Business retention program metrics give your board numbers it trusts, because every figure clicks through to the records behind it. This guide covers what to report from a business retention and expansion (BRE) program, and how BRE Pulse builds the reports from the record.
What a board needs to see
Start with the program overview: businesses known, engaged and assisted, open risks and growth, overdue commitments and what needs attention today. That tells a board whether the program is reaching the businesses it serves and whether it is keeping its promises.
Jobs and investment by stage, never combined
Jobs, investment and square footage are tracked as proposed, committed and completed, never combined. Kept separate, one large project never hides everything else, and a proposed expansion is never reported as if it had happened.
Commitments and response times
Every promise made to a business carries an owner and a due date. Reporting overdue commitments alongside response times shows a board how well the program follows through, not just how busy it was.
Program scores
The scorecard has seventeen monthly measures with CSV export, from coverage and response times to issues resolved.
Monthly, quarterly, annual and board reports
Monthly, quarterly, annual and board reports regenerate from the record, classified for internal, board or partner audiences, and never naming a business without permission. Reports come out as PDF, Word, Excel, CSV or HTML, delivered on a schedule to the people you choose.
Three scores a board can read
BRE Pulse reports three operational scores your board can read: Intelligence (how well you know your businesses), Engagement (how consistently you engage them) and Execution (how well you follow through). Execution is built from first-response time, commitments on time, the overdue rate, case progress and business confirmation. All scores are versioned, show their components, and are labeled operational.
BRE scores are operational indicators computed from your own record, not a statement about any individual business.
Separate counts, not one headline number
Proposed, committed and completed investment are stored and reported separately and never combined. Jobs retained, projected and created are separate counts. Breadth outcomes (businesses assisted, small businesses assisted, contacted, verified, issues resolved, response and resolution times) sit beside project outcomes, so the steady work of a program is visible next to its largest cases. Small-business coverage is reported on its own.
Protect the businesses in the report
Board briefings never name a business without permission and suppress small cells. Individual answers are never published, and aggregate results appear in reports without identifying a business. Report narratives are drafted from a payload the reader can see, and every figure appears in the payload. Fiscal-impact estimates always show their formula, inputs and assumptions.
Show the work behind the numbers
Investment proposed, committed and completed; jobs retained, projected and created; square footage; open and overdue commitments. Those are the figures a retention program can stand behind, because each comes from a case on the record.
A confirmed flag becomes a case in one click. Cases carry the business need, the government need, jobs and investment by stage, agencies, owners and due dates. Government commitments carry an owner and due date; overdue commitments are escalated. When the board report shows an overdue commitment, the case behind it shows who owns it and when it was due.
Reports ready for the next meeting
Run the first pass and the dashboard, follow-up list, 30/60/90-day plan and a first-run report are ready for your next staff meeting. The rolling 30/60/90-day plan regenerates nightly from open flags, cases, gaps and commitments, and never duplicates an action. Reports come out on a schedule, so the board packet does not depend on someone rebuilding a spreadsheet each month.
Click through to the record
Dashboards have drill-through: click any number to see the records that make it up. A monthly report and a board or council briefing regenerate from the record. See how reporting works, what BRE software is, or see BRE in action.
Frequently asked questions
- Should proposed and completed jobs be reported together?
- No. Jobs, investment and square footage are tracked as proposed, committed and completed, never combined, so one large project never hides everything else.
- Can board reports name the businesses involved?
- Board reports are classified for internal, board or partner audiences and never name a business without permission.
- What formats can reports be delivered in?
- PDF, Word, Excel, CSV or HTML, delivered on a schedule to the people you choose.
Related
See BRE Pulse working
Walk through a demonstration township with your own questions: the business records, a visit, the follow-up list and a board report.
