3.1 What Is a Dashboard?
The Dashboard is a personalised, configurable board of widgets. Each widget is a chart or data table that pulls live information from Zenople and presents it in a visual format. Your dashboard is private to your user account — the widgets you add, the names you give them, and their layout are not visible to other users.
You can add multiple widgets to a single dashboard, arrange them in any order, and switch between different chart types to suit your preference.
3.2 Adding a Widget
To add a new widget to your dashboard:
- From the Dashboard navigation, click the add icon and select the widget option. This opens the side panel showing available widget templates.
- Browse the list of available widget templates. Each template represents a specific type of data visualisation.
- Click the Add button next to the template you want to use.
- A configuration dialog will open. Fill in: Alias (display name), Description (optional note), Widget Template Type (chart style), and Widget Dimension (size).
- Click Save. The widget will appear on your dashboard.
Note: The widget template type options shown depend on which chart types are supported for that specific template. Not all chart types are available for every template.
3.3 Widget Configuration Options
Property | Description |
Alias | The name displayed on the widget tile on your dashboard. Choose any name that helps you identify the widget at a glance. |
Description | An optional free-text note visible when viewing the widget details. |
Widget Template Type | The chart type used to render the data (BarGraph, TrendLine, PieChart, DonutChart, or Table). |
Widget Dimension | The size the widget occupies on the dashboard (1×1 for a small card or 1×4 for a wide panel). |
3.4 Rearranging and Saving the Widget Layout
Widgets on the dashboard can be rearranged by dragging and dropping them into the desired position. After rearranging, you must save the new layout by clicking the Save Changes icon at the top of the dashboard.
Important: If you navigate away from the dashboard without saving, the rearranged layout will not be retained. Your widgets will revert to their previous positions the next time you visit.
3.5 Editing and Deleting Widgets
To edit a widget: hover over the widget tile to reveal the action icons, click the Edit icon (pencil), update the fields, and click Save.
To delete a widget: hover over the widget tile, click the Delete icon (bin/trash), and confirm the deletion. Deleted widgets cannot be recovered, but you can always add the same template again as a new widget.
3.6 Widget Chart Types
Chart Type | Description | Best Used For |
BarGraph | Vertical bar chart comparing values across categories | Comparing top performers, customers, or states |
TrendLine | Line chart showing values changing over time | Payroll trends, revenue trends, month-over-month growth |
PieChart | Circular chart showing proportional breakdown | Distribution of revenue by funding type |
DonutChart | Doughnut-style circular chart with a hollow centre | Similar to PieChart; also used for task completion status |
Table | Tabular grid of data rows and columns | AR aging, detailed lists where numbers need to be read precisely |
3.7 Widget Dimensions
The widget supports multiple dimension options, ranging from 1×1 as the smallest size to 4×4 as the largest available size. Most analytical chart templates use the 1×4 dimension, as the wider format provides enough space to render the data clearly.
3.8 Available Widget Templates
The following widget templates are available in DDS. Templates are pre-built data connections that determine what data is pulled and how it can be visualised.
Template Name | Description | Supported Chart Types | Typical Dimension |
PayrollTrend | Total payroll amount over time, showing how payroll costs change month by month | TrendLine, BarGraph | 1×4 |
GrossWageTrend | Gross wage totals over time across all active employees | TrendLine, BarGraph | 1×4 |
RevenueTrend | Revenue figures tracked over time, giving visibility into growth or decline | TrendLine, BarGraph | 1×4 |
Top10SupplierByGrossWage | The ten suppliers generating the highest gross wage in the selected period | BarGraph | 1×4 |
RevenueByFunding | Revenue broken down by funding type | BarGraph, PieChart | 1×4 |
Top10GrossWageByState | The ten states with the highest gross wage totals | BarGraph | 1×4 |
OldUserByMonth | Month-by-month view of attrition or aging user counts | BarGraph, TrendLine | 1×4 |
PaidEmployee | Count of employees who received a pay cheque in the selected period | BarGraph, Table | 1×4 |
PRASupplierProfit | Profit data by PRA supplier, providing a margin-level view per supplier | BarGraph | 1×4 |
NewCustomerByMonth | New customers added each month, tracking growth in the customer base | BarGraph, TrendLine | 1×4 |
ARAgingInThousand | Accounts receivable aging report in thousands, showing outstanding balances by age bracket | Table, BarGraph | 1×4 |
Top5CustomerTotalBillInMillions | The five customers with the highest total billed amount in millions | BarGraph, PieChart | 1×4 |
Note: The specific chart type options shown in the widget configuration dialog depend on what each template supports. If a chart type does not appear in the dropdown, it is not available for that template.
3.9 Refresh Behaviour
Widget data reflects the state of the underlying Zenople data at the time the dashboard loads. Widgets do not refresh automatically in real time. To see the latest data, reload the dashboard page. Financial metric widgets such as PayrollTrend and ARAgingInThousand reflect data as processed up to the end of the previous business day, as some data is generated by overnight batch processing.