The 7 numbers every trade business should check weekly (and where to find them)

By the SKEDS Team · 2 September 2026 · 6 min read

Most trade business owners run on two numbers: the bank balance and the gut. Both lag. By the time the bank balance shows a problem, it started six weeks ago — a quiet quoting month, a run of underpriced jobs, invoices drifting out late. The businesses that grow calmly are the ones watching a handful of numbers early enough to steer.

Here are seven worth ten minutes a week, all of which fall out of a system like SKEDS automatically because they're by-products of running the jobs — no spreadsheet homework required.

1. Quote win rate

Quotes won ÷ quotes sent. Below ~1 in 3, your pricing, speed or presentation needs work; consistently above 2 in 3, you're probably too cheap. Track it by job type — commercial and residential rarely behave the same. (Related: how to quote a job without underpricing yourself.)

2. Jobs completed per crew, per week

The heartbeat of capacity. Trending down with the same headcount means something's eating time — travel, reworks, waiting on materials. This number is where wins from route planning and better dispatch show up first.

3. Unbilled completed work

The silent killer: jobs done, invoices not yet raised. Every dollar here is work you've paid wages for and not asked to be paid for. Healthy is near zero, because invoices go out from the driveway. Check it Friday; it should embarrass you into a habit.

4. Debtor days (how long customers take to pay)

Invoiced isn't paid. If your terms are 7 days and money arrives in 31, you're the bank. Watch the trend and the outliers — repeat slow payers earn deposits or COD, per chasing overdue invoices. With the Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks integration, SKEDS and your books agree on who owes what.

5. Quoted vs actual margin per job

The truth serum. Compare what you priced against what the job actually consumed in labour and materials — which you have, because time and parts were logged to the job. A few job types will be reliably underwater; fix the pricing template, not the crew. Full method in job costing.

6. Schedule utilisation and forward bookings

How full is next week? Next month? Forward visibility is the difference between marketing before the gap arrives and panicking inside it. It also tells you when to stop discounting — a full book shouldn't be quoting cheap.

7. Callbacks and reworks

Jobs you returned to for free. The rate matters less than the pattern: same crew, same job type, same supplier's parts? Callbacks are quality data wearing a cost disguise.

Make it a ritual, not a project

Ten minutes, same time each week, same seven numbers on the SKEDS dashboard. The value isn't any single reading — it's the trend, and the weeks where a line bends and you ask why while it's still cheap to fix.

Frequently asked questions

Isn't this what my accountant does? Your accountant sees the financial result months later. These are operational numbers that cause the financial result — you're watching the inputs.

I'm a sole trader. Which ones matter? Win rate, unbilled work and debtor days. Those three protect the only crew you've got: you.

Do I need to build reports myself? No — this is what the reports and dashboard in SKEDS are for. If the data went in while running the jobs, the numbers come out free.