Dashboard builder reference: metrics, layout, refresh and drill-down
A reference for building and running dashboards in clariBI: the five builder steps, custom metrics, the layout grid and widget sizes, refresh schedules, drill-down panels and the warnings a dashboard can show.
Where the builder is
Open AI Dashboards, click Create Dashboard, enter a name and choose Dashboard Builder (recommended). The builder needs AI credits, so it is available on the Trial, Starter, Professional and Enterprise plans. For a dashboard without AI, use Manual mode (see creating a dashboard). The dashboard builder page in the documentation is a shorter summary of this reference.
The five steps
1. Data Sources
Select one or more connected sources. A dashboard can combine several sources, for example ad spend from Meta Ads and revenue from Stripe.
2. Business Domain
Pick the area the dashboard is about. The choice decides which metrics are suggested in the next step.
3. Define Metrics
- Suggested Metrics: common metrics for the domain. Tick the ones you want.
- Quick Start Templates: sets of metrics for a typical dashboard in the domain. Start Fresh clears them.
- Create Custom Metric: give it a Metric Name, a Description in plain language ("Average order value per week"), an optional formula, and a Visualization Type. The AI works out which columns to use.
A dashboard holds a limited number of widgets. When a chart type does not fit in what is left, the builder says No room for this chart type.
4. Design Layout
Place the widgets on the grid (see "Layout" below).
5. Deploy
- Refresh Frequency: manual only, every hour, daily (the default), weekly or monthly.
- Workspace Sharing: share with workspace members (Professional and Enterprise).
- Estimated Credits per Refresh and Monthly Credit Usage, based on the number of metrics and the size of the data.
When you deploy, the dashboard is built as a background job and you are notified when it is ready.
Layout
Dashboards use a 4-column grid. On narrower screens it drops to 3, 2 and then 1 column, and widgets stack.
To change the layout of an existing dashboard, open its Settings and click Edit Widget Layout. In the editor:
- Drag a widget to move it, or type its Column (1 to 4) and Row.
- Pick a size:
| Size | Columns x rows |
|---|---|
| Small | 1 x 1 |
| Medium | 2 x 1 |
| Large | 2 x 2 |
| Wide | 4 x 1 |
| Tall | 1 x 2 |
- Click Save Layout, or Cancel to discard the changes.
See dashboard layout for layout ideas.
Refresh
A dashboard's refresh frequency is set in the builder and can be changed later in its Settings, which also show Last Refreshed, Next Refresh and the estimated monthly usage. clariBI checks for due refreshes every 30 minutes. If a data source is older than its sync interval when the refresh runs, it is synced first.
Refreshing an AI dashboard re-runs the analysis on the current data and uses AI credits. The automatic insights dashboards and manual-mode dashboards refresh without credits.
The Refresh button on the dashboard page reloads it on demand. Dashboard refresh schedules in the documentation covers the schedule options.
Drill-down
Click a point, bar or slice in a chart to open a drill-down panel. It shows how the value was calculated: the source dataset, the date range, how many rows were aggregated and the items behind the number. This is the quickest way to check a surprising figure.
Narratives and insights
AI dashboards show a short narrative per widget and a list of insights and recommendations. Before they are shown, every sentence with a number is checked against the chart data; a sentence with a figure the data cannot back is removed. A widget whose metric has no rows says so instead of guessing.
Warnings a dashboard can show
- Data may need refresh: the data behind the dashboard is older than expected. Refresh it or sync the source.
- The data source schema has changed since this dashboard was created: columns were renamed or removed at the source.
- Some widgets need column rebinding: a widget's column no longer exists. Rebuild the widget or the dashboard.
- Data source removed: a source the dashboard used was deleted.
- The connected data source does not contain the fields required for the requested metrics: the metric asked for data the source does not have.
Other actions on the dashboard page
- Share Link and Share to Workspace: see sharing dashboards.
- Export (Professional and Enterprise): CSV gives every number on the dashboard, one row each (widget, widget type, series, label, value); JSON groups the data by widget, with each KPI's value, change and caption.
- Forecast Dashboard: forecasts every widget that can be forecast (Starter and above).
- Track as Goal in a widget's menu creates a goal from the widget's current value; Link to Goal links a widget to a goal. The goal then follows the widget as the dashboard refreshes; see connecting goals to dashboard data.
- Discussion & Comments for dashboards in a workspace.