BI glossary
Plain-English definitions of business-intelligence and dashboard terms for contractors.
B
Booked revenue
Booked revenue is one of the most-used numbers in a home-service business and one of the most misread. This page explains exactly what it means, where it differs from sold revenue, recognized revenue, and cash collected, and how operators use it to see where the month is heading before it ends.
Business intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) is the practice of turning raw operational data into dashboards and reports that help a business make faster, better decisions.
C
Campaign spend
Campaign spend is the total dollar amount a company puts into paid advertising across one or more channels over a given period. Here is how contractors read and track it, and why grouping it by channel changes every decision downstream.
Capacity planning
A plain-English breakdown of capacity planning in the trades, who owns it by role, where it shows up on a live dashboard, and the most common way contractors misread their available capacity until it is too late to fix.
COGS
COGS (cost of goods sold) is the direct cost of delivering your work. For contractors, it is the number that separates revenue from gross profit, and the one number your financials hinge on getting right.
D
Dashboard software
Dashboard software connects to your data sources and displays key metrics on configurable, shareable dashboards.
Data chaos
Data chaos is the operational condition where a company's critical numbers are scattered across disconnected tools with no single source of truth. This page explains what the term means, why it is especially costly in home services, and what operators do to escape it.
Data consolidation
A plain-English look at data consolidation for contractors, including which systems typically hold your data, why silos cost you money, and how a unified view changes the decisions you can make before the month is over.
Data visualization
Data visualization is the presentation of data as charts, graphs, and gauges so patterns and outliers are obvious at a glance.
Discount rate
A plain-English explanation of discount rate in home services, why the number understates the actual margin hit, and how operators track it in real time before the month is already lost.
Dispatch capacity
Dispatch capacity is the number of technician hours (or slots) your team can actually fill on any given day. When it is tracked live, dispatch teams stop leaving money on the board; when it is invisible, overbooking and idle time both become expensive habits.
Display rotation
Display Rotation: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
G
Gamification
Gamification applies game mechanics — points, contests, and leaderboards — to everyday work to boost engagement and performance.
Goal tracker
Goal Tracker: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
Gross profit
A plain-English explanation of gross profit for contractors, including how the formula works, what it tells you about each job, and why it shows up differently when QuickBooks data lives separately from your CRM.
K
L
Labor percentage
A plain-English guide to labor percentage for home-service and skilled-trades operators, covering what the number measures, how it behaves by trade and department, and the common ways it gets misread on a report.
Leaderboard
A leaderboard ranks individuals or teams by a chosen metric to drive friendly competition and visibility.
M
Month-to-date
Month-to-Date: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
Multi-location rollup
When you run more than one location, individual branch reports only tell you part of the story. A multi-location rollup combines every location into one consolidated view so an owner or GM can see the whole operation at a glance and still drill into any single branch.
N
P
R
Real-time dashboard
A real-time dashboard updates continuously as new data arrives, instead of waiting for a daily or monthly report.
Real-time KPI tracking
Real-time KPI tracking is the practice of monitoring key performance indicators as they update through the day, not in yesterday's report. Here is what the term means, how it differs from standard reporting, and why it alters decisions for home-service teams.
Revenue pacing
Revenue Pacing: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
S
T
U
W
What is accounting dashboard?
What Is Accounting Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is analytics platform?
What Is Analytics Platform?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is anomaly detection?
What Is Anomaly Detection?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is API integration?
What Is Api Integration?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is API pull?
What Is Api Pull?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is attribution modeling?
What Is Attribution Modeling?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is average ticket?
A plain-English average ticket definition for contractors, plus how the number shows up by department and on a real-time dashboard so owners can coach it, not just report it.
What is benchmarking?
What Is Benchmarking?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is BI adoption?
What Is Bi Adoption?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is BI dashboard?
What Is Bi Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is BI implementation?
What Is Bi Implementation?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is booking rate?
A plain-English booking rate definition for home-service operators, covering what the term means, where it lives in the call center, how it differs from conversion rate and close rate, and why seeing it live changes how CSR managers coach their teams.
What is business analytics?
What Is Business Analytics?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is calculated field?
What Is Calculated Field?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is call conversion rate?
A plain-English call conversion rate definition for CSR managers and operators, covering what the number actually measures, how it differs from booking rate, and why most home-service companies are reading it wrong.
