The Dashboard feature produces interactive charts that allow for effective presentations and fast ad-hoc analysis.

• Dashboards are flexible and can be altered based on the application of filters and updated data, as well as allow for drill downs to underlying data.
• Dashboards are highly customizable and include many chart types and formatting options.
• Widgets aggregate and consolidate data from across various data sources
• Dashboards can be shared with stakeholders in many different ways; schedule an automated email, export to PDF or share a link.
• Dashboards do not require highly technical skills, because they work via drag and drop.

Dashboards are most commonly used to visualize data and share it with senior stakeholders who would prefer an interactive chart over a complex Excel file. Additionally, you can include dashboard widgets in a PowerPoint deck (they update automatically) or you can use them for analyzing and validating your numbers.

Try it now: Navigating your pre-installed Dashboards

The best way to learn how Datarails dashboards work is to get hands-on with the software.

If you are uploading financial statement data to Datarails, then your environment comes with a number of pre-installed widgets. Follow the steps below to get a tour of the environment. We recommend you position this browser window next to the Datarails browser window on your screen, so you can follow along with the instructions.

1. Access the Datarails Exercise Environment (follow steps 1-3 from the instructions linked here)
2. Click on the Dashboards tab in the top navigation or in the side bar.
3. Scroll to review the different widget types. The widgets and dashboards you can see in this exercise environment come pre-installed with your Datarails solution once we connect your Financial Statement data.
4. Click on "Dec-21" on the first widget called "Income: Trend Over Last 12 Months". It's the first widget in the top-left corner. You can drill-down to a lower level in your hierarchy whenever you see underlined labels, such as the months in this widget. To see the drill-down in the widget, click on the label itself ("Dec-21"), not on the bar. Clicking on the bar opens a menu to drill-down to the transaction level.
5.  Click on the Back button to get to the previous screen.
6. When you hover over the widget with your mouse, you'll see an overlay appear in the lower right corner of the widget. Click on "Quarter". This feature allows you to quickly switch between different levels of aggregation - great to answer ad-hoc questions during a performance review meeting!
7. Click on "Month" to get back to the previous view.
8. Notice that "Jun-22" is the latest month that is shown on the right. Click on the Dashboard Reference Date filter in the top right corner (circled in red below) and select "JAN" to change the reference date of all widgets in the dashboard.
9. Scroll down until you see the widget called "P&L Summary". It's a special kind of widget, because it's an Excel report that was published as a dashboard. It's not simply a screenshot. It's linked to the underlying data. 
10. Click on "Income Actual" for "Jan-22" (the number "745 K"), then select "Drill Down List" and "Open in Web App".
11. This screen shows all transactions that make up the number you clicked on. You can filter each column to quickly find the line items you are looking for. Click in the box below "Customer" and type "Customer 10" to see all transactions related to this customer. Note that we use example data in the practice environment - you will see your customer names in your Datarails environment.
12. This drill-down feature works with all widget types. Go back to the dashboard tab we were on before and click on a column in the widget "Income: Trend Over Last 12 Months". 
13. Click on "Drill-Down List" and "Export to Excel" to export all line items related to this data point to Excel for further analysis. 
14. Click on "P&L" in the top left corner. Here, you can select different Dashboards. A dashboard is a collection of multiple widgets. Datarails comes with pre-built dashboards for P&L, Balance Sheet, KPIs, and Validation purposes. The "Warehouse" dashboard comes with an extra set of widgets you can choose to move to your other dashboards. 
15. Click on the sharing symbol, next to the Reference Date in the top-right corner (see screenshot below). You have the following options:

• Invite Members to provide your team members with access to the dashboards.
• Copy link to send someone a link to the selected dashboard.
• Set sharing schedule to automatically email the dashboard to team members at a set schedule.
• Export as PDF.

Previous: Dashboard Module Overview

Next: Creating new widgets

Updated July 05, 2023 13:30