Dashboards

1. Overview

A dashboard is a canvas of widgets — numbers, charts, data grids, links — that you lay out yourself and that updates live from your organization’s data. Everyone has a personal Home dashboard that opens on sign-in, and you can create as many named dashboards as you like, share them with coworkers, and drive all the widgets on one from a single set of parameters such as a reporting period or a customer.

Most dashboards are built from the widget catalog: over 150 prebuilt numbers and charts, organized by module, that only need to be dropped on the canvas. When the catalog doesn’t have the view you want, the chart editor builds a custom one from any record type in the system, and the AI assistant can do the same from a sentence.

Key capabilities:

A personal Home dashboard plus any number of named dashboards, listed under Dashboards in the sidebar
Eleven starter dashboards that create a finished board for a job (A/R collections, dispatch today, payroll week…) in one click
A widget catalog of prebuilt KPIs and charts for every module, gated by what your role can read
Custom chart widgets from any record type: bar, line, area, pie, donut, funnel, or a single number
Grid widgets that embed a saved view or a saved grid, live and filterable
Dashboard parameters — a period, a date, a customer, a technician, a yes/no, a choice — bound into widgets and changed from a parameter control on the dashboard
Sharing with people or roles, view-only or with edit rights
The Business Overview, a built-in company-wide dashboard you can arrange but not change
The AI assistant adds catalog widgets, custom charts and grids to a dashboard on request

2. Key Concepts

Home dashboard — Your personal landing page. One per user, created the first time you sign in, never shared. It is a dashboard like any other except that it cannot be deleted or shared.
Named dashboard — A dashboard you create from the Dashboards list, with a name, its own widgets and parameters, and an owner (you). Owners may share it; the dashboard appears in each recipient’s list as Shared with me.
Widget — One tile on the canvas. Widgets are typed: Favorites, Links, Grid, Saved Grid, Parameter control, and Chart (both catalog widgets and custom charts are chart widgets). Every widget has a position and size on a 24-column grid, an optional title override, and an accent color.
Widget catalog — The library of prebuilt chart widgets ServiSuite ships, grouped by module (Service, Scheduling & dispatch, Accounts receivable, Accounts payable, Inventory & purchasing, Payroll, Job costing, General ledger, CRM). A catalog widget is a complete, tested definition: the data it reads, how it is drawn, and which dashboard parameters it uses.
Starter dashboard — A named set of catalog widgets that New from starter turns into a new dashboard, parameters included, laid out for you.
Dashboard parameter — A typed variable that belongs to the dashboard — Period, Customer, As of, Technician… Widgets are bound to parameters; a parameter control on the dashboard lets any viewer change the value, and every bound widget follows. Parameter values are per viewer and never saved into the dashboard.
Binding — The link between a widget’s input and a dashboard parameter. A chart’s filter or a metric’s “as of” date can be bound; a grid widget’s declared parameters and column filters can be bound. A date-range parameter binds through an edge (start, end, or after end) when the input wants a single date.
Edit mode — The state in which the structure of a dashboard changes: moving and resizing widgets, adding and removing them, and editing a Links widget. Changes in edit mode are a draft until you click Save.
Business Overview — A built-in dashboard under General Ledger composed by the system for every viewer with the permission. Its widget set is fixed; each viewer may arrange and resize it for themselves.
Locked dashboard — A dashboard whose widgets and parameters are composed by the system (today, the Business Overview). You can arrange it, not add to it.
Metric — A measure defined on a record type that the system knows how to compute: a customer’s open balance, a job’s cost to date, an account’s activity in a window. Metrics appear in the chart editor beside plain fields and may take parameters of their own (an “as of” date, a window).

3. How It Connects

Dashboards read from every module; they write nothing back. Each widget runs its own query when the dashboard loads or a parameter changes, under your permissions:

Catalog and custom chart widgets read the record types their query touches. A widget whose records you cannot read is left out of the catalog for you (shown greyed with the reason) and, on a shared dashboard, renders as an error tile rather than data.
Grid widgets embed a search grid (a saved view of any module’s grid) or a saved grid the assistant built, and obey the same row-level and column-level rules the grid screen itself applies.
Links widgets point at screens and reports; a link to a screen you cannot open is shown but will not get you in.
Favorites widgets mirror your Favorites list.

