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Setting Up Metrics and Goals

A Scoreboard is only as useful as the numbers on it. The Manage KPIs panel is where you decide what the board tracks, who is answerable for each number, who enters it, and what the goal is. Most practices start with five to ten numbers and add more as they go.

Open it with Settings at the top of the Scoreboard. The panel has two sides: on the left, everything on your board and everything you could add; on the right, the details of whichever row you pick.

Start a new board​

If your board is empty, the panel offers a few starting points:

  • Start from Patient Journey — adds SOPHIE's standard set of metrics, one for each step of the patient journey. The ones your practice management system can supply are collected automatically; the rest appear as COMING SOON until they can be.
  • Start from Dental Template — a ready-made set of common metrics for a dental practice.
  • Start from Scratch — begins a metric of your own.

You can add, change and remove metrics afterwards whichever you choose.

Add a metric​

From SOPHIE's catalog​

  1. In Manage KPIs, open Add from Sophie's catalog.
  2. Click a metric to review it before adding, or add it straight to the board.
  3. Set its owner, assignee and goals (below), then add it to the board.

Catalog metrics keep the same name in every practice, so "Collections" always means the same thing. You can't rename them.

Your own metric​

  1. Click New custom KPI at the bottom of the list. (If you searched for something and nothing matched, the button carries your search as the name.)
  2. What are you tracking? Give it a name, a unit (Count, Currency or Percent) and say whether it is better when Higher or Lower.
  3. Who fills this in? Choose A person types it, weekly, or — when your practice management system is connected — Sophie collects it and pick the measure to collect. Without a connected system, the row will be typed.
  4. Who owns it, and what is good? Pick the owner and department and set a goal.
  5. Click Add to board.

From the Scoreboard itself, Add a metric or service line at the bottom of the board opens the panel with the catalog already open.

Configure a row​

Click any row under On the board to open it on the right. You can rename your own metrics by clicking the title. Then:

  • Owner — the role answerable for the result. Usually a manager. The owner is not asked to enter the number.
  • Assignee — the role that supplies the number each week. Whoever holds that role gets the Friday reminder. On a collected row the assignee is SOPHIE. Choose Nobody yet to leave it open — but then nobody is asked for the number.
  • Department and Better when (Higher or Lower).
  • Unit — for typed rows only. A collected row's unit comes from what it collects.
  • Goals — see below.
  • Revenue tracker — tick this on the one metric that should drive the revenue banner at the top of the Scoreboard. Ticking it on one row unticks it everywhere else.
  • Where the number comes from / Who fills this in — a plain statement of where the row's figure comes from: the report and when it was last collected, or which role types it.

Drag rows in the list to change their order on the board.

Changes save automatically. Refresh at the top of the panel saves anything pending and re-reads the board.

Set goals​

Each row has a Goals box. Type a goal and the board starts scoring that row: every cell gets a chip showing how far ahead or behind it is.

A rate has one target; a total has three​

How goals work depends on what kind of number the row is.

A total — something that adds up over time, such as collections, production or new patients — has Weekly, Quarterly and Yearly goals. Type the weekly goal and the other two follow from it (13 weeks to a quarter, 52 to a year). You can type a different quarterly or yearly goal if your year isn't even; whichever you type is the one that holds.

A level — a rate, a percentage, an average or a balance, such as case acceptance or Accounts Receivable — has a single Target. It is the same number in every period: 90% a week is 90% for the quarter and 90% for the year. The board scores the week, the quarter and the year against that one figure.

A row with no goal is perfectly fine. It shows its numbers with no verdict attached, and the pace strip says No target set. A goal of zero is a real goal — useful for things like no-shows or write-offs.

Let SOPHIE suggest a goal​

Click Suggest with SOPHIE (or Suggest from history in the Goals box). SOPHIE proposes weekly, quarterly and yearly goals based on your practice's own history and, for your revenue tracker, your Vision Map revenue goal. Review the suggestion and accept it, or close it and type your own. A goal SOPHIE set is marked with a small sparkle.

Some catalog metrics start with an industry default, marked industry default — edit me. Replace it with a number that fits your practice.

Remove a metric​

Open the row and use the removal box at the bottom, which says exactly what will happen before you click:

  • Remove row — the board stops carrying it. Nothing already collected is deleted, but if you add it back later it starts its own history.
  • Remove group — removing a total such as Collections also removes every breakdown row under it, because a breakdown means nothing without its total. You'll be asked to confirm with Remove all and the number of rows, or Keep it.
  • Untrack provider — removes a provider's breakdown rows, and their money goes back into Other.

Good to know​

  • Who can change the board. Adding metrics needs Add metrics, removing them needs Delete metrics, and changing any row's settings or goals needs Edit any metric. See Roles and permissions.
  • Owner and assignee are roles, not people. When someone new takes over a role, they pick up the metric automatically. If a role is empty, the board marks the row and nobody is asked for the number until someone is in the role.
  • Each space has its own metrics. Setting up the board in one space doesn't change another.
  • Coming-soon rows can't be filled in by anyone. If you need that number now, add your own typed metric for it.
  • Turning a typed row into a collected one means the collected figure is shown wherever your system has one, in place of what was typed.