The Financial Loss dashboard translates workforce underutilization into financial metrics by quantifying underutilized FTEs and associated salary costs. Available in select ActivTrak plans*, it is designed for executives to identify cost-saving opportunities by department, location or productivity threshold and inform resource allocation decisions and productivity improvement programs.
To access the Financial Loss dashboard, navigate to Insights > Financial Loss.
Tip: Add the Financial Loss dashboard to your Favorites for quick access.
*Contact sales@activtrak.com to try this feature, get a demo or upgrade your plan.
The Financial Loss Dashboard - Insights
Contents
- When to use the Financial Loss dashboard
- Navigating the Financial Loss dashboard
- Customizing the dashboard
- Practical applications
- Learn more
When to use the Financial Loss dashboard
The Financial Loss dashboard translates productivity data into financial metrics, helping executives:
- Identify where workforce capacity is underutilized across teams and departments to help mobilize remediation initiatives
- Quantify the financial impact of productivity gaps in dollar terms
- Track improvements in productivity and resource allocation over time
- Make data-driven decisions about headcount and resource allocation
Navigating the Financial Loss dashboard
Filter settings
The Financial Loss dashboard can be customized using the filter options at the top of the dashboard:
- Month: Select which month to analyze from the past 12 complete months
-
Team: Filter data by specific departments or business units
- We recommend selecting the departments and/or business units that represent the top line of your business (n-1 groups) to provide leadership with a high-level view of the organization
- Avg Annual Salary: Select an average annual salary figure to calculate the financial impact
Click the refresh icon ⟳ in the top right corner after making your filter selections to ensure they are applied to the dashboard.
Financial Loss Filters
Monthly Summary
The Monthly Summary panel provides a high-level overview of productivity gaps for the selected team(s) and month, including:
- Number of active users working below their productivity goal
- Total productivity gap in hours per day
- Equivalent number of full-time employees (FTE)
- Monthly and annualized financial impact based on the specified average salary
This summary quantifies the scale and cost of unused capacity across your organization.
Monthly Summary
Monthly Financial Loss by Team
The By Team panel breaks down productivity gaps by team or department, showing:
- Users Below Goal: Number of active users in each team working below their productive hrs/day goal
- % of Team: Percentage of active team members working below their productivity hrs/day goal
- Untapped Capacity FTE: Full-time equivalent capacity available in each team
- Financial Loss (Monthly): Monthly cost of unused capacity for each team based on the specified average salary
Teams are sorted from highest to lowest financial impact, helping you quickly identify the most significant areas for improvement.
Note: When multiple teams are selected in the filter, users who belong to more than one of the selected teams will be counted multiple times in this grid. This may result in the sum of users across teams exceeding your total user count.
Monthly Financial Loss by Team
Monthly Financial Loss by Productivity Threshold
The By Productivity Threshold panel segments users by the following productivity tiers:
- Less than 5 hrs/day
- Less than 4 hrs/day
- Less than 3 hrs/day
For each tier, the panel then shows:
- Users Below Threshold: Number of active users working below each productivity threshold
- % of Total: Percentage of your active workforce below each threshold
- Untapped Capacity FTE: Full-time equivalent capacity available at each level
- Financial Loss (Monthly): Monthly cost of unused capacity at each level based on the specified average salary
This breakdown helps identify the severity of productivity gaps across your organization.
Note: The data in this grid uses cumulative counting across productivity levels. Users who work less than 3 hours/day are also included in the counts for "Less than 4 hrs/day" and "Less than 5 hrs/day" rows. Similarly, users who work less than 4 hours/day are counted in the "Less than 5 hrs/day" row. This approach allows you to see the full impact at each productivity threshold, but it means that summing the values across rows will exceed your user count.
Monthly Financial Loss by Productivity Threshold
Utilization Trend Summary
The Utilization Trend Summary panel compares productivity metrics between the first and last month of the available data range (up to 12 months), showing whether:
- The number of users below their productivity goal has increased, decreased, or remained the same
- The percentage of users working less than 5 hrs/day has increased, decreased, or remained the same
This comparison provides context about whether productivity gaps improve or worsen over time.
