The Spark Analytics platform leverages your project data to meticulously track marketing campaign progress, monitor project sales, manage deposits, and more, providing comprehensive insights into your project.
Overview
Dashboards are a collection of individual reports. If there are multiple dashboards in your project, you can filter them by title, category, the person who created them, or certain dates. You can also save dashboards to your Favorites list by clicking the star icon to the left of their name. Toggle between viewing all dashboards and only your favorite ones by clicking the tabs at the top of the page.
Creating a New Dashboard
Begin by clicking + New Dashboard and entering your chosen title. If desired, give your dashboard a short description, and then select a report category from the dropdown list.
In the sharing section, select which team members to share the dashboard with. They will be able to view and edit the dashboard, but only the creator can delete it. The beta version utilizes a simplified sharing feature, so you will only be able to share dashboards with users for whom Analytics has been enabled, and they will not be automatically notified that you have shared the dashboard with them. Later versions will expand sharing options to additional user permission types and add a notification function.
Finally, click Create to create the dashboard.
Note: a newly created dashboard has no reports. Click + Add Report to add your first report to the dashboard You can add as many reports to your dashboard as are needed.
Adding a Report
After you click + Add Report, you will be taken to the Report Creator. The Report Creator has three main sections: the data selection panel (left), the configuration and filter panel (middle) and the preview panel (right).
Start by naming your report in the field at the top of the page and choosing the Report Type in the center panel (table, pivot table, vertical bar chart, horizontal bar chart, line graph, area graph, pie chart, KPI chart).
Choosing Data
Begin by selecting your primary data source on the left, then select the information to include by dragging it into the middle panel. As you drag fields over, you will see a live preview of your report in the right panel.
For your convenience, fields are grouped into categories, which can be expanded or closed by clicking the down arrow icon to the right of the category name. You can also combine multiple data sources in your report via the Available Sources dropdown.
Once you’ve selected the fields that should be included in your report, make any desired updates to each field by clicking the pencil icon to its right. You can customize the display name of any field, and, depending on the field type, there are additional aggregation settings available as well.
To delete a field from your report, click the trashcan icon to its right.
Aggregating Data
Data aggregation is the process of combining data from multiple sources into a single, comprehensive dataset. Types of data aggregation available for certain fields in Spark include:
- Count
- Sum
- Average
- Maximum
- Minimum
You will find the available data aggregation types for any particular field by clicking the pencil icon to its right to view the field settings.
Adding Filters
To add filters to your report, begin by clicking the Filters tab in the center panel.
By default, the fields that are included in your report will appear in the Suggested Filters section. Click the Filter button for any of these fields, or drag another available field where indicated in the center panel to use it as a filter. Set your filter parameters and click Apply.
If you have multiple filters, use the radio buttons to determine whether your report should only return results that match all or any of the filters.
To edit a filter, click the pencil icon to its right; to delete it, click the trash can icon.
Report Settings
The Report Settings section allows you to modify the following display settings:
- Show/hide description
- Date Format
- Currency Format
- Percentage Format
- Number Format
- Area Format
Finally, click Save to save your report. You can return to the Report Creator at any time by clicking the report’s micromenu and selecting Edit.
Dashboard Menu & Configuration
Drag and drop reports to reorder them on your dashboard. Existing reports will shift to make room as you drag each report into position.
You can also resize each report by hovering over it. This will make a double arrow appear in the bottom right corner; click and drag the double arrow to make your report larger or smaller.
View the dashboard menu by clicking the ⋮ icon toward the top right. You will see the following options:
- Edit: modify the dashboard title, description, category, date and time settings, and more.
- Share: add or remove users to control who can see the dashboard
- Clone: create a duplicate copy of the dashboard - note that share settings to not carry over to the new version.
- Remove: permanently delete the dashboard
Watch the Video Tutorial!