Build a dashboard with chat

Ask chat for a chart of your data, adjust what it shows, and arrange the charts and tables on the board so the report reads the way you want.

At the end of this page you will have a dashboard with at least one chart on it, saved under Dashboards, built by asking in chat.

Before you start

Your data is in a table. Each chart reads from a Loopfour table, such as a list of open invoices with customer, amount and due date. If it is not there yet, create or import a table, or set up a workflow that fills one.
Name your columns clearly. Chat reads the column names to work out what each one holds. "Due date" and "Amount" work better than "Col 3".

Build your first chart

Ask for the chart and name the table

Type what you want to see. Type @ and pick the table, so chat knows which data to use. For example: "Show @Open invoices as total amount by aging bucket."

Check the preview

Chat shows the chart in the conversation. It is not saved yet. Check that the figures match what you expect from the table.

Adjust it

Ask for changes in plain words, such as "show it in thousands", "negatives in brackets", "sort largest first" or "make it a table instead". Chat shows a new preview each time.

Choose Save to dashboard on the chart. Pick an existing dashboard, or choose Create new dashboard…, type a name such as "Month-end AR" and choose Create & save. Choose Open on the message that appears to go to the dashboard.

In Studio: Home > Save to dashboard. Save to dashboard sits on the chart chat shows you in the conversation.

You can also ask chat to do the saving. Say "save this to @Month-end AR" to add it to an existing dashboard, or "create a dashboard called Month-end AR with this chart" to start a new one. Chat asks for a name if you do not give one.

Start from a ready-made board

Chat has a few finished layouts it can fit to your own table. Ask for one by name:

MRR / ARR overview, for subscription revenue, from a table with one row per customer per month.
Cohort retention, for customers kept by sign-up month.
Cash bridge, for opening to closing cash through each kind of inflow and outflow.
Budget vs actual, for a variance table by line item.

Each layout needs certain columns in your table. The cash bridge, for example, needs a date, a category and a signed amount, with inflows positive and outflows negative.

Arrange the dashboard

Open the dashboard

Go to Dashboards and click the dashboard.

Choose Edit

Choose Edit at the top right. Each section now shows its controls.

Rename, reorder or remove

Type a new title in the title box. Use the up and down arrows to move a section. Use the cross to remove it.

Choose Done

Choose Done when the order reads the way you want.

To change what a chart shows, go back to chat and name the dashboard with @, for example: "On @Month-end AR, change the aging chart to show the top ten customers." Chat changes that chart in place. If you ask chat to remove a chart, it asks you to confirm first.

Set board-wide formats

Ask chat to set defaults that apply to the whole dashboard:

Currency shown on amounts, such as EUR. This changes the symbol only; amounts are not converted.
Negative numbers with a minus sign or in brackets.
Fiscal year start month, so "Fiscal YTD" and "Last fiscal year" match your year.
Locale, for date and number style, such as en-GB.
Density, compact or comfortable.

A setting on a single chart, such as "show this one in millions", takes priority over the board-wide default.

Check it worked

The dashboard appears under Dashboards, with "Updated" and today's date.
Opening it shows your chart with figures from the table.
Adding a row to the table and reopening the dashboard changes the figure.

If something goes wrong

Chat answers with a plain table instead of a chart. The numbers are not in a Loopfour table. Put them in one, then ask again and name the table with @.
A chart shows Stale. The last load failed and you are seeing older figures. Check that the table and its columns still exist; deleting a table or a column the chart reads breaks it. Then ask chat to fix the chart.
Chat says it could not build the chart. Tell it which columns to use, for example "use Due date for the period and Amount for the value".