Anterra Widget Dashboards
Overview of Widgets – Build Your Own Dashboards
Widgets allow you to build your own dashboards from a selection of pre-built and self-built widgets (built-in Widget Builder). You can build as many dashboards as you like using any combination of widgets in any order.
Dashboards are built with 'responsive design' – they will size to fit the size of the device you are using. More widgets will fit across a large monitor than a small monitor or tablet. You don’t need to worry about designing a dashboard for particular monitor sizes, the widgets will align themselves across and down the page as required.
Types of Widgets
Widgets are related to the modules of AnterraBI™:
Construction Widgets
These have blue title bars. Data comes from the construction module of your source system. For example, Construction AP would have accounts payable information related to jobs. It would not include accounts payable for non-job invoices like office supplies.
Finance Widgets
These widgets have green title bars. Data comes from the general ledger module of your source system. For example, Financial AR would include intercompany accounts receivable where Construction AR would be filtered to job-related AR.
Service Management Widgets:
SM widgets have orange title bars. Data comes from the Service Management module of Sage (Vista to come later).
Shared vs. My Dashboards
The dashboard selection dropdown contains 2 types of dashboards – Shared and My Dashboards:
Shared dashboards are available to all users and are created by users who have the “Create Shared Dashboards” security role. Shared dashboards are useful as they present the same widgets in the same order to everyone. This provides a consistent view of information that can be used in meetings. “My Dashboards” are created by individual users and are visible only to them. Individuals can start with a Shared Dashboard and set parameters, then save a dashboard that helps them manage their work. For example, a Project Manager could create 5 dashboards for the 5 jobs he is running or a controller could create separate dashboards for construction and service companies.
Dashboard Screen Components
The widgets screen has the following areas:
- Dashboard selector – used to select from Shared Dashboards available to all users or for dashboards that each user creates for themselves under “My Dashboards”
- Parameters – dashboards present filtered information when you select parameters. The parameters you can choose from are
- Consolidation Group – presents your companies' organizational hierarchy for selection
- Date – uses the accounting date for financial measures (i.e. cash balance) and transaction date for non-financial measures (i.e. work backlog)
- Job – allows trimming for a single project
- Project Manager – allows trimming by PM
- WIDGET BUILDER button
- SAVE button – allows you to save changes to the layout of a dashboard or “save as” a new dashboard – covered in more detail in a separate heading.
- Widget Selection Panel – opens using the large arrow on the right side of the screen, shows widgets available to add to a dashboard.
- Scroll bar – scroll down if you have more rows of widgets than your monitor or device will fit.
Adding Widgets to a Dashboard
Opening the widget selection panel (large arrow on the left side of the screen) opens the widget selection panel. Widgets are sorted by module, then alphabetically:
Construction widgets have a BLUE title bar, Finance widgets have a GREEN title bar so you always know where data is coming from. When you open up a module the available widgets display in the widget selection panel. Click on a widget to add it to your current dashboard as the last widget. If a widget is already on the dashboard it is grayed out:
Removing Widgets from a Dashboard
Opening the widget selection panel (large arrow on the left side of the screen) opens the widget selection panel. This puts the dashboard in edit mode where you can add widgets from the widget selection panel on the left or remove widgets from the dashboard using the “Trashcan” icon that appears on each widget when the selection panel is open.
Widgets that are removed from dashboards appear in full color on the right if you would like to add them back.
Moving Widgets on a Dashboard
Opening the widget selection panel (large arrow on the left side of the screen) opens the widget selection panel. This puts the dashboard in edit mode where you can add/remove or move widgets on the dashboard. To move a widget simply pick it up using your mouse on the title bar and drag it to the location you want. The widgets will space themselves out based on the available space on your monitor. Note that moving “wider” widgets may displace multiple widgets on a row, you might have to do a couple of moves to put the widgets exactly where you want.
Pre-move screenshot showing a move of the Financial Accounts Receivable widget up one row:
After dragging the title bar up one row:
Saving Dashboards
When you make any of the following changes, the name of your dashboard changes to italics:
- Add or remove widgets
- Change the company parameter from “All Companies” to a selected company
- Change the job parameter from “All Jobs” to a selected job
- Change the project manager parameter from “All Project Managers” to a selected Project Manager
To save your dashboard changes or to save the dashboard with a new name, click on the SAVE DASHBOARD button:
A popup window will appear asking you to save your dashboard:
If you have the security role to save Shared Dashboards you will see the “Save as Shared Dashboard Button”. All users can save their own dashboards which will appear under the dashboard list under “My Dashboards”.
Undoing Changes to Dashboards
When you make changes to dashboard parameters (except the date parameter) the name of your dashboard shows in italics in the dashboard selector. Beside each dashboard in italics is an “undo icon”:
Clicking on the Undo icon removes any changes to the parameters and widgets you have added/removed or moved since the last time you saved.
Deleting Dashboards
A trashcan icon appears beside dashboards in the dashboard selector if you haven’t changed parameters or added/removed or moved widgets since you last saved it.
If you want to delete a dashboard with unsaved changes (the name is in italics) simply click the Undo icon beside the name and the trashcan icon appears allowing you to delete it.
Drilling Down on Widgets and Navigating Back
Each widget drills to a detailed grid and then to transactions. When you click on a number you are taken to a new grid:
Example – drill on an underlined number on the Procurement Widget:
You are taken to the Committed Cost Grid, in this case, the number you drilled on is the remaining committed cost for all jobs which is in the total row:
You can use this grid to drill into specific jobs to see their commitments by cost code. When you are finished using this grid click on the back button on your browser to return to the Widgets Dashboard:
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