Alongside revenue and earnings, most companies report the numbers they run the business by: subscribers, same-store sales, backlog, bookings, net revenue retention, average revenue per user, deliveries, production, occupancy, RevPAR, load factor. Each company picks its own, and names them its own way.
The KPI Ledger collects them from the earnings release every S&P 500 company files with the SEC (the Exhibit 99.1 of its Form 8-K), quarter by quarter, and keeps each one as a series in the company's own words.
Where you see it
- **Operating metrics.** On a company page in Discourse, below the Guidance Ledger. One small panel per metric, all on the same quarter axis, each on its own scale. Hover a panel to read any quarter. The latest change is cyan when the figure rose and coral when it fell; that is direction only, not good or bad.
- **Table.** Open *Table* under the panels for every value, with the sentence or table row it was quoted from and a link to the filing.
- **The API and MCP.** /v1/kpis and the palanor_get_kpis tool return the same rows, with the quote, its position in the exhibit, and the filing link.
- **The signal.** kpi.same_store_sales.median.sp500 is the median same-store sales growth across S&P 500 companies that reported it in the last 90 days, recomputed daily. Comparable sales is the one KPI defined alike across enough companies to aggregate.
How a figure is checked
A language model reads the release and transcribes each metric into a fixed form. Code then checks every row before it is shown:
- the quote appears word for word in the filing;
- the figure appears in the quote, with the right sign;
- the scale (thousands, millions, billions) is written next to the figure or in the table's header;
- the unit fits the metric: load factor is a percent, RevPAR is money, same-store sales is a change;
- the period is the one the release reports, on the company's own fiscal calendar;
- the model was confident.
Financial-statement and capital measures (margins, NOI, capital ratios, charge-offs, billings) are held back even when a release lists them among its metrics. A row that fails any check is held back for review and never shown.
Flags
- **Renamed.** The company changed the metric's name; the series continues under the new name.
- **Unit change.** The same metric was reported in a different unit before.
- **Redefined.** The release says the metric was redefined, recast or restated.
- **Revised.** A later release gave a different figure for a quarter already reported.
A figure twenty times larger or smaller than the quarter before is held for review, since it usually means a slipped scale or an unannounced change in definition.
What it does not say
These are the company's own measures, defined by the company. Two companies' "active customers" are rarely the same thing, so compare a metric with its own history, not across companies. Only figures in the 8-K earnings release are covered. Numbers given only on the call, in the 10-Q, or in an investor presentation are not. Prior-year comparison columns are skipped; each quarter comes from the release that reported it.
Source
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR: 8-K Item 2.02 earnings releases, and XBRL company facts for fiscal calendars. Public domain. New releases are read daily.
Related: [Discourse](/help/modules/discourse) · [Corporate events](/help/modules/corporate-events)