If you only find out how a month went when the month-end figures arrive, you’re finding out too late to change it. Weekly numbers fix that.
So what numbers should a small business track every week? This guide covers 11, in three groups: pipeline, money and time. For each one you’ll see what it is, how to get it and what a change might be telling you, plus a free template.
Why track your numbers weekly instead of at month end?
Month-end figures are a report on the past. If enquiries dropped off in the first week of the month, a month-end report tells you weeks later, when the gap has already reached your diary.
Weekly numbers arrive while you can still act on what you see. A problem spotted on Monday can be dealt with that week:
- chase an overdue invoice before it turns into a cash squeeze
- follow up quotes that have gone quiet
- find more work before a quiet week becomes a quiet month
- move people back onto paid work when admin starts creeping in
A week is also short enough to remember. When a number moves, you’ll usually know why: a bank holiday, a big job finishing, someone off sick.
What numbers should a small business track every week?
These 11 numbers suit most businesses that quote for work. If you don’t send quotes, swap in whatever turns an enquiry into a sale, such as bookings or orders.
Pipeline: is enough work coming in?
Enquiries. New requests for work or prices this week, however they arrived. Count them from your inbox, website form and quoting tool, with a tally by the phone if customers call. If enquiries fall for a few weeks running, expect a quieter order book later; if they rise, make sure you can still quote quickly.
Quotes sent. How many quotes or estimates went out this week. Count them in your quoting tool or your sent emails. If enquiries hold steady but you’re sending fewer quotes, quoting has become a bottleneck, and customers waiting for a price may go elsewhere.
Quotes won. Quotes accepted this week, counted when the customer says yes, even if you sent the quote a month ago. Check your quoting tool, or acceptance emails and purchase orders. Fewer wins now means less work in a few weeks’ time, so a dip is your cue to chase open quotes.
Win rate. Quotes won ÷ quotes sent, as a percentage (the template works it out). Quotes can be won weeks after they’re sent, so one week’s figure can swing a lot, even past 100%; read it across several weeks. A steady fall points to price, speed or follow-up, where automating quote follow-ups with AI can help, while winning almost everything may mean your prices are too low.
Money: is cash keeping up with the work?
Sales invoiced (£). The total value of invoices you raised this week, from your accounting software’s invoice list or sales report. If you’ve been busy but invoicing drops, finished work may not be getting billed. If it falls a few weeks after quotes won fell, the quieter pipeline has reached your sales.
Cash received (£). The money that actually reached your bank from customers this week. Your accounting software will show it, and so will your bank statement. Cash follows invoicing by roughly your payment terms, so if invoicing is steady but cash falls, customers are paying more slowly.
Owed to you (£). Everything customers owe you at the end of the week, due or not. Your accounting software’s aged debtors report (sometimes called aged receivables) shows the total. If it keeps growing while sales stay flat, customers are taking longer to pay, and your cash is funding their business.
Overdue (£). The part of what you’re owed that’s past its due date, shown in the same report. This is the number to act on the same day, and if it keeps climbing, check whether it’s one big customer or lots of small ones. Most accounting software, including Xero and QuickBooks, can send automatic payment reminders.
Time: where are the hours going?
Hours worked. The total hours your team worked this week, including overtime. Take it from timesheets, your clocking-in system or payroll. If hours rise while sales invoiced stays flat, you’re putting in more effort for the same money.
Hours on paid work. Hours spent on work a customer pays for, such as time on a job or a client project. You need timesheets that record time against jobs, though a simple daily sheet of job hours is enough to start. This number drops when admin, travel, rework and waiting around creep into the day.
Paid-work share. Hours on paid work ÷ hours worked, as a percentage (the template works it out). A falling share means more of the hours you pay for are going on work nobody pays you for, and admin is often where they go. If you suspect that’s happening, the free admin scorecard estimates what admin costs you a year from 14 quick questions.
Measuring it properly makes a difference: a two-site trade business we worked with went from no time tracking to every job hour measured. At one of its two sites, untracked time fell from 25% to 4% in under a year, and output per person rose 35%.
What’s a good number to aim for?
There isn’t one figure that fits every business. A good win rate or paid-work share depends on your trade, prices, customers and how you count, so other people’s figures can mislead you.
Set your own baseline instead. Fill in the numbers for four to six weeks without trying to change anything, and you’ll see what a normal week looks like for you. Then watch the trend, not single weeks: one bad week is often a one-off, but three weeks heading the same way is worth acting on. Here’s an illustration, with made-up figures:
| Week starting | Enquiries | Quotes sent | Quotes won | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct | 15 | 10 | 4 | 40% |
| 12 Oct | 13 | 11 | 4 | 36% |
| 19 Oct | 11 | 9 | 4 | 44% |
| 26 Oct | 8 | 7 | 3 | 43% |
The win rate holds up. But enquiries have fallen four weeks in a row, so there will be fewer quotes to win next month. A monthly total of 47 enquiries hides that; watched weekly, you see it while there’s still time to act.
What’s in the free weekly numbers template?
We’ve made a free template so you don’t have to build your own. Download the weekly numbers template (Excel).
It’s an Excel workbook with two sheets:
- Weekly numbers: one row per week for a year, with columns for Week starting, Enquiries, Quotes sent, Quotes won, Win rate, Sales invoiced (£), Cash received (£), Owed to you (£), Overdue (£), Hours worked, Hours on paid work, Paid-work share and Notes. The win rate and paid-work share work themselves out, and an “Average so far” row at the top becomes your baseline after a few weeks. An example row shows the format, so type over it with your first week.
- How to use: the weekly steps, a colour key showing which cells to fill in, and what each number means, where it usually comes from and what a change might be telling you.
It also opens in Google Sheets. Use the Notes column to record anything that explains a week.
How do you fill in your weekly numbers in 15 minutes?
Use the same sources, in the same order, every week. This routine fits in about 15 minutes:
- Book the slot. Pick a regular time, such as Monday at 9am, to fill in the week just gone, and make it a repeating calendar appointment.
- Pipeline (about 5 minutes). Count enquiries, quotes sent and quotes won from your quoting tool or inbox.
- Money (about 5 minutes). From your accounting software, note the week’s sales invoiced and cash received, then the owed and overdue totals from the aged debtors report.
- Time (about 3 minutes). Add up hours worked and hours on paid work from your timesheets.
- Read the row (about 2 minutes). Compare it with recent weeks, add a line to Notes and pick one thing to act on.
Agree your counting rules once, such as whether sales are before or after VAT and what counts as an enquiry. That way every week is counted the same, whoever fills it in.
When should you move from a spreadsheet to a live dashboard?
A spreadsheet is the right place to start. It costs nothing, and typing the numbers in makes you look at them. It’s time to move on when:
- filling it in takes longer than 15 minutes, or keeps getting skipped
- someone is copying the same figures out of several tools every week
- other people need to see the numbers, or you want them more often
A live dashboard reads the figures from the tools you already use, such as your accounting software, quoting tool and timesheets, and updates itself. Nobody retypes anything, and the numbers are current whenever you look.
If you’d rather not build one yourself, we can build a live dashboard for you. A single dashboard is the kind of thing a First Fix can cover: live in 14 days, for a fixed price agreed up front.
Where to start
Take the free admin scorecard first: 14 quick questions give you an instant score by area, an estimate of what admin costs you a year and the three areas to fix first. Then download the template and fill in your first row this week.