how much the systems do for you. Put properties per manager on your dashboard next to open repairs and complaints, and you’ll see where the workload tips over.
Can I download this dashboard?
No, it’s a made-up example. Get in touch if you’d like one built on your own data.