Create personalized dashboards and reports to acquire data relevant to your specific role and business goals faster.

You can:

• duplicate whole existing dashboards, customize them, and save them to your folder
• edit, apply, and save filters
• edit and save individual KPI tiles and report widgets.

Note: Only admin and standard users can edit and save their custom dashboards.

How to create custom dashboards

To create a customized dashboard, you must copy an existing dashboard and save it into your personal or group folder.

Watch this tutorial to see how you can copy and rename a dashboard.

1. Click on the folder icon in the options menu in the dashboard's upper right corner.
2. Navigate to the dashboard list, then choose Shared > Insights, where all default dashboards are. Choose the folder containing the dashboard you're interested in. Click on the three dots icon next to the dashboard that you want to copy and customize.
   
3. After you click on the Make a copy option, you will see this notification at the bottom of the page:
   
4. Without closing the notification, navigate back to the folder you want to copy the dashboard to using the arrow.
   
5. You can select My Folder for a copy only you can see, or you can choose Group to share with others in your organization.
6. Press the Copy Here button at the bottom of the screen.
7. You’ll see this notification:
   
8. Within your chosen folder, you can make a copy, move, or delete your dashboards. Click on the three dots icon to see a list of options.
   
9. Click on the name of the dashboard you want to customize. Then, click on the three dots icon in the upper right corner of the dashboard and choose Edit dashboard.
   
   
10. The banner indicates you’re in edit mode. You now have the option to edit the entire dashboard, or each KPI tile/report widget individually.

Edit mode

Here's a brief overview, of what you can do when you’re in edit mode:

• add objects to the dashboard
  
• add and change the filters
  
• change settings
  
• edit the layout
  

When in edit mode, you can also rearrange your dashboard by dragging the tiles and widgets using the drag-and-drop icon, and duplicate or delete any tile or report widget.

Modify existing report widgets

Aside from editing whole dashboards, you can edit and save individual report widgets. Let's take the List of emails widget as an example:

1. To modify report widgets you need to be in your copy of the email channel dashboard, that you have previously created. Access it within your folder, and choose edit mode.
2. Navigate to the widget and click on the three dots icon. Choose the Edit option.
   
3. You'll see the Edit tile window.
   
4. On the left, you’ll find a menu with a list of fields: measures, and dimensions, grouped in folders. The fields that are currently in use on your visualization on the right will have a colored label around them.
   
5. By clicking on those labels, you can add or remove certain measures and dimensions from your widget, leaving only the ones that are crucial to you.
6. To make your changes visible in the Explore window, click Run. You’ll see how adding or removing fields changes the visualization of the data.
   
7. Click the Save button to close the Explore window and see your updated widget on the dashboard.
   

You can watch a video on how to add or remove metrics in our Acoustic Academy.

Create a new report widget

Using the edit mode, you can also create new report widgets. Here’s how to do it:

1. Copy a dashboard that fits your goal best into your personal folder or shared folder.
2. Activate edit mode.
3. In the banner up top, you’ll find an Add option. Choose to create a new visualization from the menu.
   
4. You'll see this view:
   
5. Select an Explore.
   
   Explore is an organized set of data dimensions and measures. Depending on which Explore you choose in this step, you’ll get a different set of measures and dimensions to create your visualizations. We recommend you choose an Explore with a name corresponding to the dashboard name.
6. When you click on a chosen Explore name, you’ll see this edit tile window:
   
7. Here, you can give it a descriptive title, add dimensions and measures, and choose a type of visualization.
   
8. Let's say, you want to have a widget showing a pie chart with information on how many SMS messages were sent each day of the week.
9. Select Day of week from the Dimensions list.
   
10. Then, select SMS sent gross from the Measures list (you can use the search bar to look for desired measures and dimensions).
    
11. Choose Pie from the visualization types list.
    
12. Don’t forget to click Run when you’re ready, to see the changes you made.
    
13. Click Save and return to the dashboard. Your new widget will be there.
    
14. You can move it around the dashboard, make additional changes, or delete it when you won't need it anymore. Save the whole dashboard to keep your changes.
    

Send by month use case

A client wants to see email send stats for the entire month in one row. You can accomplish that by creating and adjusting a new visualization via the Explore.

