KPIs
What is a KPI?
A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is any measurable value that tells you how your business is doing against a goal. In Sortment, a KPI is a metric you define once and then track over time on your dashboard, so you always have a live read on the numbers that matter most.
A KPI can be almost anything you care about. Common examples:
Number of paid users — how many users currently hold a paid plan.
Conversion rate in an onboarding funnel — the percentage of new users who complete onboarding.
Day 30 churn rate — the share of users who stop being active within 30 days of signing up.
KPIs are flexible by design. You can define them with no-code logic on the Sortment dashboard, using the same filters you already use to build audiences, or you can write the exact logic yourself in SQL. Once created, a KPI is calculated on a schedule you choose and charted over time so you can spot trends, spikes, and drops at a glance.
Creating a KPI
Step 1: Open the KPI creator
From the KPIs dashboard, click Create KPI in the top-right corner. You can switch between grid and list views of your existing KPIs using the toggle next to the button.
Step 2: Add the details
In the Add KPI panel, fill in the basic details:
KPI Name — a short, recognisable name (e.g.
Day 30 churn rate).Description — what this KPI measures and why it matters, so teammates understand it at a glance.
AI usage context — optional guidance for Sortment AI on how this KPI should be interpreted. Use it to encode expectations or thresholds the AI should be aware of, for example: "We want this KPI to never fall below 20%."
Step 3: Choose what to track
Under What do you want to track?, pick one of four modes depending on the kind of value you want to measure.
People
Counts how many users fit certain conditions — typically the number of people in an audience. Under Who should be included?, add conditions using the same filter builder as the audience builder. For example, filter to users on a paid plan to track your number of paid users.
Actions
Counts how often something happened, based on an event you track. For example, count the number of purchases in a period. You can narrow the count with filters within the Actions block — for instance, count only purchases made by new users.
Metric
Computes the total or average value of something. For example, take the highest purchase value per user in the last 30 days and track that value across all users. Use this mode when the KPI is a numeric aggregate rather than a count.
Custom code
Lets you write your own logic in SQL for full flexibility. Paste a query that returns your KPI value. You can use Sortment AI to draft the SQL for you and copy-paste it here.
Step 4: Preview and format the value
The Preview panel on the right shows what the KPI value will look like before you publish. Click Calculate value to run the logic and confirm you get the number you expect.
To keep your dashboard clean and readable, apply custom formatting to the value. You can format the output as:
Currency — for monetary values (e.g. revenue, average order value).
Number — for counts (e.g. number of paid users).
Percentage — for rates (e.g. conversion rate, churn rate).
Step 5: Set the tracking frequency
Under When should this KPI be tracked?, choose how often Sortment recalculates the KPI. Set it to run as frequently as Daily at a specific time, or Weekly or Monthly. The times use your workspace timezone.
Step 6: Save
Click Save to publish the KPI. It now appears on your KPIs dashboard, where it displays the latest value, the change over the previous period, and a growth chart that updates on your chosen schedule.
Last updated