Numbers on a dashboard are live: there is no nightly refresh. A tile shows what the database holds at the moment it loads.

4. The Dashboards list

Navigation: sidebar → Dashboards

The list shows every dashboard you can open: your Home dashboard first, then your own named dashboards and the ones shared with you.

Column	Meaning
Name	The dashboard’s name.
Type	Home, Mine (you own it), or Shared with me.
Owner	Me, or the owner’s name on a shared dashboard.
Access	Owner, Can edit, or View only.
Updated	When the dashboard was last saved.

Click a row to open the dashboard. The search box filters the list.

Creating a dashboard

New dashboard asks for a name and opens an empty canvas.
New from starter lists the starter dashboards (see Section 8); pick one, optionally rename it, and a finished dashboard opens with its widgets placed and its parameters created. A starter is greyed out, with the reason, when it includes a widget your role cannot read.

Opening a named dashboard

A named dashboard opens at /dashboards/<id> with a header that carries:

a back arrow to the list;
the name — click it to rename (owners and editors);
for a shared dashboard, Shared with you (can edit) or (view only) and the owner’s name;
Share and Delete (owner only; the Home dashboard has neither).

The app-bar star favorites the dashboard, so it appears in your Favorites and on the Favorites widget.

5. The canvas: viewing, arranging, editing

Every dashboard — Home, named, shared, and the Business Overview — uses the same canvas.

Viewing

Outside edit mode the canvas is a viewer: charts render, grids scroll and filter, links open, and parameter controls change values. Nothing you do here is saved to the dashboard; changing a parameter affects only what you see (and the page address, so the view is shareable).

Edit mode

Click Edit (top right). The canvas becomes a draft:

Move a widget by dragging its title bar. Resize it by dragging its bottom-right corner. Widgets snap to a 24-column grid and pack upward, so removing or shrinking one lets the widgets below it rise.
Add Widget opens the menu of widget types (see Section 6).
Remove a widget with the ✕ on its title bar. Removing a Grid or Saved Grid widget never deletes the underlying view or grid.
On a Links widget, use Add Link to pick a screen or report and the ✕ on a tile to remove a link.
Save keeps the draft; Cancel throws it away.

Saves are checked against the version you opened. If the same dashboard was saved from another tab or by a coworker with edit rights in the meantime, your save is refused, the latest version is loaded, and a message says so; redo your change on the fresh copy.

Every widget carries, from left to right:

Control	Shown when	Does
Drag handle (⋮⋮) and title	always	The handle moves the widget in edit mode.
Bind to dashboard parameters (link icon)	Grid and Saved Grid widgets, editors only	Opens the grid bindings dialog (Section 9). Highlighted when a binding exists.
Edit chart (pencil)	custom and catalog chart widgets, editors only	Opens the chart editor on this widget (Section 10).
Widget settings (gear)	editors only	Title override, accent color, and for grid widgets whether to show the search box and filters.
Remove (✕)	edit mode only	Removes the widget from the draft.

Widget settings apply immediately when you are not in edit mode and become part of the draft when you are.

Empty state

A dashboard with no widgets shows a hint: Use Edit to add grids, charts, links and parameter controls. In edit mode it reads Use Add Widget above… or pick from the catalog.

Add Widget offers these:

Menu item	Widget	What you choose	Shows
Links	Links	Nothing yet; add links afterwards	A group of tiles you curate: any screen you can access, or any report from your Reports list. The tile shows the live title of the target.
From catalog…	Chart	A prebuilt widget from the catalog (Section 7)	The catalog widget, placed and bound to parameters automatically.
Grid	Grid	One of your saved views on any search grid, or a brand-new view on a grid you name here	That view of the grid, embedded live — sortable, filterable, exportable — pinned to the view and never disturbing the grid screen itself.
Saved Grid	Saved Grid	One of your saved grids (grids the assistant built and you kept)	The saved grid, embedded live.
Chart	Chart	Built in the chart editor (Section 10)	A custom bar, line, area, pie, donut, funnel, or number.
Parameter control	Parameter control	One or more of the dashboard’s parameters	Inputs for those parameters, stacked. Disabled until the dashboard has at least one parameter.

