Best practices for documenting KPIs
Six best practices for documenting KPIs so metric definitions stay findable, traceable and trusted – a practical checklist for data teams.
Good KPI documentation turns scattered spreadsheets and tribal knowledge into a single source of truth your whole data team can rely on. These practices keep metric definitions findable, traceable and trustworthy – from the business description down to the tables and fields behind each number.
One agreed definition per metric
Settle on a single source of truth – and when a metric genuinely has variants like net vs. gross revenue, split them into distinct, named metrics instead of letting one name carry two meanings. Competing definitions behind the same name cause most “why don't the numbers match?” debates.
Lead with the business definition, then the formula
Describe in plain language what the metric means and when to use it before you attach SQL or DAX. A calculation nobody can read in business terms can't be validated by the people who rely on the number.
Give every metric an owner and a status
The owner is accountable for keeping the definition correct; the status – draft, approved or deprecated – tells everyone how far to trust it. Deprecate rather than delete, so older reports stay interpretable.
State the grain and how it can be sliced
Spell out what a single value of the metric represents and which dimensions it may be broken down by – time, region, product. Without an agreed grain, the same KPI quietly aggregates differently from one report to the next.
Make the formula and its lineage explicit
Capture what a metric is built from and what builds on it, so the impact of a change is visible before you make it – instead of discovering a broken KPI three dashboards downstream.
Record aliases and synonyms
The same metric is “Revenue” to Sales, “Umsatz” to Finance and “GMV” to Product. Capture those names so search lands on the one agreed entry instead of someone creating a fourth definition.
Review and certify before “Approved”
A quick second pair of eyes from the domain owner turns “Approved” from a checkbox into a real trust signal – and lets people build on a metric without re-checking it.
Keep definitions alive
Documentation rots as the business changes. Schedule a light periodic review, retire what's stale, and catch near-duplicates before they drift into competing versions.