Documentation/ Dashboard and reports/ Filtering the dashboard
Filtering by date and by project
Everything the dashboard shows depends on two filters: the date range and the project. Changing them changes the figures, the charts and the rankings all at once.
Dashboard › the filter bar
On this page
The two filters
| Filter | What it narrows |
|---|---|
| From / to | The period the data is shown for. |
| Project | Only the documents of the projects ticked. More than one can be ticked. |
They combine: you can see one particular project over one particular quarter.
The date range
Two date fields, from and to. The range is inclusive: documents dated the day given in "to" are in the calculation.
The rankings' Excel exports need both dates. If one is missing, the download is not generated and no message appears: it looks as though the button is not responding.
The date used is the document's, not the upload's. A March document uploaded in May counts in March.
The project filter
A drop-down with the projects that exist and an all projects option. You can tick several at once: the dashboard then adds up the documents of every project ticked, and the filter says how many are selected.
It is for looking at projects that belong together — two sites in the same city, the jobs for one client — without going through them one at a time and adding up by hand.
The drop-down shows the project's name and, beneath it, its description, which helps when there are a lot with similar names.
Documents with no project assigned disappear as soon as you filter on a particular one. If a project's figures come out low, the first thing to check is how many documents were left unassigned.
Apply, reset and refresh
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Apply | Recalculates the dashboard with the filters chosen. |
| Reset | Goes back to the default filters. |
| Refresh | Asks for the data again, with whatever filters are set. |
The difference between reset and refresh is often confused: reset changes the filters, refresh changes the data. After processing new documents, the button you want is refresh.
What they affect
| Block | Affected by the filters |
|---|---|
| Counters by document type | Yes |
| Total documents and pages | Yes |
| Documents processed by month | Yes |
| Amount summaries | Yes |
| Top 10 suppliers and items | Yes, and their exports too |
No block sidesteps the filters. It is what makes the dashboard consistent with itself, and also what explains a figure "disappearing" when a filter is left on without your noticing.
Comparing periods
The dashboard shows one period at a time: there is no automatic comparison between two. The practical way to compare:
- Filter the first period and note the figures you care about.
- Switch to the second period and compare.
- For the rankings, export each period to Excel and compare the two sheets: that is where you see which suppliers and items have moved up or down.
The documents-by-month chart does show the movement within the range filtered, so for volume there is no need to compare by hand.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The whole dashboard comes out empty | The date range contains no documents. | Widen it, or reset the filters. |
| Documents that do exist are missing | A project is filtered and they have not got it assigned. | Choose all projects. |
| The export button does nothing | One of the two dates is missing. | Complete the range. |
| Documents just uploaded do not appear | The dashboard does not update itself. | Press refresh, not reset. |
| A document counts in the wrong month | The document's date is used, not the upload's. | Check the date on the document's header. |