The Favorites widget is not in the menu: it is placed on every new Home dashboard and mirrors your Favorites list. Manage favorites with the star or the sidebar, not from the widget.

Default sizes

New widgets take a standard size you can change afterwards: a catalog KPI number is a quarter of the width, a chart half the width (horizontal bar charts taller), a Links widget half the width, a parameter control a quarter, and a Grid the full width. Starters and the catalog fill out rows so three KPIs or two charts share a row without gaps.

A Grid or Saved Grid widget whose view or grid was deleted, renamed away, or belongs to someone who stopped sharing, shows a no longer available placeholder instead of a broken grid. A chart whose query the system can no longer run (a field removed in an upgrade, a record type you lost access to) shows the error in the tile. Remove the widget in edit mode or point it somewhere else.

Add Widget → From catalog… opens the catalog: a module list on the left, cards on the right, and a search box that spans every module.

Each card shows the widget’s title, its type chip (Bar, Line, Area, Pie, Donut, Funnel, or Number), a one-line description, and Uses: … — the dashboard parameters it needs (for example Period, or Period, Customer). Hover a card for the full description. Click a card to add the widget; it is placed in the first free slot, and any parameters it needs are reused if the dashboard already has one of the right kind or created if not.

A card is greyed out when your role cannot read a record type the widget uses, with the reason on hover (Needs read access to: Customer Invoice). A module with nothing usable for you is not listed at all.

Parameters the catalog creates

Catalog widgets use a fixed set of parameter roles. When a widget needs one and the dashboard has no parameter of that type, the catalog adds it:

Role	Type	Default	Used for
Period	Date range	This Year (starters may set their own, e.g. This Week)	Every “by month”, “in the period” widget
As of	Date	Today	Balances and aging as of a date
Customer	Record (Customer)	none — All	Narrowing a customer-based widget to one customer
Technician	Record (Schedulable Employee)	none	Narrowing a dispatch widget to one technician
Cost center	Record (Ledger Cost Center)	none	Narrowing a cost-center widget
Job	Record (Job)	none	Narrowing a job-cost widget to one job
Vendor	Record (Vendor)	none	Narrowing a vendor widget

A record-type parameter left empty means all records; the widget simply does not filter on it. Add a Parameter control widget to let viewers change these.

Catalog contents

The tables below list every prebuilt widget by module. Type is how it draws; Needs is the dashboard parameters it uses (none means it always shows the current state of the books).

Service

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Open work orders	Number	Work orders that are neither cancelled nor invoiced yet.	—
Unbilled completed work	Number	Value of work that is finished but has never been invoiced, with the work-order count.	—
Work orders by status	Donut	How the open board is distributed across your configured statuses.	—
Service revenue by month	Bar	Invoiced work-order value per month in the chosen period.	Period
Sale vs cost by month	Line	Invoiced sale alongside the cost behind it, month by month.	Period
Revenue by service type	Bar	Which kinds of service work bring in the money (top 12).	Period
Revenue mix by line type	Stacked bar	Labor vs material vs subs vs flat-rate split of what you sell, and the cost of each.	Period
Revenue by cost center	Bar	Service revenue attributed to each cost center (top 15).	Period
Top customers by service revenue	Bar	The ten customers that bought the most service in the period.	Period
Service contracts by status	Pie	Where the recurring-agreement book stands.	—
Contract value by type	Bar	Annual agreement value and contract count per contract type.	—
Contracts expiring soon	Number	Agreements whose expiration falls inside the period, and their value.	Period
Work orders and average value by month	Bar	How many work orders you invoiced each month and what the average one was worth.	Period
Revenue by salesman	Bar	Invoiced service revenue credited to each salesman (top 15).	Period
Revenue by zip code	Bar	Which service areas the invoiced revenue came from, by site postal code (top 15).	Period
Agreement billings due by month	Bar	The scheduled agreement billing amount falling in each month of the period.	Period
Unbilled agreement billings	Number	Scheduled agreement billings that have never been invoiced.	—
New agreements by type	Bar	Agreements first written in the period — no prior contract behind them.	Period
Renewed agreements by type	Bar	Agreements effective in the period that renewed a prior contract.	Period
Service labor hours by technician	Bar	Billed labor quantity per technician on invoiced work orders (top 20).	Period
Top flat rates	Bar	The flat-rate tasks sold most often and what they brought in (top 10).	Period

