How to use the clariBI template marketplace

A template is a ready-made design for a common business question: which metrics answer it, how to chart them and what kind of data they need. clariBI's library has 378 of them, 320 report templates and 58 dashboard templates, across 27 categories. Marketing, operations and product analytics have the most.

That is a lot to scroll through. This guide shows how to find the right template quickly, check that it fits your data before you spend credits, and turn it into a dashboard or report. Templates are included in the trial and on the Starter, Professional and Enterprise plans.

Open the library

Click Templates in the sidebar. Featured Templates sit at the top, with the full list below. You can also browse the public template library without signing in, which is handy for checking whether a template exists for your question before you start a trial.

Narrow the list

The filters that make the biggest difference:

• Search: matches names and keywords. Search for the question, not the chart: "churn", "no-show", "ad spend", "pipeline".
• Category: each category shows how many templates it holds. The industry sets (healthcare, education, manufacturing, logistics, professional services and more) are useful if your business fits one.
• Type: Dashboards or Reports. Pick dashboards for something you will check repeatedly; pick reports for a written analysis with a summary, findings and risks at a point in time. Our post on dashboards vs. reports explains the difference.
• Source: Official Templates made by clariBI, or Community Templates published by other users.
• Sort By: Most Popular, Newest First or A-Z.

Each card shows the name, a description, the category and the data sources the template works with.

Check the fit before you apply

Click a card to open its details, including the data sources it needs. This is the step people skip and then regret. Three checks:

1. Do you have the right kind of source? A paid media template expects ad platform data. Applied to a sales spreadsheet, most of its metrics will be empty.
2. Do you have the right columns? A retention template needs a customer identifier and dates. Aggregated monthly totals will not do.
3. Is the granularity right? A daily trend template on data you only have monthly will look sparse.

If a metric's data is missing, clariBI shows the metric as empty or lists the missing fields rather than inventing numbers. That is useful, but it is cheaper to catch before generating.

Apply a dashboard template with AI

1. Click the template's button to use it. clariBI opens AI Dashboards with the create window filled in from the template.
2. Check the Dashboard Name.
3. Select the data sources to use. The template lists the ones it fits best.
4. Create the dashboard.

The dashboard is built as a background job, and you are notified when it is ready. This uses AI credits; the AI credits article explains how usage is calculated and where to see your balance. Every number in the widget captions and notes is checked against the chart data, and a sentence with a figure the data cannot back is removed.

Apply a dashboard template without AI credits

On the dashboards page, click Manual mode, pick the same template and bind its slots to your columns yourself: which column is the date, which is revenue, which is the channel. Manual mode uses no credits and is a good way to learn what a template expects. The dashboard creation guide walks through it.

Run a report template

Report templates run from Reports > New Report, or by clicking a report template in the library.

1. Under Select Data Source, pick one or more sources. Sources that fit are marked Recommended; if you have not connected one the template needs, the window explains how.
2. Click Configure Report and set the Report Title.
3. Click Generate Report. It runs in the background; choose Run in Background to keep working.

If your data does not contain what the template needs, the report says Data Mismatch Detected, lists the fields it found and shows any credits refunded. A finished report can be downloaded as a PDF, and on Professional and Enterprise it can be shared to a workspace or scheduled to regenerate and be emailed. The report templates article covers every option.

After applying

The result is an ordinary dashboard or report, not a locked copy. For dashboards you can change the widget layout, the refresh frequency and the name in Settings, share it, forecast it (Starter and up) and link widgets to goals.

Create your own templates

When your team has a report it runs the same way every month, turn it into a template. On the Reports page, open the Templates tab and click Create Custom Template. The form asks for:

• Template information: name, category, description, industry and use case
• Appearance: colour theme and icon
• Data requirements: the kinds of source the template needs
• Business focus: what to analyse, which metrics matter, which questions it should answer, the industry context and preferred visualizations

The template then appears in your organization's list, and you can edit or delete it later. A template contains no data, only the design, so it can be applied to another source.

One setting needs care: Publish to Marketplace makes the template visible to every clariBI user in the community section. Leave it off unless the template contains nothing about your business you would not publish.

Tips for choosing well

• Start from the question. A three-metric template that answers what you need beats a twelve-widget one that roughly covers the topic.
• Start small, then add. Adding widgets to a simple dashboard is easier than stripping a complex one down.
• Use one template per audience. A founder's weekly view and a marketing manager's channel view are different templates, even on the same data.

For when a template is the right tool and when a custom analysis is better, see template-based analysis: pre-built vs. custom. The templates feature page summarizes the categories.

Try it

Connect one source you check every week, such as Stripe or Google Analytics, open Templates, filter by its category and apply the most popular dashboard template in manual mode. If the slots map cleanly to your columns, generate the AI version next and compare the two.