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KPIs

Gain insights and inform decision-making with these essential business tools. Use our selection of guides, tools, books and articles to find more information on all aspects of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
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Latest on KPIs

Read our latest features and articles on KPIs.
How Burberry is keeping check on sustainability
  • Article
  • 02 Feb 2022
Corporate responsibility plans are already in full flow but the British retailer will further integrate sustainability incentives, targets and KPIs this year.
Exclusive Drive your decisions with data
  • Article
  • 21 Feb 2020
Use data to make the best decisions, and don’t drown in numbers.
Exclusive Choosing the right KPIs
  • Article
  • 17 May 2018
Finance professionals talk to Lauren Razavi about harnessing their company’s hidden depths for success.
Exclusive KPI implementation
  • Article
  • 08 Feb 2018
With the use of key performance indicator projects, it’s easy to be unsuccessful. David Parmenter discusses how businesses can avoid failure.
Exclusive Indicating improvement
  • Article
  • 05 Feb 2016
Paul Golden looks at how SMEs can get it right when it comes to selecting the most appropriate metrics or KPIs to ensure continued growth.
Exclusive Overview of KPI's
  • Article
  • 17 Jun 2014
Data and key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential business tools. KPIs help organisations understand how well they are performing in relation to their strategic goals and objectives. Data is the ‘raw material’ that feeds KPIs as well as any business intelligence project or data analysis.
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KPI tools, templates and case studies

Performance measurement and target-setting
  • Report
This academic case study explores the role of a strategic performance measurement system in balancing stability and flexibility in a multi-divisional organisation.
Reporting KPIs - design guidelines
  • Helpsheets and support
  • DOCX (173kb)
This guideline provides a structured way of making design choices to increase the effectiveness of the product.
Template for designing key performance indicators
  • Helpsheets and support
  • DOCX (132kb)
A simple template to help you identify objectives, questions, data collection methods and more.
Exclusive KPIs: BPM tool guide
  • Article
The following BPM tool guide is one of a series produced for ICAEW by Professor Mike Bourne of Cranfield University.
Exclusive Case study: Focusing on your key success factors - direct sales kitchen company
  • Article
BPM tensions were triggered when the organisational structure stopped the business focusing on operational measures.
Exclusive Define the data attributes of your KPIs
  • Article
For KPIs to be used effectively they need to have certain attributes - define and record these here.
Exclusive Template: KPI design
  • Article
A template for designing key performance indicators.
Exclusive Case study: Developing truly relevant KPIs
  • Article
Service Hotel is a small family-owned hotel group that focuses on personalised service in the middle-class market. A few years back the group created a balanced scorecard and was collecting many traditionally common performance indicators in four perspectives: finance, customer, operations and employees.
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Glossary

Exclusive KPI glossary
A glossary of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) divided into key subject areas.

eBooks

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.

Exclusive Key performance indicators: developing, implementing and using winning KPIs
  • 2020
  • David Parmenter
  • Wiley
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help define and measure the organizational goals which are fundamental to an organization's current and future success. This book provides a model for simplifying the complex areas of KPIs while helping organizations avoid common mistakes and hazards.
Exclusive Key performance indicators: developing, implementing and using winning KPIs
  • 2010
  • David Parmenter
  • John Wiley and Sons
A manager's guide to implementing KPIs.
Terms of use

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

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Business press

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
Exclusive Dashboards: From performance art to decision support
  • 01 May 2023
  • Neil Hoyne, David Reibstein, Koen Pauwels
Dashboards are a common tool for managers to monitor a company's performance. But what is the real use of these dashboards? It may be slightly astonishing that Google Chief Measurement Strategist Neil Hoyne is no fan of dashboards, but he believes they can be toxic when taken out of context. In this interview, he explains his scepticism of monitoring the same KPIs quarter after quarter and suggests different ways to make dashboards more strategically useful to companies.
Exclusive Adapt company culture KPIs to the hybrid workplace
  • 01 May 2022
  • Jamie Notter
Discover the correct indicators to measure with this guide to key performance indicators (KPIs) for employees working remotely.
Exclusive (PM)² method: Learn more about the basics of KPI management
  • 01 Mar 2022
  • Grace Duffy, Yves Van Nuland
Yves Van Nuland and Grace Duffy outline their (PM)² method for guiding an organisation to professionally manage their KPIS for effective performance management. They explain the difference between a KPI and an indicator, types of indicators and how to standardize a KPI.
Exclusive The critical first step to data security
  • 01 Dec 2021
  • Marianne Bradford, Eileen Taylor, Megan Seymore
The article discusses the essential data security strategies that management accountants can use in applying business performance measurement skills in the identification of key performance indicators (KPI) for data security and classification. Topics include the IBM data showing that data breach average cost stood at 4.24 million dollars in 2020, and the importance of data classification as the foundation of data security.
Exclusive How to create Key Performance Indicators
  • 01 Apr 2019
  • Jeffry Haber, Caitlin Schryver
How not-for-profit organizations can develop meaningful and relevant key performance indicators (KPIs).
Exclusive CFOs: How to enable finance as a business partner
  • 20 Mar 2019
  • Neil James
How to use the integrated business planning (IBP) approach to support finance business partnering in your organisation. IBP can be used in various elements of performance appraisal by the finance business partner, such as budgetary control, alignment of KPIs and risk management.
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External resources

Essential guide to key performance indicators
  • Atom Content Marketing
Identifying and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) helps you focus on the areas that really matter to your business.
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