Dashboards: Component Types

• By zoltan-szakal
• November 12, 2018

Dashboards are comprised of a combination of one or more types of Components as specified by you.  In this week’s post we will review some of the more popular component types used on dashboards:

Performance Cards

Performance Cards are used to quickly and easily see data values or a comparison of data values at two different points.  Easy to create, Performance Cards can be created by users for users!

Examples of Performance Cards:

• Sales Revenue, year to date.
• Sales Revenue, comparisons between this month and last.
• Current Bank Account Balance.
• Project Actuals vs. Budget.
• Staff Utilization Rate, comparison between this month and last.

Reports

Adding a report to a dashboard is perhaps the easiest component to add.  Any report in the Intacct system, default or custom, can be pulled into and displayed on a dashboard.  As some of the reports have a lot of columns oftentimes it’s useful to create a dashboard version of a more complex report.  A more trimmed down version of the full report, showing only the key columns, helps the user find the data they need faster.  If the user requires more information than what they can see on the dashboard version of the report they can run the more in-depth report in order to further investigate.

Examples of Reports:

• Cash Flow Statement.
• Credit Card Balances.
• Balance Sheet.
• Payments Issued.

Graph

Any Intacct graph can be added to your dashboard.  Some examples of graphs that might be useful to your business are as follows:

• Customer Aging Circle Graph.
• Revenue Sources Circle Graph.
• Operating Expense by Project Circle Graph.
• Weekly Cash Bar Graph.
• Revenue by Project Bar Graph.

Lists:  Queries, Records, etc.

Oddly enough the least used component on dashboards is lists.  Any place in Intacct where you can create a custom view you can then place that view on a dashboard.  Examples:

• Bills due in 14 days
• Top 10 Customers and how much they owe.
• Recurring Bills for Review.
• Location IDs.
• Purchases to Receive.
• Customer Orders to Fulfill.

Approvals

By having approvals on a dashboard Project Managers can see, at a glace, when there are outstanding items to view and approve.  Examples of approval data that can be displayed:

• Timesheets
• Expenses
• Payables
• Purchasing Transactions

Collaborate

With intact collaborate we can add the collaborate chat into the dashboard.  This quick visual helps people know which communication require action for the day.

Hopefully this list has you thinking and planning your next dashboard.  Remember deciding what to put on the dashboard doesn’t have to happen all in one day!  You can add components as you think of them and have your dashboard evolve over time!