Scheduling & dispatch

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Appointments today	Number	How many work-order visits are on the board for today.	—
Unassigned appointments	Number	Visits in the period with no technician on them yet.	Period
Unconfirmed upcoming visits	Number	Scheduled visits the customer has never confirmed.	Period
Appointments by status	Donut	Board composition across your configured appointment statuses.	Period
Appointments by technician	Bar	Visit count per technician (top 20).	Period, Technician
Scheduled minutes by technician	Bar	Booked time per technician, in minutes (top 20).	Period
Appointments per day	Bar	The daily load curve across the period.	Period
Visits completed per week	Bar	Work-order visits marked complete each week of the period.	Period
Scheduled time off by type	Donut	Planned technician absences in the period, split by time-off type.	Period
Appointments open vs closed	Donut	How much of the period board has reached a closed status.	Period
Technician hours by department	Bar	Scheduled appointment hours in the window, per employee department.	Period
Service calls and work days per technician	Bar	Work-order calls run in the window against the number of days each technician worked (top 20).	Period
Capacity used vs free by technician	Bar	Scheduled hours against shift hours available, technician by technician (top 20).	Period
Capacity used vs available	Bar	The whole crew’s scheduled hours next to the shift hours on offer for the window.	Period

Accounts receivable

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Open A/R	Number	Everything customers still owe you — the posted balance of every open invoice as of today — and the invoice count.	—
Net cash position	Number	Open A/R minus open A/P, with both sides beneath it.	—
Average days outstanding	Number	How old the average open invoice is, in days since its invoice date.	—
Overdue A/R	Number	Open balance already past its due date, and the invoice count.	—
Open A/R by due month	Bar	Unpaid invoice balance grouped by the month it falls due.	—
Who owes the most	Bar	Top ten customers by open balance.	Customer
Unpaid invoices	Number	Count of invoices still carrying a balance.	—
Customer prepayments held	Number	Money taken before the work that has not been applied yet.	—
Billed by month	Bar	What you invoiced customers each month, and how many invoices.	Period
Invoiced vs collected by month	Bar	What was billed each month and how much of it has been paid.	Period
Cash collected by month	Bar	Customer money actually received, voids excluded.	Period
Collections by payment type	Pie	Check vs card vs ACH vs whatever you have configured.	Period
Collections by cost center	Bar	Where the received cash lands organisationally (top 15).	Period, Cost center
A/R activity by posting type	Bar	Sales, payments and adjustments hitting A/R in the period.	Period
A/R aging	Bar	Open receivables as the Schedule of A/R buckets them: Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, Over 90, with Retention and Prepayments alongside.	—
Worst 90+ day debtors	Bar	The ten customers carrying the most receivable over ninety days past due.	—
Aged A/R by customer	Stacked bar	The standard aging bands stacked per customer, worst offenders first (top 15).	—
Cash anticipation	Bar	Open receivables grouped by how many days remain until they fall due.	—
Open A/R by customer category	Bar	Unpaid invoice balance split by the category the customer sits in (top 15).	—
Open A/R by terms	Bar	Unpaid invoice balance split by the payment terms the customer is on (top 15).	—
Prepayments by customer	Bar	Which customers you are holding unapplied prepaid money for (top 10).	—
Invoice count and average	Bar	How many invoices you raised each month and what the average one was worth.	Period

