The last week of the quarter
Your social enterprise holds a contract with the council: a community wellbeing service, a day opportunity for adults with learning disabilities, a supported employment service, a youth programme or a community transport scheme. The contract has a set of KPIs. Number of people referred, number engaged within ten working days, number completing a programme, percentage reporting improved wellbeing, number of sessions delivered, number of complaints, and so on.
At the end of each quarter the operations manager opens the council's template and starts filling it in. Referrals come from one spreadsheet. Sessions come from the attendance registers, some on paper. The wellbeing scores are on forms in a tray. The engagement within ten working days figure means counting working days between two dates for every referral, by hand, and excluding bank holidays. By the Friday the return is sent, but the manager is not entirely sure of two of the numbers.
Why KPI returns are rebuilt every quarter
The contract was written by the commissioner, with their definitions. Your recording was set up by your team, to deliver the service. They were never designed to line up.
| KPI as written | What your records hold | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| Engaged within 10 working days of referral | Referral date and first session date | Working day calculation, by hand |
| Completed the programme | Attendance per session | No agreed rule for 'completed' |
| Improved wellbeing | Scores on paper forms | Paired start and end scores not linked |
| Residents of the council area | Addresses in free text | Postcode checks by hand |
| Referrals by source | Source noted inconsistently | Categories do not match the template |
Contracts also change. The council adds a KPI at the annual review, or redefines one, and the spreadsheet grows another column that only one person understands.
What each KPI means is set by your contract and your conversations with the commissioner. We do not interpret contract terms. We make whatever definitions you agree with them repeatable.
What the quarterly rebuild costs
The manager's week, every quarter, is the obvious cost, and it lands at the same time as the delivery staff need her most.
Accuracy is the less obvious one. A return built by hand is hard to check, and a figure that cannot be explained is awkward at a contract review meeting. If the council questions a number, rebuilding the working takes as long as producing it did.
And the organisation learns little from its own data. Figures produced once a quarter for someone else are rarely used to manage the service month by month.
How we produce returns from delivery records
What we build starts from the return and works backwards to the records.
- We go through the council's template with you and write down each KPI's definition as the commissioner applies it, including edge cases such as re-referrals and people who move away.
- We map each definition to the records it needs and find the gaps, such as a missing referral source category or a start and end wellbeing score that are not linked to the same person.
- We close the gaps at the point of delivery: the referral form gets the source list the council uses, and the wellbeing form links to the participant's record, with staff entering on a tablet or phone.
- Rules calculate each KPI automatically, such as working days between referral and first contact using the bank holiday calendar, and postcode checks against the council boundary.
- The return is produced in the council's own template, with a drill-down behind each figure listing the records it counts.
- A monthly dashboard shows the same KPIs during the quarter, so a figure heading below target is seen in time to act.
Where your records live in a case management system you already use, we connect to it rather than replacing it.
The end of the next quarter
On the first working day after the quarter ends, the manager opens the return. The figures are already there. She checks the three people flagged as unclear, such as one who was referred twice, and decides how the contract treats them. The return goes to the council on the Tuesday.
At the contract review, the commissioner asks about the engagement figure. The manager opens the drill-down and shows the list. The conversation moves on to what is working, which is the conversation she wanted to have.
Does your quarter end like this?
- Contract returns take several days to compile each quarter.
- KPIs are calculated by hand from several spreadsheets and paper forms.
- You could not quickly show the working behind a figure if asked.
- New or changed KPIs make the spreadsheet more fragile each year.
- You only see your performance against targets when the return is due.