Create and read a metric

Create a metric for each thing you want to count, such as contacts resolved or claims verified. Say whose people produce it, then add readings. Flowstate prices each unit from what those people and their AI already cost. You never type a cost in.

You need access to manage business metrics — ask your Flowstate admin.

To see how metrics show what AI returns, read Show what AI returns with business metrics.

Create a metric

1. Go to Insights → Business metrics → Metrics and select New metric.
2. Enter a Name, such as "Contacts resolved" or "Claims verified".
3. Enter the Unit for one of them, such as "contact", and its Plural, such as "contacts".
4. Choose a Direction: Higher is better or Lower is better.
5. Choose how often it's Reported: Daily, Weekly or Monthly.
6. Under Whose cost this is, choose the people who produce it, by Team, Cost centre or Geography. Only the groupings your organisation uses are offered.
7. Optionally, choose a Satisfaction guardrail: another metric, such as a satisfaction score, to watch alongside this one.
8. Optionally, add a Description of what counts as one, and what doesn't.
9. Select Create metric.

The metric's page opens. Add readings by hand, or send them from another system.

Choosing whose cost this is

• A team includes everyone in its sub-teams. Choose the team that does the work, not a parent team far above it.
• Several choices in one grouping include anyone in any of them, such as two teams.
• Choices in different groupings narrow it down. A team and a geography count only the team's people in that geography.
• Leave it empty and the metric is still counted, but it has no cost per unit until you fill it in.

Tip

Two metrics can name the same people. Their costs then overlap, so don't add costs together across metrics.

Not available yet

You can't yet set a metric's owner, or say that a metric accounts for only part of a team's cost, in the app. Ask your Flowstate contact to set them for you.

Record a reading by hand

1. Open the metric. Under Readings, select Record a reading.
2. Choose From and To for the period.
3. Enter How many were produced.
4. Optionally, enter Of which, without a person. Leave it empty if you don't measure it. Empty means not measured, not zero.
5. Optionally, add a Note saying where the figure came from.
6. Select Record.

Recording the same period again corrects it rather than counting it twice.

Not available yet

You can't upload a spreadsheet of readings. Record each period by hand, or ask a developer to send your history through the Business metrics API, which takes many periods at once.

Edit a metric

1. Open the metric and select Edit.
2. Change what you need.
3. Select Save changes.

Renaming a metric doesn't break a feed sending readings to it.

Read a metric's page

The page reads over the period chosen on the Metrics tab.

Section	What it shows
Figures across the top	The Window, how much was Produced, the share Without a person, and the Cost per unit overall, by AI and by a person
Model a change	What moving the mix would do to cost. See Model a change
People cost and Agent cost	What the people behind the metric, and their AI, cost over the window
Where the events come from	Each source of readings, how many it has sent and when it last delivered
Volume over time	Volume per period, split into With a person and Without a person
Cost per unit against AI share	How cost per unit moves as the share without a person changes. It's worked out from the window as a whole, not an actual cost for each period
Satisfaction	The guardrail metric's latest reading and how it has moved
Readings	Each period's volume and share without a person

How to read the figures:

• Without a person is worked out only from the periods where someone recorded Of which, without a person.
• Cost per unit, by AI shows a dash until some units are recorded as handled without a person.
• Cost per unit, by a person shows a dash if every unit was handled without a person.
• Cost is only counted for the dates your readings cover, so a metric that started last month isn't priced against a whole year of salaries.

How costs are worked out is in How costs are calculated.

Model a change

Model a change shows what a different mix of people and AI would cost. Nothing is saved.

1. Open the metric.
2. Move the controls:
   • Resolved without a person: the share of units handled without a person.
   • Token budget: how much more AI you'd pay for.
   • People taken out: how many people would leave the work.
3. Read Cost per unit, Cost over the window, Capacity released, Cash realised, Net annual benefit and Payback. If the metric has a satisfaction guardrail, you also see where it would head.
4. Select Reset to today to start again.

Model a change appears when you can see costs, the metric has someone under Whose cost this is, and Flowstate knows how many people that is. Resolved without a person and Token budget appear once the metric records how much was produced without a person.

Tip

Moving more work to AI releases capacity. It doesn't save money until People taken out moves too. That's why Cash realised stays at zero until then.

Remove a metric

Not available yet

You can't delete or deactivate a metric in the app yet. Ask your Flowstate contact to deactivate it for you. An inactive metric shows an Inactive badge.

If something's not right

Cost per unit is a dash. Nobody is chosen under Whose cost this is, you can't see costs elsewhere in Flowstate, or there are no readings in the period.

"Not measured" under Without a person. No reading in the period records Of which, without a person. Add it to your readings, or ask whoever sends them to include it.

Model a change is missing. You can't see costs, or the metric has nobody under Whose cost this is.

The cost per unit looks far too high or too low. Check Whose cost this is names the people who actually do the work, not a much larger or smaller group.