Monthly financials tell you what already happened. By the time you see them the month is spent, and whatever went wrong went wrong five weeks ago to people who have moved on. A home-service company runs on a weekly rhythm, so most of these get looked at weekly and reconciled monthly.
What follows is each measure with its cadence and, more importantly, the question it answers. A number nobody can act on is decoration.
Why weekly, and what changes how often you look?
The cadence follows the decision. If a number tells you something you could act on this week, look at it this week. If it only makes sense across a longer run, a weekly look gives you noise and false control.
That is why gross profit gets a weekly look and a monthly reconciliation: the weekly read tells you which department is drifting, and the monthly close tells you whether that read was honest. Overhead is monthly, because overhead does not move in a week. Cash is neither: it runs on a rolling 13 week forecast, because what you need to see is not this week's balance but the week eleven weeks out where payroll, a tax payment and a supplier bill land together.
Two other things change the cadence. Your season, because a company doing its year in four months needs a tighter read in those four months. And your size, because what works at $1 million breaks at $5 million and collapses at $15 million, where company-wide averages stop telling an owner anything useful.
Which ten numbers, and what is each one actually answering?
These are Kerry Webb's ten, in his order.
1. Gross profit dollars and margin, by department
Look at it weekly, reconciled monthly. The question it answers: does each type of work earn enough, after direct job costs, to cover overhead and leave a profit?
By department, not company-wide. A company-wide margin hides the department losing money inside the one carrying it, and owners run for years without knowing which is which. Split service from replacement, and split multiple trades from each other.
2. Operating profit margin
Look at it weekly. The question it answers: what is left after direct costs and overhead, including reasonable pay for your own work?
Including your pay. If the company only makes money because you work for free, it does not make money. It makes a job with paperwork attached.
3. Breakeven plus 10 percent revenue target
Look at it weekly. The question it answers: do you have enough of the right type of work booked, and did the team execute well enough to hit the revenue you needed?
Breakeven plus 10 percent is the line Kerry sets for owners, and it has two halves. Booked is a marketing and front-desk answer. Executed is an operations answer. When you miss, this number tells you which half missed it, and that is a different conversation.
4. Booking rate and estimate acceptance rate
Look at both weekly. The question they answer: where do qualified inquiries stop becoming jobs?
Count service calls separately from replacement estimates. They are different conversations, run by different people. Averaging them buries whichever one is broken, usually the one nobody is watching.
5. Overhead as a percent of income
Look at it monthly. The question it answers: are you keeping overhead below 40 percent of total revenue?
Below 40 percent is the line Kerry holds owners to. Overhead creeps: a truck here, a salary there, a subscription nobody remembers signing up for. No single month looks wrong, and a year later the margin is gone.
6. Active maintenance agreements and renewal rate
Look at it monthly. The question it answers: are you presenting maintenance on 100 percent of calls and signing up 50 percent, and is your customer base growing?
Present on every call, sign up half. That is the standard Kerry sets. Renewal is the honest half, because selling agreements is easy and keeping them tells you whether the service was any good.
7. Cash forecast and overdue invoices
Look at it on a rolling 13 week forecast. The question it answers: can you meet payroll, supplier payments, taxes and debt obligations?
Thirteen weeks out, rolling forward every week. Profitable companies run out of cash all the time, and growth eats cash fastest of all, which is why the best year on paper is often the most frightening one in the bank account. Keep the tax line in the forecast rather than in your head; the Internal Revenue Service's small business resources set out what is due and when.
8. Labor hours, estimated against actual
Look at it weekly. The question it answers: where are estimating mistakes, scheduling or execution eating your margin?
This is the fastest way to find out whether your pricing is wrong or your process is. If you quoted six hours and it took ten, this number tells you which direction to look before you start blaming anybody.
9. Callback rate and cost
Look at it ongoing, alongside the weekly set. The question it answers: how much repeat work is eroding your profit and your available capacity?
A callback costs you twice: the trip you do not bill, and the billable trip you could not run because that truck and that man were busy fixing something you already got paid for once. Most companies count only the first, which is why callbacks look cheaper than they are.
10. Customer acquisition cost by source
Look at it weekly. The question it answers: what do you spend to acquire a new paying customer, compared with the gross profit that customer produces?
