Module 8 · Business Analysis Fundamentals
Data and reporting requirements
Specify the KPIs, reports and data a change needs, so that "how will we know it worked?" has an exact, agreed answer before anything is built.
About 25 minutes
The problem
Three months after go-live, Ashgrove's managing partner asks: "Is it working?" The supplier's dashboard says the collection rate is 94%. The accounts officer's spreadsheet says 81%. Both are "right": the supplier counts only invoices issued since go-live, and the accounts officer counts every invoice since 2024.
Nobody ever wrote down what "collection rate" meant. Reporting is the part of a change that's most often left vague, and it's the part that decides whether anyone can prove the change worked. A BA specifies it as carefully as any other requirement.
The concept
A KPI definition card
For every key measure, agree and write down:
| Field | Example: Average days to pay |
|---|---|
| Name | Average days to pay |
| Purpose | Shows how quickly clients pay; the main measure of the billing change |
| Definition | For invoices paid in the period: the average number of calendar days from issue date to paid date |
| Formula | AVERAGE(paid_date − issued_date), paid invoices only |
| Source | invoices table: issued_date, paid_date, status |
| Baseline | 45.4 days (all paid invoices, January 2024 to August 2026) |
| Target | 30 days within 12 months of go-live |
| Owner | Accounts officer |
| Frequency | Monthly, in the first week of the month |
The definition and the baseline are the parts that prevent arguments. Calculate the baseline with exactly the same formula you'll use afterwards.
Report specifications
For each report: who uses it, what decision it supports, the measures and breakdowns, filters, how often it's refreshed, and who can see it. A one-line description ("an overdue report") isn't a specification.
Data requirements
List the data each report needs, where it comes from, and the quality rules it must meet: every invoice has a due date; every paid invoice has a paid date; amounts are positive. Ashgrove's current data has no due date at all, so "days overdue" can't be calculated today. That's a data requirement the new process must create.
Example
Two collection-rate definitions on Ashgrove's data:
| Definition | Value |
|---|---|
| Value paid ÷ value invoiced, all invoices since 2024 | you'll calculate it below |
| Value paid ÷ value invoiced, invoices more than 90 days old (so clients have had time to pay) | you'll calculate it below |
Neither is wrong. They answer different questions. The KPI card must say which one Ashgrove will track, and why. A sensible choice is to measure invoices once they're at least 90 days old, so recent invoices don't drag the rate down just because they're recent.
Walkthrough
- List the measures that would show whether Ashgrove's change worked: days to pay, % paid within terms, overdue value, overdue age, collection rate.
- Write a KPI card for each, including the baseline from your lesson 4 calculations.
- Calculate the collection rate on the data (the first task below) and decide which definition to recommend.
- Specify the weekly overdue report: users, decision supported, columns, sort order, filters, refresh and access.
- List the data requirements, including the new fields the process must capture (due date, payment plan flag).
Practice
Practice
What is Ashgrove's collection rate, defined as the value of Paid invoices ÷ the value of all invoices? One decimal place.
Practice
Using the second definition, value paid ÷ value invoiced for invoices issued more than 90 days before 31 August 2026, what is the collection rate? One decimal place.
Task
8 minWrite a KPI definition card for % paid within terms. Put each field on its own line as Field: value, with at least these fields: Name, Purpose, Definition, Formula, Source, Baseline, Target, Owner, Frequency. Assume 30-day terms.
Your work is checked for
- Has Name, Purpose and Definition lines
- Has Formula and Source lines
- Has Baseline and Target lines, each with a number
- Has Owner and Frequency lines
- The definition says which invoices count (paid invoices, or all invoices due in the period)
Check your understanding
Answer every question to check.