Accounts payable

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Open A/P	Number	Everything you still owe vendors — the posted balance of every open bill as of today — and the bill count.	—
Past-due A/P	Number	Vendor bills already past their due date, and the count.	—
A/P due by month	Bar	The cash-out schedule implied by open bills.	—
Who you owe the most	Bar	Top ten vendors by open balance.	Vendor
Bills on hold	Number	Vendor invoices flagged not to pay, and their value.	—
Vendor bills by month	Bar	What vendors billed you each month.	Period
Payments out by month	Bar	Disbursements actually issued, voids excluded, with discounts taken.	Period
Spend by GL account	Bar	Where vendor spend is being charged (top 15).	Period
Spend by cost center	Bar	Vendor spend rolled up to cost centers (top 15).	Period, Cost center
A/P aging	Bar	Open payables in the standard aging bands as of today, with Prepayments alongside.	—
Aged A/P by vendor	Stacked bar	The aging bands stacked per vendor, the most overdue first (top 10).	—
Top vendors by spend	Bar	Who billed you the most in the period (top 10).	Period, Vendor
1099 spend by vendor	Bar	Amounts paid in the period to vendors flagged as needing a 1099 (top 15).	Period
Approved for payment	Number	Approved pay-run amounts sitting against vendor invoices that are still unpaid.	—
Bills due by week	Bar	The week-by-week cash-out schedule for open vendor bills, with the discounts on offer.	Period
Payments by bank account	Bar	Which bank account the money went out of, voids excluded (top 15).	Period

Inventory & purchasing

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Inventory value	Number	What the stock on hand is worth at unit cost, across active products, and the product count.	—
On-hand quantity by building	Bar	Where your stock physically sits.	—
On-hand quantity by category	Bar	Which product families the stock is tied up in — quantity, not value (top 15).	—
Open purchase-order value	Number	Committed spend on orders not yet closed, and the order count.	—
Open POs by vendor	Bar	Who your open commitments are with (top 10).	Vendor
Received value by month	Bar	What came in the door each month.	Period
Backordered PO lines	Number	Order lines still waiting on the vendor, and the units.	—
Movement by type and year	Stacked bar	Received, used, manufactured and destroyed quantity per stock year.	—
Inventory adjustments by reason	Bar	Why stock was adjusted in the period, counted per configured reason (top 15).	Period
Received value by vendor	Bar	Which vendors actually delivered the goods in the period (top 10).	Period
Top received products	Bar	The ten products you took in the most units of, reversals excluded.	Period
Received value by category	Bar	Which product families the incoming spend went into (top 15).	Period
Top products used on jobs	Bar	The material job costing consumed the most of in the period (top 10).	Period, Job
Top products used on work orders	Bar	The parts service burns through, read off the material lines of invoiced work (top 10).	Period
PO lines past due to dock	Number	Backordered order lines whose dock date has already passed, and their value.	—

Payroll

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Hours logged this week	Number	Worked hours entered for the current week.	—
Hours by week	Bar	The labour-hours trend.	Period
Hours by employee	Bar	Who logged how much in the period (top 20).	Period
Hours by pay type	Pie	Regular vs overtime vs PTO, per your configured entry types.	Period
Timesheets awaiting approval	Number	The approval queue size.	—
Gross pay by month	Bar	Processed gross and net pay, month by check date.	Period
Gross pay by department	Bar	Labour cost per department.	Period
Earnings by type	Bar	What the gross is actually made of, with hours where the earning type carries them.	Period
Deductions and withholding by type	Bar	Where the difference between gross and net goes (top 20).	Period
Active employees	Number	Headcount on the books.	—
Hours and labor cost by job	Bar	Where the clocked time and its wage cost landed, job by job (top 10).	Period, Job
Hours by cost category	Bar	Which job cost categories the labour hours were coded to (top 15).	Period
Unassigned hours	Number	Clocked time coded to neither a work order nor a job, and the entry count.	Period
Gross pay by workers’ comp code	Bar	The wage base behind each comp classification (top 20).	Period
Gross pay by tax state	Bar	Wages by withholding state, for state filings.	Period
Gross pay by payroll type	Pie	How the wage spend splits across your payroll types.	Period
Net pay: direct deposit vs check	Bar	Net pay that went out by ACH against paper checks.	Period
PTO accrued vs used	Bar	Accrual and spend postings side by side, per employee (top 30).	Period
Headcount by department	Bar	Where the active employees sit.	—
Clocked vs applied labor by technician	Bar	Wages clocked against work orders next to what payroll actually applied to labor lines — the gap is the unapplied remainder (top 20).	Period
Clocked vs applied labor by month	Bar	The same clocked-versus-applied wage comparison as a monthly trend.	Period

