Understand service performance
Reporting service performance through COMPASS
- Part of
- Product management collection
- Last reviewed
- 30 September 2026
All DfE digital services are expected to report performance metrics through COMPASS, unless an agreed exemption applies.
The COMPASS performance metric guidance is the authoritative source for:
- service classifications
- metric definitions
- calculation methods
- reporting requirements
- exemptions and exceptions
Always use the COMPASS guidance when determining:
- which metrics apply to your service
- how metrics should be calculated
- how often they should be reported
- any service-specific requirements
Do not rely on summary guidance pages for metric definitions or calculation methods.
Check which metrics apply to your service
Reporting requirements vary by service type.
Services are classified as:
- transactional
- information
- campaign
Refer to the COMPASS performance metric guidance if you are unsure how your service is classified.
| Metric | Campaign | Information | Transactional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of service / transaction cost | No | No | Yes |
| What is used in cost per transaction | No | No | Yes |
| Incident tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Satisfaction score | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Digital completion rate | No | No | Yes |
| Average time to complete | No | No | Yes |
| Conversion rate (%) | Yes | No | No |
| Engagement (%) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Number of transactions | No | No | Yes |
| Number of unique page views | Yes | Yes | No |
| Total open accessibility issues | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Always refer to the COMPASS performance metric guidance for definitive requirements.
Report good quality data
Teams should:
- use agreed COMPASS definitions
- apply calculations consistently
- report at the required frequency
- document known data quality issues
- record significant changes to measurement approaches