A Financial Metric is a measure of a relationship between items on a balance sheet. For example, revenue growth, gross margin, EBITDA and net income are all financial metrics.

An Operational Metric is a measure of operational functions. For example, number of employees, units produced, locations and billable hours are all operational metrics.

By combining Financial and Operational Metrics you can measure relationships between balance sheet items and the operations of a business. For example, revenue per employee, sales and marketing expenses per location and gross margin per unit.