Projects don’t just need to get done. They need to be delivered on time, on budget, and with a clear return on investment. And with client expectations rising and team capacity always in flux, staying in control can feel impossible without the correct data and processes in place.
That’s where KPIs come in.
Tracking project KPIs gives you an honest, numbers-based view of work progress. Are you on track? Are you burning through your budget too quickly? Are deadlines about to slip?
These 11 KPIs help you monitor project health, keep costs under control, and improve your chances of success across every client engagement. We'll also show how Accelo makes tracking these metrics simple, automated, and actionable — so your team spends less time collecting data and more time driving outcomes.
Time is your most limited resource. It’s also your most valuable.
Projects don’t always take the amount of time you plan on them taking - task and milestone completion times vary, and whether they are completed early or late directly impacts project budgets, team capacity, and ultimately customer satisfaction.
That’s why having real-time visibility into how your team is tracking against deadlines is critical to delivering with consistency. These KPIs give you that control.
This KPI shows whether your team is staying on track or falling behind. When actual time spent exceeds the estimate, it erodes your margins. Often referred to as Schedule Variance, you can use it to track progress throughout the entire project lifecycle and to pivot, add resources, and better plan future projects based on the data.
Pro Tip: Use this KPI early and often. The sooner you catch that more resources were used than expected, the quicker you can course correct to keep the project on track. You’ll also be able to update timelines for other ongoing or future projects to avoid the issue from happening again.
Missed deadlines hurt client trust and create a ripple effect on other projects your team is working on. Keeping projects moving toward clearly defined milestones helps your team stay aligned and productive. Project managers should analyze due dates for all current projects and allocate resources based on which project is due in the shortest amount of time.
Real-world example: One client project is due next week, and another in three weeks. Consider pulling resources into the first project for on-time completion—especially if you know you already have overdue tasks and might miss your due date. Accelo lets you shift resources instantly to avoid delay and protect your delivery reputation.
Even minor late tasks can snowball into larger issues, derailing your project timeline and progress. This KPI lets you identify bottlenecks before they become blockers.
If you see overdue tasks, check where the delay is. Is a specific team or team member encountering a problem causing the delay? Are workflows jammed in a particular spot or in many spots, throughout different groups and milestones?
Pro Tip: Use this metric to strengthen workflows and improve accountability. It helps you not just react to delays but prevent them. When tracking overdue tasks, look for patterns regarding bottlenecks and workflows to better plan for and allocate more time to similar tasks on other ongoing and future projects.
Your project team’s availability dictates your delivery potential.
Determine how many people are working on a project and how much time they have available to finish it by calculating the resource capacity KPI. This data improves resource allocation and, if need be, may signal that you need to hire more people or put additional team members on the project to ensure that it is completed on time.
For successful project performance, you need team members to tackle the right tasks at the right time.
Delivering great work is just the start of profitability. The real “meat and potatoes” are in knowing how much you’re spending and if you’re staying within or exceeding your budget.
These KPIs help you understand if project dynamics have impacted margins, how well you’ve planned, and whether you’re on track to hit your targets. More importantly, they give you the insight to make improvements that stick — across all projects, not just one.
It’s crucial to know if you’ve forecasted your finances properly. The profitability of every project is a direct result of how well you’ve planned for the relative costs and expenses. This KPI, also referred to as Budget Variance or Cost Variance, helps you spot where scope, spend, or resourcing is causing costs to rise.
Planned value refers to the value of the project you have yet to complete. You can use this KPI in tandem with your budgeted cost vs actual cost KPI to better understand if the amount left in your budget is enough to cover the remaining value of the work.
Delivery costs are the sum of all resources required to finish the project. This includes labor costs, materials, and pass-through expenses like software licenses, travel, and shipping. Understanding this helps you price work more accurately.
Of all the different types of KPIs, the profit margin KPI is one of the most important to track. It should be monitored in real time on every project. Profit margin reveals which future projects to take or pass on. Thin margins over time lead to operational stress.
Pro Tip: Low margins aren’t always a sign of over-delivery. Sometimes they reveal underpricing or hidden costs. Use this KPI to rethink how you quote, scope, and deliver similar projects in the future.
Success doesn’t end with delivery. When your project is complete, analyze quantifiable KPIs such as resource profitability, the total number of change requests made by the client, and ROI to determine its effectiveness and success.
These KPIs help you measure the effectiveness of your team, the client experience, and what you can improve on during your next project. This is where strategic operations have compounding benefits.
This metric tracks your team's ROI. It ensures that your highest-value people are spending time on the right work.
Client change requests can delay project delivery, cost more resources, and eat away at your budget. Tracking them helps improve estimating, reduces friction in delivery, and creates transparency with your clients.
You can pivot and allocate resources differently if needed by analyzing change requests throughout the project.
Furthermore, by analyzing change requests at the end of a project, you can see where your team fell short (if anywhere) and gain insight into how to quote future projects and timelines better.
Pro Tip: Track not just quantity, but type of change. You’ll spot trends faster and prevent misquotes in the future.
This KPI summarizes your entire project effort into a single measure of success. When ROI is strong, it justifies future investment.
Project KPIs aren’t just numbers. They’re the story of how your business operates. When you track the right ones through the right platform, you get the clarity to lead smarter, deliver better, and scale with confidence.
Accelo helps professional service teams automate and streamline every step of project delivery. From quoting and resource planning to budget control and client management, everything is connected — and always visible under a single pane of glass.
See how Accelo gives you the operational visibility and performance insights to increase ROI, deliver stronger outcomes, and run a smarter business.