Job costing

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Open jobs	Number	Jobs not yet closed.	—
Open contract value	Number	Contracted revenue on open jobs, with approved and pending change orders beside it.	—
Job backlog	Number	Approved contract scope on open jobs that has not been billed yet.	—
Cost to date vs estimate	Number	Posted cost against the estimated cost across open jobs.	—
Margin on open jobs	Number	Overall margin across open jobs: approved contract value less cost to date, as a percent of contract value.	—
Open vs closed jobs	Bar	Jobs and their contract value, open against closed in the period.	Period
Billed and collected on open jobs	Number	Invoiced to date next to cash received to date.	—
Job cost by cost type	Pie	Labor / material / subs / other split of posted expenses.	Period, Job
Job cost by category	Bar	Posted cost and overhead per cost category (top 15).	Period, Job
Job cost by month	Bar	The burn curve: cost and overhead per month.	Period, Job
Labor hours by job	Stacked bar	Regular, overtime and double-time hours on the biggest jobs (top 10).	Period, Job
Job cost by job type	Stacked bar	Expense and overhead posted in the period, by job type (top 15).	Period
Contract value by kind	Bar	Original contract, approved change orders and pending change orders on jobs contracted in the period.	Period
Cost vs estimate by job type	Bar	Cost to date against the estimated cost on open jobs, by job type (top 15).	—
Labor hours vs estimate by job type	Bar	Hours posted to date against the estimated hours on open jobs, by job type (top 15).	—
Contract, estimate and cost by job type	Bar	The margin picture on open jobs: approved contract value, estimated cost and cost to date, by job type (top 15).	—
Top jobs by posted cost	Bar	Which jobs are consuming the money (top 10).	Period
Billed vs contract by job	Bar	How far each job’s contracts have been billed (top 10).	Job
Approved change orders by month	Bar	Scope growth over time: value and count.	Period
Pay applications by month	Bar	Progress billings issued, voids excluded: billed, retention and net.	Period, Job
Retention held and released	Number	Retainage withheld to date alongside what has been released.	Job
Job cost by employee	Bar	Posted job expense per employee (top 10).	Period, Job
Job cost by vendor	Bar	Posted job expense per vendor (top 10).	Period, Job

General ledger

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Posted activity by account type	Pie	Income-statement vs balance-sheet activity in the period.	Period
Income-account activity by month	Bar	Monthly movement on income-statement accounts, signed as posted (activity, not a presentation-ready P&L).	Period
Most active accounts	Bar	Where the postings are landing: amount and posting count (top 15).	Period
Activity by cost center	Bar	GL movement per organisational unit (top 15).	Period, Cost center
Activity by ledger category	Bar	Movement grouped the way your chart of accounts is organised (top 15).	Period
Postings by source	Bar	Which subsystem generated the GL traffic (top 12).	Period
Postings awaiting approval	Number	The approval queue in front of the ledger.	—
Actual vs budget by account	Bar	Posted activity against the budget for the period, per account (top 15).	Period
Activity by account type (natural sign)	Bar	Period activity per account type, signed to each account’s natural balance so income and expense both read positive.	Period
Natural activity by category	Bar	Period activity per ledger category, signed to each account’s natural balance (top 15).	Period
Activity by subledger	Bar	Which subledgers the posted GL traffic came through (top 15).	Period
Unposted ledger volume	Bar	Ledger lines still waiting to post, by the subsystem that wrote them (top 12).	—

