Dashboards, charts and number cards

The idea

A report answers one question in detail. A dashboard answers many questions in a glance. It is a page of number cards (one figure each) and charts (many figures drawn as bars or lines). Your area's home page shows one chart and a few cards, and the Dashboard item in the sidebar opens the full page.

The screens use example data from a demo company that sells flooring. Your own site shows your company's figures.

Step by step

Read a dashboard

1. Open your area's home page. In this example, the Accounting page opens on a chart called Profit and Loss, with income, expense and net profit, and a few number cards under it.
2. Open Dashboard in the sidebar for the full page: number cards at the top and charts below them. In this example the profit card reads $60,552.00.
3. Each area has its own dashboard. The example has nine, from Accounts to Manufacturing.

Narrow a chart

1. Step 1. Filter. The funnel button opens the chart's filters, for example Document Status. Choose Apply Filters and the chart redraws. Clear Filters takes them off.
2. Step 2. Time range. The first box on a chart picks the range: Last Year, Last Quarter, Last Month or Last Week.
3. Step 3. Grouping. The second box groups the bars: Yearly, Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly or Daily.
4. The three-dot menu has Refresh, Export and Reset Chart, which undoes your changes.

Add a card or a chart from a report

1. Step 1. Open a report, for example Profit and Loss Statement.
2. Step 2. Open the Actions menu. It lists Create Card and Set Chart.
3. Step 3. Choose Create Card. Pick a Field and a Function, a dashboard and a Card Label, then choose Add.
4. Set Chart works the same way: pick the X Field and the Y Axis, preview the chart, then choose Create.

What you may see on your own site

• Your dashboards and cards depend on the areas your company uses and on what your administrator set up.
• Not everyone sees Create Card and Set Chart. Ask your administrator if they are missing.
• A chart can be empty if there is no data in its range.

Common mistakes

1. Reading a chart without checking its time range. Look at the boxes before you quote a figure.
2. Forgetting a filter you set. Use Clear Filters or Reset Chart.
3. Expecting a card to move with a report. A card keeps the field and function you gave it.