The four numbers worth watching weekly
Most dashboards show everything and therefore nothing. Four figures, checked every week, catch nearly every problem while it is still small.
Reporting tools tend to fail by generosity. Forty charts on one screen means no one looks at any of them, and the number that mattered was on the third tab.
Repeat rate
The share of this month's customers who ordered before. It moves slowly and tells you whether the business is compounding or refilling a leaking bucket. Falling repeat rate is the earliest warning you get.
Margin per order, not revenue
Revenue is flattered by discounts and delivery commission. Track what you actually keep after both. It is common to find your busiest channel is your least profitable.
Item availability
Hours per week that popular items sat unavailable. This is invisible in sales reports by definition — the orders never happened — and it is usually a purchasing problem you can fix.
Time to accept
Minutes between an order arriving and someone accepting it. It predicts complaints better than prep time, and it is almost always a staffing or screen-placement issue rather than a kitchen one.
Four numbers, reviewed every Monday. Add the fifth only when someone asks the question it answers.