A business dashboard built from the data you already have

The Monday report

Orders get exported from the business software, sales from the online shop, transactions from the bank. They're pasted into a spreadsheet, the formulas that shifted get fixed, a PDF goes out. It takes half a morning, and the numbers are already old when they arrive.

When the person who builds it is off sick, there's no report that Monday.

What you see when you open it

A handful of numbers, picked together: the ones you actually make decisions on. For example this month's revenue against the same month last year, orders waiting to ship, overdue unpaid invoices, products below minimum stock.

It's one page in the browser, on the phone too. Every number leads to the list behind it: from overdue invoices you click through to the invoices themselves.

Where the numbers come from

From the programs you already use: an API where there is one, otherwise the files they export, over FTP or from a folder. At set times a job collects the data, checks it and saves it. If something doesn't add up, an email goes out.

The system I built for AREAVISION does this every night: it counts the electronic shelf labels in every shop, model by model, puts them on a map, and sends an email if a job gets stuck. In SitePing each site has uptime per period, an SLA target and its outage history.

Right numbers first, charts second

Most of the work goes into making the figures agree. The same customer spelled two ways in two programs, returns, credit notes, one order split into two shipments. The rules to sort them out get decided once, go into the code and stay the same every day after.

One limit worth knowing: if the source data is wrong, the dashboard shows it wrong, only faster. So in the first analysis we also look at where the numbers come from and who types them in.

If you use a single program and its built-in reports are enough, you don't need a dashboard. To connect programs that don't talk to each other, see Integrations and automation.

Frequently asked questions

Do we have to change the software we use?

Usually not. The dashboard reads the data from the programs you have, through their APIs or the files they export. If a program exports nothing at all, I tell you during the first analysis.

Can the report arrive by email?

Yes. A summary can go out on its own every morning or every Monday, to whoever needs it. An alert can also go out when a number moves outside the limits you set.

Can we download the data to Excel?

Yes, as Excel or CSV, for anyone who wants to run their own numbers. In SitePing, for example, each site's outage history downloads as CSV.

Why not Power BI or Looker Studio?

If your data already sits somewhere those tools can read, they may be enough. A dashboard built for you pays off when the data first has to be collected from different programs and made to agree, or when the numbers belong inside the business software you use every day.

Read more

• The service: Integrations and automation
• Work of this kind: AREAVISION: website, back office and app
• Work of this kind: SitePing
• More pages like this: Software for one specific job