CRM

Widget	Type	Shows	Needs
Open pipeline value	Number	Potential value of leads not yet converted, with proposed value and lead count.	—
Leads by stage	Funnel	The funnel, in your configured stage order, with potential value.	—
Leads by source	Pie	Which marketing channels are producing.	Period
New leads by month	Bar	Lead intake over time.	Period
Converted leads by creation month	Bar	Won leads, bucketed by when the lead was created — a cohort, not a conversion time series.	Period
Pipeline by lead grade	Bar	Potential vs actual value per quality grade.	Period
Proposals by status	Donut	Current proposal book by status (latest revisions only).	—
Proposal pipeline value	Number	Value of proposals out with customers and not yet decided, and the count.	—
Proposal value by month	Bar	How much you are quoting each month.	Period
Customer contact by type	Bar	Calls, emails and texts logged in the period.	Period
Follow-ups due	Number	Logged contacts with an outstanding follow-up on or before today.	—
Unqualified leads by reason	Bar	Why leads were disqualified in the period (top 12).	Period
Leads by user	Bar	Who is entering the leads, and what they are worth (top 15).	Period
Lead value by source	Bar	Potential against actual value per marketing channel (top 15).	Period
Lead value by department	Bar	Potential against actual value per lead department (top 15).	Period
Pipeline by salesman	Bar	Open leads and their potential value per assigned salesman (top 15).	—
Stage advances by month	Stacked bar	Lead stage movement over time, split by the stage moved into.	Period
Proposal value by revision	Bar	Quoted value per status, split between latest revisions and superseded ones.	Period

How the A/R and A/P figures are defined

The receivable and payable widgets follow the Schedule of Accounts Receivable and Schedule of Accounts Payable reports, so a tile and the report agree:

An invoice or bill is open when it is unpaid, not archived, and not keyed off against another document.
A balance is the posted balance as of today — the sum of the invoice’s postings dated on or before today — not a stored figure.
Past due means the due date is before today; an invoice with no due date ages from its invoice date.
Aging bands are days past due: Current (not yet due), 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, Over 90. A/R bands age the balance less retention; credits and overpayments stay in their band and reduce it. Retention and Prepayments are shown as their own bars, so the bands plus those two equal Open A/R. Prepayments carry a negative sign (money received ahead of an invoice).

8. Starter dashboards

Dashboards → New from starter creates a complete dashboard from one of these. Each lists the catalog widgets it places and the Period it starts on (you can change it from the Filters control afterwards).

Starter	Purpose	Widgets	Period starts as
Owner’s overview	Receivables, payables, open work, revenue and cash at a glance.	Open A/R, Open A/P, Unbilled completed work, Open jobs, Invoiced vs collected by month, Cash collected by month, Work orders by status	This Month-to-date
A/R collections	What is owed, who owes it, and what came in.	Open A/R, Overdue A/R, Unpaid invoices, Open A/R by due month, Who owes the most, Cash collected by month, Collections by payment type, Customer prepayments held	This Year
Cash out / A/P run	What you owe, when it falls due, and what you have paid.	A/P aging, Open A/P, Past-due A/P, Bills on hold, A/P due by month, Who you owe the most, Payments out by month, Spend by GL account	This Year
Dispatch today	Today’s board: what is scheduled, what is unassigned, and who is on it.	Appointments today, Unassigned appointments, Unconfirmed upcoming visits, Capacity used vs available, Appointments by status, Appointments by technician, Appointments per day	This Week
Service performance	Revenue, margin and mix across the service department.	Service revenue by month, Sale vs cost by month, Revenue by service type, Revenue mix by line type, Revenue by cost center, Top customers by service revenue, Open work orders, Unbilled completed work	This Quarter
Service agreements	The recurring-agreement book and the renewal worklist.	Service contracts by status, Contract value by type, Contracts expiring soon	Next 4 Weeks
Payroll week	Hours logged, the approval queue, and what payroll cost.	Hours logged this week, Timesheets awaiting approval, Hours by week, Hours by employee, Hours by pay type, Gross pay by month, Deductions and withholding by type, Active employees	This Week
Job cost control	Contract value, posted cost and progress billing on the job book.	Open jobs, Open contract value, Billed and collected on open jobs, Job backlog, Cost to date vs estimate, Job cost by cost type, Job cost by job type, Contract value by kind, Cost vs estimate by job type, Labor hours vs estimate by job type, Contract/estimate/cost by job type, Job cost by category, Job cost by month, Labor hours by job, Billed vs contract by job, Pay applications by month	This Year
Sales & pipeline	Leads, proposals and what they turned into.	Open pipeline value, Leads by stage, Leads by source, Proposals by status, Proposal pipeline value, Proposal value by month	This Year
Inventory & purchasing	Where stock sits and what is on order.	On-hand quantity by building, On-hand quantity by category, Open purchase-order value, Open POs by vendor, Received value by month, Backordered PO lines	This Year
GL close review	Posted activity by account, cost center, category and source for the period being closed.	Posted activity by account type, Income-account activity by month, Most active accounts, Activity by cost center, Activity by ledger category, Postings by source, Postings awaiting approval	Last Month