1. Make sure you’re in the edit mode. Click Add and then > Visualisation.
   
   
2. Choose the email Explore.
   
3. In the Explore window, you can change the widget title to "Send by month". Then from the email field list, select Email sends gross.
   
4. From the Mailing fields list, select Message sent Date > Month. 
   
5. You'll see the fields added to the data window. Press run to see the data.
   
6. You'll see your results.
   
7. You can change the visualization type and make additional edits. For example, you can change the format of the month name. Click on Edit and choose the X axis and in the Time Label Format type in %b, which will show the month's name as the month's first three letters.
   
8. Click save to close the Explore window. 
   
9. You'll see your report widget with send by month data on your dashboard.
   
10. Save the whole dashboard to keep your changes.
    

Link performance use case

You can watch a video on this subject in our Acoustic Academy.

A client wants to create a report widget with a list of emails that contain a specific URL. For example, they want to see all emails that received clicks on acoustic.com.

1. To add report widgets, you need to be in your copy of the dashboard, that you have previously created. Access it within your folder, and choose edit mode.
2. Click Add and then > Visualisation. 
   
3. You'll see a window with an option to select an Explore. Choose the Email link performance.
   
4. In the fields list on the left, expand the Mailing Click Thru list and then click on the Mailing click thru name and Mailing URL. 
   
5. A colored label will appear over the fields and they will be added to your data window on the right.
   
6. Change the visualization type to Table.
   
7. In the Filters window click on the +Filter button.
   
8. A popup will appear. Expand the Mailing Click Thru list, and select Mailing URL. Click Close.
   
9. Type in the URL you're interested in the Filters window 
   
10. Click the Run button to see the data in action.
    
11. You can also change the widget's name from Untitled to more recognizable, like Link URL. Click the Save button in the upper right corner. 
    
12. Your new report widget will appear on the dashboard. You can move it around using the drag-and-drop feature. 
    
13. Click Save to make the changes permanent.
    

Tying the new report widget to the filter

You want to make sure your new report widget updates when you're adjusting the filters. For that to work, you need to tie the widget to the filter.

1. In the edit mode, click on the three dots icon next to the time filter and select Edit.
2. Click on the Tiles To Update tab inside the popup window.
   
3. Find the name of your new report widget from the list. You can see that the widget name is greyed-out and the dropdown list next to that widget says: Do Not Filter. From the dropdown, you can select a metric that fits your widget best. In this case, choose the Message send Date from the drop-down.
   
4. Click Update.
   
5. Save your dashboard.
   
   

Custom calculations use case

A client wants to add a custom calculation field to calculate something that the default dashboard doesn’t have (like a rate) or that they want to calculate differently.

1. First, you need to be in your copy of the dashboard, that you have previously created. Access it within your folder, and choose edit mode.
2. Click Add and then > Visualisation. Choose an Explore, i.e. Email. 
   Note: You can also do this using edit mode on an already existing report widget.
3. Let's say you want to include blocked emails as undelivered. You need to select those measures from the fields list.
   
4. Click the +Add button next to the Custom Fields.
   
5. Choose Table Calculation.
   
6. A popup will appear. The custom expression box will search as you type the field name, so you don’t have to know the syntax, just the field names you want to use. You also need to change the name of this calculation. When you’re ready, click Save.
   
7. You'll see your custom calculation in the data window.
   
8. Click the Save button to save your new visualization to the dashboard.
   
9. You can also click the gear icon in the upper right corner - you'll see the option to save as a new or to an existing dashboard, or as a Look. 
   A Look is a single table or visualization saved as its own individual report. Looks can be added to dashboards, scheduled, shared, and made public. Any changes made to a Look will be reflected in any dashboards that contain it.
   

Blank template

A great way to create customized dashboards is to use a blank template which is available in your Shared > Insights folder:

This option makes it easier to copy and edit dashboards. 

With a blank template, you start with this view:

To edit the blank template you need to make a copy and save this dashboard to your personal folder. Click on the three dots icon and choose "edit dashboard".

Now you can edit or delete filters and duplicate, edit, and delete report widgets (tiles). You can also rename your new dashboard. Don't forget to click Save when you're ready.