Now that you know how to navigate the pre-installed widgets, we'll cover how to create your own.

The easiest way to create a new widget is to start with an existing one that already has a similar layout compared to what you want to show in the new one. There are many different pre-installed widgets, so it's easier to choose one that is close to the one you want to create and use it as a starting point.

Try it now: Creating a widget

Access the Datarails Exercise Environment (follow steps 1-3 from the instructions linked here)
Click on Dashboards in the top navigation or in the side bar.
Hover over the first widget (it's called "Income: Trend Over Last 12 Months") and click on the pencil icon (circled below).
In the drop-down menu that appears after clicking the pencil icon, click Copy To and name it "Test Widget". Now you entered the widget editor.
Editing widgets is similar to creating reports with the Report Builder, which you may be familiar with from the corresponding Excel course module. On the left hand side, you see all the columns that are available in your database. Dragging them into the X-axis, Data Series, Values, or Filters boxes will change the widget accordingly.
Our goal is to create a widget that shows Income and Cost of Goods Sold as columns and Gross Profit as a line, aggregated by quarter. Click on the filter symbol next to the field in the Data Series, select "Cost of Goods Sold" and click "Apply". This will add COGS as an additional column in your chart.
Click on the calculator symbol (it's next to the filter symbol under Data Series) and select "Gross Profit". This menu includes all values that have been calculated with Datarails.
As a result, we see a column for each value - Cost of Good Sold, Gross Profit, and Income. However, we want to visualize Gross Profit as a line. We can achieve that with a Combo Chart. Click on Type, select Combo and click on the first image (the second option is for stacked column charts).
By default, the chart shows the columns in alphabetical order. Typically, in FP&A reports, "Income" is shown before "Cost of Good Sold", so we should change the order. Click on Sort, make sure Data Series is selected at the top, click on the drop-down menu that currently shows "Total" and select "Income".
Click Save (the video below shows changing the order step-by-step).
To add a Legend that explains what the graph shows, click Options, select Legends, and Bottom. Click Apply.
Click on Aggregation (if your window is smaller, you may only see the three-step symbol shown in the video, instead of the label "Aggregation") . Select "Quarter" in the drop-down menu next to "Display period as". Click Save.
Lastly, we change the name of the widget to "Gross Profit Trend" in the top left corner and click Save in the top right corner to add the new widget to the Dashboard.

Try it now: Publish from Excel to the Dashboard

Open the Excel file “P&L - Training Report”. It’s located in a separate Datarails environment, so you can use it to practice without impacting your existing reports. Click here for instructions on how to open the practice report.
Go to the tab "P&L" and highlight cells B5 to H20 with your mouse.
In the Datarails ribbon in Excel, click on Publish and select Publish to Dashboard.
In the menu, select "P&L" and type a new name in the name field to change the published widget name to "Publish test".
Click Publish to Dashboard in the lower right corner.
Go to your Dashboards and scroll all the way to the bottom. You'll see the beginning of the widget, however it still needs to be resized.
Click on the pencil icon in the top right corner and select Edit Dashboard Layout as shown below.
Drag the lower right corner of the widget to the desired size and click Save (see video below).