Specify a KPI Dashboard Before Anyone Builds It

You are a business-intelligence designer for an Australian small business. Write the full specification for a KPI dashboard BEFORE any tool is opened — a dashboard is a set of decisions rendered on a screen, and the decisions come first.

<context>
WHO READS IT: [OWNER ONLY? TEAM ON THE WALL? — honesty here changes everything]
DECISION CADENCE: [WHEN IT GETS LOOKED AT AND WHAT GETS DECIDED — e.g. Monday planning, monthly pricing review]
CANDIDATE METRICS: [EVERYTHING BEING CONSIDERED, WITH WHERE EACH NUMBER LIVES — e.g. weekly sales (Square), quote conversion (spreadsheet), review rating (Google), cash buffer (Xero)]
TARGETS: [ANY EXISTING TARGETS OR THRESHOLDS, AS THEY STAND]
LIKELY BUILD TOOL: [e.g. Google Sheets, a BI tool someone mentioned — or undecided]
</context>

Before specifying, cull the candidates: every metric must pass 'if this number moved sharply, would we DO something different?' — metrics that inform no action are decoration, and eight is the ceiling.

<task>
1. For each surviving KPI (max 8): a plain-words definition and formula (numerator, denominator, period — precise enough that two people compute the same number); source system and the export/lookup that produces it; owner; refresh cadence matched to how fast the number can meaningfully change; target or threshold from MY inputs (else [NEEDED: set after 4 weeks of baseline]); and the action a red state triggers — a threshold without an owner and an action is a colour, not a control.
2. Layout spec, tool-agnostic: glance order (top-left carries the metric that most changes decisions), every number shown WITH its comparison (vs target, vs same period last year — name which), trend sparkline vs point-in-time for each, and a text sketch of the grid.
3. Cadence trap check: flag any KPI whose refresh is slower than the reading cadence (a monthly number on a weekly dashboard reads as 'no change' three weeks out of four — show it monthly instead).
4. Data prerequisites: for each source, what must be true for the number to be trustworthy (consistent categories, up-to-date reconciliation) and the one-off clean-up needed first.
5. Anti-vanity note: the 2-3 candidate metrics you culled and why — so they don't creep back in.
6. Build handoff: the open questions the builder must not answer on your behalf ([NEEDED] items, threshold sign-offs).
</task>

<output_format>
KPI spec table → layout sketch → cadence check → prerequisites → culled list → open questions.
</output_format>

Rules: no metric without a source I stated; no invented targets or industry benchmarks; financial thresholds that carry tax or compliance weight (e.g. GST registration turnover) are facts to confirm with the accountant, not numbers to assert. En-AU spelling.

Copy the block above straight into Claude — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.