And a second question underneath it: do you know your market saturation by zip code or service area? Spending more in an area you already own is a different decision from spending more in one you have never worked, and the blended average will not tell you that.
How do you actually run this every week?
Put them on one page, not a dashboard with forty tiles. One page, same order, every week.
Show that page to the leadership team at the same time on the same day, and put a name beside every number. That person speaks to it: why it moved, and what they are doing about it before the next meeting. Nobody else answers for it.
That is the whole method, and what makes it work is not the numbers. It is that the same people look at the same things on the same day and say out loud what they are doing about them.
If your books are not clean enough to produce these yet, that is the first job rather than a reason to skip it. The Small Business Administration's guidance on managing your finances covers the bookkeeping foundation, and trade associations publish operating benchmarks worth reading beside your own figures.
What goes wrong when owners start tracking?
Four patterns, and most companies manage at least two.
The dashboard nobody reads. Forty measures, beautifully colored, opened once a quarter. Ten numbers looked at weekly beat forty looked at never.
The number with no name against it. If everyone owns the booking rate, nobody does, and the meeting becomes a weather report rather than a decision.
The company-wide average. Gross margin looks acceptable, and inside it one department is quietly funding another. It is the most common place a growing company hides a problem from itself.
The measure that never changes anything. If a number moves and nothing happens differently the next week, stop collecting it or stop pretending the meeting is a meeting.
What should I ask anyone who offers to build this for me?
Five questions, whether you are talking to a coach, a consultant or a software salesman.
Which of these ten does your system produce, and which does it estimate? Who on my team enters the data, and how long does that take every week? What happens in the meeting, not just on the screen? Which number do you expect to move first, and by when will I see it? And what do you need from my books before any of this is trustworthy?
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I look at my numbers?
Most of them weekly, reconciled monthly. Monthly financials arrive too late to act on, because by the time you see them the month is spent. Overhead is the monthly exception, and cash runs on a rolling 13 week forecast that moves forward every week.
What is a healthy overhead percentage for a home-service company?
Below 40 percent of total revenue is the line Kerry Webb holds owners to. It is a target he tells owners to hold rather than an average of anybody's results. Overhead creeps slowly enough that no single month looks wrong, so it is worth checking every month.
Why should I track gross profit by department instead of company-wide?
Because a company-wide margin hides the department losing money inside the one carrying it. Split service from replacement, and split the trades from each other if you run more than one. Owners run for years on an acceptable-looking average without knowing which half is funding the other.
What is a 13 week cash forecast and why does it matter?
It is a rolling look at cash in and cash out for the next thirteen weeks, moved forward every week. It matters because profitable companies run out of cash regularly, and growth eats cash faster than anything else. You are looking for the week where payroll, tax and supplier bills land together.
What does a callback actually cost me?
Twice what most owners count. There is the unbilled trip to put the work right, and there is the billable job you could not run because that truck and that technician were busy. Counting only the first one is why callbacks always look cheaper than they are.
How many numbers should be on the weekly scoreboard?
Ten, on one page, in the same order every week, with a name beside each one. A dashboard with forty tiles gets opened once a quarter. Ten numbers looked at weekly by the same people at the same time is what actually changes how the company runs.
Want Help Doing It?
Once the scoreboard exists, the other two guides tell you what to do with it: how to get more consistent, profitable jobs when the booking and margin numbers are the problem, and finding and keeping good technicians when the callback and labor numbers are. The resources for home-service owners sit alongside them, and short answers are on the questions home-service owners ask most.
The Home-Service Profit and Performance Toolkit holds the Business Growth Playbook with its growth scorecard and ninety-day action plan, a Growth Roadmap from $1 million to $3 million, a Daily Huddle Guide that opens on yesterday's scoreboard, and planning pages for the day and the week. Systems and tools for growth installs the whole scoreboard and the systems behind it, coaching for results is the work with you and your leadership team, and the 90-Day Plan is the engagement that finds the leaks these numbers point at.
Book the $100K Conversation and bring these numbers. Live every Thursday, 11 AM to noon Central.
Take the Business Assessment to find out which of the ten is costing you the most.
Call BGS Strategies on 940-441-3231, email support@bgsstrategies.com, or send BGS Strategies a message. BGS Strategies works with home-service owners across the United States and Canada, and calls before 10 AM usually reach voicemail because Kerry is coaching.