Utilization Trend Summary
Low Utilization Trend
The Low Utilization Trend chart displays a monthly visualization of:
- Users Below Goal: Number of users working below their productive hrs/day goal each month
- Users Below 5 Productive Hrs/Day: Number of users working less than five productive hours per day each month
This visualization helps identify patterns and seasonal fluctuations in productivity.
Low Utilization Trend
Recurring Low Utilization
The Recurring Low Utilization panel shows the persistence of productivity issues by categorizing users based on how many months they've worked below their goal:
- Between 2 and 4 Months
- Between 5 and 8 Months
- More than 8 Months
For each category, the panel shows:
- Users: Number of users in each persistence category
- % of Total: Percentage of users in each category
- Office Only Users: Number of office-based users in each category
- Remote Only Users: Number of remote users in each category
- Hybrid Users: Number of hybrid users in each category
This breakdown helps distinguish between temporary productivity dips and chronic underutilization while identifying any correlations with work location.
Recurring Low Utilization
Customizing the dashboard
Subscriptions
Set up regular email subscriptions to ensure executives receive this vital financial data without logging into ActivTrak. Executive visibility is the primary goal of this dashboard!
- Create Monthly Subscriptions for C-level stakeholders, department heads, and financial decision-makers to maintain consistent awareness of untapped capacity costs
- Schedule for Month-End to provide timely insights that can influence upcoming resource allocation decisions
- Include Multiple Recipients in a single subscription to foster collaborative workforce optimization discussions
- External Stakeholders Welcome – add non-ActivTrak users via email address to extend insights to board members, consultants, or executives who don't regularly access the platform
ProTip: When introducing this dashboard to executives, immediately set up a monthly subscription during your presentation to ensure ongoing visibility. Frame the subscription as their "monthly financial opportunity report" that quantifies potential savings across the organization.
To create subscriptions:
- Click the Subscribe button in the upper right corner of the dashboard
- The currently logged-in user is added as a recipient by default
- If sharing is enabled (see note below), you can add additional recipients:
- Select from a list of app users
- Enter external email addresses for non-app users
- Configure the subscription schedule
- Frequency: Set to Daily, Weekly or Monthly (recommended)
- Format: Select PDF (recommended) or PNG
- Options: Check Include Link to Dashboard for easy navigation back to ActivTrak
- Click Add Subscription
Note: Sharing is enabled by default, which allows users to create subscriptions for non-application users like company executives and other application users. The Subscription & Sharing setting can be found in the app by navigating to Insights > Configuration > Subscriptions tab.
Practical applications
Identifying recurring productivity gaps
This dashboard provides executives with actionable insights to address systemic productivity issues:
- Spot persistent problem areas: quickly identify teams with consistently high percentages of users below their productivity goals
- Distinguish between isolated vs. widespread issues: determine whether productivity gaps are limited to specific departments or represent organization-wide challenges
- Correlate with work location patterns: analyze whether productivity gaps show different patterns among office, remote, or hybrid workers to inform workplace policies
Optimizing workforce allocation
For executives facing headcount decisions, this dashboard offers critical financial context:
- Validate headcount requests: identify departments with significant untapped capacity before approving new positions, potentially saving hundreds of thousands in unnecessary labor costs
- Enable strategic reallocation: support data-driven decisions to shift resources from teams with excess capacity to those facing resource constraints
- Inform hiring freezes or reductions: provide data-driven financial justification when considering workforce optimization initiatives
Quantifying productivity ROI
Help executives measure the financial impact of productivity programs in concrete terms:
- Establish financial baselines: document the financial impact of productivity gaps before implementing improvement initiatives
- Track improvements in dollar terms: measure the direct financial benefit of successful productivity programs over time
- Build executive support: demonstrate the ROI of productivity initiatives in the financial language executives understand and value
Pro Tip: When introducing this dashboard to executives, emphasize how it translates abstract productivity concepts into concrete financial metrics directly impacting bottom-line performance and strategic decision-making.