Working with dashboards

Dashboards enable you to view data from multiple reports simultaneously, on a single canvas. By organizing components from related reports into a single dashboard, you can get a high-level summary that provides quick and helpful insights into the data contained in the reports. The components could be summary, visualization, or detailed data from any of the reports that you have access to. You can control the size of a dashboard as well as its individual components. Using drag-and-drop, you can reposition the components to suit your needs.

NexJ also provides dashboard templates in the All Dashboards tab, for example, the Deal Management Dashboard.

To create a dashboard:

In the My Dashboards tab or All Dashboards tab, click the Add Dashboard button

at the top right of the dashboards data table.
Enter a meaningful name for the dashboard, and, optionally, provide a description.
By default, dashboards are private. If you are a report administrator, you can clear Private Dashboard to make the dashboard template public. When building their own dashboards, users can clone the public dashboard template in the dashboards data table in the All Dashboards tab.

A private dashboard cannot be shared with other users.
Optional: To edit the row height and the number of columns in the dashboard, click the Settings button
.

The row height effectively represents the height of individual components in a dashboard, and the number of columns determines the number of components displayed in each row. Adjust the row height and the number of columns as necessary for an optimal view.
Click the Add Dashboard Item button to add the first component of the dashboard. Adding a component involves:
1. Optionally, adding a caption title for the component.
2. Optionally, adding a description for the component.
3. Selecting the report.
4. Choosing between the report detail, summary, or chart.
5. Optionally, setting the number of rows and columns the component should occupy on the dashboard. The default selection is 1 column and 1 row. The maximum number of columns is the limit you set for the dashboard (see step 3).
Repeat the previous step as needed for additional components.

If a dashboard component displays a message that the report has not been executed yet, click the Update Dashboard button
after saving your changes . This executes all the reports in the dashboards so they reflect the latest data. For dashboards that contain report summaries or visualizations, we recommend executing the reports periodically to ensure latest data. If a component displays no data even after executing the report, check the report settings and confirm there is matching data.
Optional: Use drag-and-drop to resize or reorder the dashboard components as desired. As you resize a component through drag-and-drop, the values in the Rows and Columns fields in the component settings (accessible by clicking the Settings button) update to reflect the new size.

The dashboard is created. You can access it at any time by double-clicking it in the Dashboards data table. If the components of a dashboard are from a single subject area, you can filter your dashboard data by clicking the Filter Options button

and selecting Add filter fields.

To edit or delete a dashboard, click the Edit button

or the Delete button

for the dashboard in the Dashboards data table. To delete a dashboard component, open the dashboard in the edit mode, and click the Remove button for the component. For a larger view of a component, click the Expand button

.

Example: Creating a dashboard

The following video shows an example of how to create a dashboard with three dashboard components, and how to resize a component by changing the Rows field's value and using drag-and-drop.

Scheduling dashboards

As of NexJ CRM 22.03, you can schedule your dashboard to run once, at a future date and time, or periodically. To schedule a dashboard, open the dashboard, click the More Actions button

, and select Schedule Dashboard. In the Schedule dialog, select the required frequency. The default frequency is None, which runs the dashboard immediately. If you want a dashboard to run only once, but at a future time, select Once, and specify the desired date and time. If you want it to run periodically, select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, and specify the start date and time. The dashboard runs for the first time at the start date and time, and will continue running periodically as specified in the schedule.

When you select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly for the frequency of a dashboard, you can specify an end time for the dashboard's schedule by selecting Has Scheduled End Time, and entering a date and time in the End Schedule Time field. When the schedule reaches the specified end date and time, the Schedule dialog resets to its original format, and displays "Not Currently Scheduled", and you can reschedule the dashboard.

To automatically send a dashboard's details to a distribution list, enter the recipients' email addresses in the Email Address Targets field.

By default, you can provide a maximum of 10 email addresses in the Email Address Targets field.

Click Set Schedule to save your schedule.
Dashboard schedules are user specific. When a user runs a dashboard, the dashboard data is not updated for other users of the same dashboard. Each user of a shared dashboard must run the dashboard individually to view any dashboard data by clicking the Update Dashboard button or by scheduling a run of the dashboard.

Cloning dashboards

You can clone a dashboard as a base to build another dashboard.

To clone a dashboard, hover over the dashboard in the dashboards data table and click the Clone Definition button

. The new dashboard opens. It will have the same name as the original dashboard but preceded by "CLONE -".

If a dashboard has multiple clones with similar names, you can use the Created time stamp in the dashboards data table to identify the most recent clone.

Sharing dashboards

You can share a dashboard's URL to enable other users to easily access the dashboard or share a dashboard using email.

Sharing a dashboard using a URL

Before sharing a dashboard's URL, you will need to make the dashboard public by clearing the Private Dashboard checkbox. Then, open the dashboard, click the More Actions button

, and select Copy URL. This action copies the URL to your clipboard. You can then paste it into the required application to share it with other users.

Users you share the dashboard with can view the dashboard, export the dashboard's components, and update the dashboard to display the latest NexJ CRM data. They cannot edit the dashboard. However, depending on their privileges, they may be able to clone the dashboard and edit the clone by locating the dashboard in the All Dashboards tab of their dashboards data table. For more information, see Cloning dashboards.

The data displayed in the dashboard to other users may be different from the data displayed to you, depending on their access level, team assignment, and organizational hierarchy.

Sharing a dashboard using email

As of NexJ CRM 22.03, you can email a PDF version of your dashboard to other users. To share a private or public dashboard using email, open the dashboard, click the More Actions button

, and select Share By Email. Provide the required list of email addresses in the Share Dashboard By Email dialog, separated by semicolons, and click Email Dashboard. By default, you can provide a maximum of 10 email addresses.

By default, if the size of the PDF file is smaller than 10 MB, it will be included as an attachment in the email. If the PDF file size exceeds 10 MB, a link to the PDF will be provided in the email. The links to files are available on the server for 30 days before expiring.

You can add a custom classification level prefix, such as “Restricted”, to the subject lines of emails containing exported or shared dashboards. The prefix appears in all email notifications related to that dashboard. This allows email recipients to immediately identify the content sensitivity level of shared dashboards.

To set the prefix, update the Email Subject Prefix field on the Dashboard Configuration dialog.

In order to download a PDF in a email, you must already be logged into NexJ CRM.

Exporting dashboards

To share dashboards outside of NexJ CRM or print them, you can export dashboards in PDF file format. Administrators can also export the JSON definition for a dashboard.

The dashboards export functionality requires additional configuration before it can be used. For more information, see "Setting up the ad hoc reports export and dashboards export" in the technical documentation.

To export a dashboard, select the required dashboard in the All Dashboards or My Dashboards tabs to open the Dashboard Viewer, click the Update Dashboard button

to include the latest data in the dashboard, click the More Actions button

, select Export, and select one of the following menu options:

Dashboard (PDF)
Dashboard (JSON)

When you export a dashboard that includes a Detail type report, only the first 10 records are exported from the details list for the report.

After the export is prepared, you can choose to open the PDF file or save the file locally.

If you have included a report in your dashboard that is invalid because it contains restricted data for which you don't have privileges, the invalid report will not be included when you export the dashboard.