Use dashboards

Find your way around a dashboard and customize your view to find answers and insights.

• To view shared dashboards, you need the Dashboards user permission. Other dashboard-related actions require additional user permissions.

• If you have a Viewer license, you won't be able to see or do everything outlined on this page. See User licenses, profiles and permissions for a comparison of the Full and Viewer license regarding dashboards.

Watch these videos:

• Phocas Demo: Quick and easy access to data, Track performance, and Management reporting

• Phocas Academy: Discover dashboards

• PUG Training: Dashboards 101

Dashboards have dynamic, interactive content that refreshes regularly to keep the latest and most relevant information at your fingertips. While each dashboard is different, it shares common elements and functionality, as illustrated and explained below.

1. Widget

Each dashboard comprises a collection of widgets containing content such as charts, grids, lists, nested tables, text, images, videos, and web content. Most widgets are based on favorites. When the same item, such as a Customer or Product displays in multiple chart widgets, it displays as the same color in each chart, maintaining consistency across the dashboard.

Some grid widgets include a search box, which allows you to search for specific data without leaving the dashboard.

When you hover over a widget, its toolbar displays. The buttons you see and actions you can take depend on your user permissions. Here is the full list:

• Query: View information about the selections and settings present when the widget was created, including the database, dimension, and period. Not available for URL widgets.

• Minimize: Temporarily minimize the widget to create more space on your dashboard. This option is not available only when the Flex display is selected in the line settings.

• Delete: Delete the widget permanently. However, if the widget was originally created from a favorite, the favorite will not be deleted.

• Clone: Make a copy of the widget.
• Edit: Edit the widget’s configuration on the Widget screen, which is the same screen that displays when creating a new widget. You can change the underlying data, the dashboard line in which it displays, its name or description, whether it is filterable or has a search box, and more. For more information about most of these tasks see Manage dashboards.
• Analyze: Open the widget’s underlying data in the Phocas grid for further analysis or a more detailed view, provided you have permission to see the data. Usually opens in a new browser window.

• Export: Download the widget’s data in a range of formats, or in the case of a chart, an image (camera icon).

• Resize: Permanently change the size of the widget. This option does not display in the toolbar; it is in the bottom right corner of the widget. This option is not available when Equal Width display is selected in the line settings.

2. Line

The widgets on a dashboard are organized into lines. Often a line contains many widgets, displaying as multiple lines of widgets, so we call it a section for navigation purposes. You can use the Go to section at the top of the dashboard to quickly jump to that section (line).

When you hover over a line, its line toolbar displays:

• Move: Drag and drop a line to a different position on the dashboard. As you drag, a blue box displays to indicate the proposed destination. Release and the line snaps to the blue box.

• Edit: Change the name or description of the line or change how the widgets display in the line.

• Delete: Permanently delete the line if you do not need it. This action will also delete all the widgets in the line. A warning message displays, as there is no way of recovering a deleted line.

• Clone: Make a copy of the line, including all its widgets, and place it below the original line. Then, drag it to a different position on the dashboard or edit it as required.

3. Action buttons

On the top left of the dashboard are three action buttons:

• Focus: This button becomes active after you select a specific data item in an interactive widget. Click it to filter out the other data. See Filter a dashboard below.
• Reset: Click this button to remove any filters and return the dashboard to its original state.

• Go to section: Click this button and select a particular section (line) in the dashboard to quickly jump directly to it. This is a handy navigation tool when you have a large dashboard with multiple lines of widgets.

4. Dashboard toolbar

The dashboard toolbar on the top right corner allows you to configure the dashboard by adding widgets or lines, setting the refresh frequency or sharing your dashboard with colleagues. The buttons you see and actions you can take depend on your user permissions. Here is the full list:

• Embed view: Open the dashboard in a new browser tab.

• Custom: Apply a custom period to the widgets on the dashboard.
• Refresh: Refresh the data on the dashboard now. If you have permission, you can set a dashboard to automatically refresh on a regular basis.
• Print: Open the dashboard in a new browser tab, where you have the option to print it in PDF or send it to a printer.

• Share: Share the dashboard. This is also a way to rename a dashboard.
• Delete: Delete the dashboard.
• Clone: Make a copy of the dashboard to create a new dashboard.
• Line: Add another line at the bottom of the dashboard in which to add more widgets.
• Widget: Add a widget in the form of a query, list, nested table, text, or URL.