What is cohort analysis?
What Is Cohort Analysis?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is contest dashboard?
What Is Contest Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is contractor analytics?
What Is Contractor Analytics?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is CRM reporting?
What Is Crm Reporting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is cross-filtering?
What Is Cross-Filtering?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is CSR leaderboard?
What Is Csr Leaderboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is csv export?
What Is Csv Export?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is custom report?
What Is Custom Report?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dashboard adoption?
What Is Dashboard Adoption?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dashboard automation?
What Is Dashboard Automation?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dashboard examples?
What Is Dashboard Examples?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dashboard governance?
What Is Dashboard Governance?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dashboard template?
What Is Dashboard Template?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dashboard widget?
What Is Dashboard Widget?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data blending?
What Is Data Blending?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data connector?
What Is Data Connector?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data dictionary?
What Is Data Dictionary?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data extraction?
What Is Data Extraction?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data governance?
What Is Data Governance?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data latency?
What Is Data Latency?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data mapping?
What Is Data Mapping?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data model?
What Is Data Model?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data normalization?
What Is Data Normalization?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data pipeline?
What Is Data Pipeline?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data quality?
What Is Data Quality?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data refresh interval?
What Is Data Refresh Interval?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data refresh?
What Is Data Refresh?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data silo?
What Is Data Silo?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data source?
What Is Data Source?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data storytelling?
What Is Data Storytelling?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data transformation?
What Is Data Transformation?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is data warehouse?
What Is Data Warehouse?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is dimension?
What Is Dimension?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is drilldown?
What Is Drilldown?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is elt?
What Is Elt?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is embedded analytics?
What Is Embedded Analytics?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is employee leaderboard?
What Is Employee Leaderboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is etl?
What Is Etl?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is executive dashboard?
What Is Executive Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is field service analytics?
What Is Field Service Analytics?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is filter?
What Is Filter?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is forecasting?
What Is Forecasting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is goal tracking?
What Is Goal Tracking?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is historical reporting?
What Is Historical Reporting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is home service analytics?
What Is Home Service Analytics?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is KPI hierarchy?
What Is Kpi Hierarchy?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is KPI library?
What Is Kpi Library?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is lead attribution?
What Is Lead Attribution?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is live reporting?
What Is Live Reporting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is manual reporting?
What Is Manual Reporting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is marketing dashboard?
What Is Marketing Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is measure?
What Is Measure?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is metric definition?
What Is Metric Definition?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is metric glossary?
What Is Metric Glossary?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is metric owner?
What Is Metric Owner?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is missed call rate?
Missed Call Rate: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is mobile dashboard?
What Is Mobile Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is multi-touch attribution?
What Is Multi-Touch Attribution?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is near real-time data?
What Is Near Real-Time Data?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is operational dashboard?
What Is Operational Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is operational visibility?
What Is Operational Visibility?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is pacing dashboard?
What Is Pacing Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is performance blind spots?
What Is Performance Blind Spots?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is performance management?
What Is Performance Management?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is predictive analytics?
What Is Predictive Analytics?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is reporting automation?
What Is Reporting Automation?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is reporting cadence?
What Is Reporting Cadence?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is reporting software?
What Is Reporting Software?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is reporting stack?
What Is Reporting Stack?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is revenue attribution?
What Is Revenue Attribution?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is revenue leakage?
What Is Revenue Leakage?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is ROAS?
A plain-English ROAS definition for contractors, including the formula, how it reads across Google Ads and other channels, and how marketing leaders and owners use it to decide where the next ad dollar goes.
What is rollup reporting?
What Is Rollup Reporting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is root cause analysis?
What Is Root Cause Analysis?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is sales leaderboard?
What Is Sales Leaderboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is self-service BI?
What Is Self-Service Bi?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is single source of truth?
What Is Single Source Of Truth?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is spreadsheet reporting?
What Is Spreadsheet Reporting?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is technician leaderboard?
What Is Technician Leaderboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is trend analysis?
What Is Trend Analysis?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is TV dashboard?
What Is Tv Dashboard?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
What is variance analysis?
What Is Variance Analysis?: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.
White-labeled dashboard
White-Labeled Dashboard: what it means for home-service businesses and why it matters on your dashboard.