Analyze a dashboard

User permission: Analyze widgets

From a dashboard, you can directly open the underlying data in the grid view for analysis purposes. For example, suppose you are viewing a Sales dashboard and see that the UK region is underperforming compared to last year. You want to find out why this is the case.

1. Hover over the widget to display the widget menu. In this example, it is the Customer Group bullet chart.

2. Click the Analyze button in the widget menu. The data opens in the grid, in either the Analytics or Financial Statements module, as applicable.

3. Proceed to analyze the data.

Filter a dashboard (focus on data)

In interactive dashboards, you can select and focus on specific data, such as a region, customer, or product.

Select one or more chart segments or grid rows to activate the Focus button at the top of the dashboard. Then click the Focus button to apply the filter. The other data is removed from the applicable widgets and those widgets update to display only the data you're interested in. The unrelated widgets are not filtered.

To remove a filter, either click the X on the filter or click the Reset button.

If you own the dashboard, you can set the order in which the filters are applied and remove the ability for other users to filter widgets.

Example 1: Apply a filter

Suppose you are looking at a dashboard in which no filters have been applied. You're interested in the sales rep performance. The Total revenue value in the top-left widget (underlined in red) includes revenue from all customers. You want to focus on the revenue earned in a specific customer segment, so you need to apply a filter.

1. Select the item you want to focus on. In this example, you select the Manufacturing segment in the Customer Type pie chart.

2. Click the Focus button at the top left of the dashboard. The filter displays at the top of the dashboard in the status bar, and all the widgets that have been filtered have a small filter icon next to their title.

You can hover over a filter in the status bar to display a tooltip listing your focused selections, filters and so on.

Example 2: Apply multiple filters

Suppose you want to filter a dashboard to focus on the data related to a specific sales rep and customer.

1. Select the items you want to focus on. In this example, you select sales rep Shelly and customer D&R Henderson.

2. Click the Focus button at the top left of the dashboard. The filters display at the top of the dashboard in the status bar, and all the widgets that have been filtered have a small filter icon next to their title.

Apply a custom period to a dashboard

You can adjust the period for all the widgets on a dashboard, so they show data for the same period. Like all custom periods in Phocas, this is temporary and cannot be saved with the dashboard.

In the dashboard toolbar, click the Custom (period) button, then set the custom dates as required and click Apply.

After you apply the period, a message at the top of the screen tells you how many widgets were updated. Some widgets might not update, for example, if they are not filterable or their date range is outside of the dates you want to see.

The period displays in the status bar. Click the X or the Reset button to remove the custom period.

Refresh a dashboard

In the dashboard toolbar, click the Refresh button to update the dashboard with any new data.

If you have the Timed Refresh dashboard permission, you get additional refresh options.

• Automatic: Updates the dashboard automatically whenever there is new data. This option is particularly useful for dashboards that progressively build throughout the day, and if your dashboard is displayed on a big screen, for example, in a warehouse or office. The dashboard widgets flash briefly each time the underlying data is updated (when the database builds and if the value has changed). Summary chart query widgets with a change in data will flash the updated color.

Example

if the data update moves their status from green to red, red to green, and so on. In the following dashboard, the Sales widget on the top line has flashed green to signify that a) the database has been built and b) the updated data has moved into the green range.

• Now: Updates the dashboard immediately.

• 15 Minutes or 1 Hour: Updates the dashboard every 15 minutes or hour.

• Stop: Stops the dashboard from refreshing.

Your selected refresh interval is not saved with the dashboard and is reset if you move away from the dashboard.

Print a dashboard

When you print a dashboard, the Print window displays a preview of the dashboard, with the dashboard name, your display name, and current date time (in locale format) at the top of the page. However, how a dashboard looks when it prints depends on several factors:

• The type of dashboard line. Lines set to display widgets at 'Equal Width' contain widgets in a single horizontal line. While you can scroll to see them all on screen, not all of them might appear in the printed document.

• Nested tables are expanded in the printed document.

• URL widgets and List widgets do not display in the printed document.

1. Open the dashboard.

2. Click the Print button in the dashboard toolbar.

   
3. In the Print window, select the page size and orientation. In most browsers you have to set these settings in the browser print window as well (Chrome recognizes your original selections).

4. Select Print to open your browser's print dialog.

   

Open a linked dashboard

Some grid widgets have blue links in the Code column, indicating there is an active link to another dashboard. Click a link to open the linked dashboard in a new tab. The dashboard opens, already filtered by the selected code.