A starter is just a head start: the dashboard it creates is yours to rename, rearrange, extend and share like any other.

9. Dashboard parameters

Parameters make one dashboard serve many questions. Define them with the Parameters button (top of the canvas; owners and editors), show them with a Parameter control widget, and bind widgets to them.

Defining parameters

Parameters opens the Dashboard parameters dialog, one row per parameter:

Field	Meaning
Label	What viewers see on the control. It also becomes the parameter’s key in the page address (`?p.period=…`); labels are made unique automatically.
Type	What kind of value it holds (see the table below).
Record type	For Record (one) and Records / values (many): which kind of record to pick — Customer, Vendor, Job, Ledger Cost Center, Schedulable Employee, and any other record type the app can look up by name. Settings, log and template tables are not offered.
Choices	For Choice: the comma-separated values offered. For a many-valued parameter, optional suggested values.
Required	When set, a widget bound to the parameter waits until a value is chosen (Choose “Period” to load this chart) instead of running unfiltered.
Default	The value a fresh viewer starts with. Dates and date ranges default to a relative period (This Month, Today…); records to a specific record; choices and yes/no to one of their values. No default leaves the parameter empty, which for record parameters means All.

Type	Holds	Control shown
Date range	A period: a relative period or a fixed from–to	A period picker (see below)
Date	One day: relative (Today, Yesterday…) or fixed	A date picker
Date & time	One timestamp	A date-time input
Record (one)	One record of the chosen type	A search box with All
Records / values (many)	Several records of the chosen type, or several free values	A multi-select with chips
Choice	One of the configured choices	A dropdown
Yes / No	A boolean	A toggle
Text, Whole number, Money, Decimal, Percent	A typed scalar	A text or number box
Whole numbers (many)	A list of integers	A chip input

Deleting a parameter that a control or a binding still uses is refused, with the dependents listed; unbind them first. Renaming a label never breaks a binding — bindings hold the parameter’s internal id.

Relative periods

Date and date-range parameters, chart filters, and metric “as of” dates all use the same vocabulary, resolved on the organization’s clock every time the dashboard loads, so a This Month dashboard is always this month:

Group	Options
Common	Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days
This	This Week, This Week-to-date, This Month, This Month-to-date, This Quarter, This Quarter-to-date, This Year, This Year-to-date
Last	Last Week, Last Week-to-date, Last Month, Last Month-to-date, Last Quarter, Last Quarter-to-date, Last Year, Last Year-to-date
Since	Since 30 days ago, Since 60 days ago, Since 90 days ago, Since 365 days ago
Next	Next Week, Next 4 Weeks, Next Month, Next Quarter, Next Year
Custom	Fixed range… / Fixed date… — a specific from and to (or one day) typed in

Weeks start on Sunday. “-to-date” periods run from the start of the period through today.

Add Widget → Parameter control asks which parameters to show; one widget can stack several. Each shows a caption and the input for its type. Changing a value re-runs every bound widget after a short pause (values are applied as you finish, not keystroke by keystroke).

Values live with the viewer: they are written into the page address as ?p.<key>=<value> and never into the dashboard. Copy the link to send a coworker the same view; reload and your values persist; a fresh visit starts from the defaults.

A control for a parameter that was later deleted shows This parameter no longer exists in its slot; remove it in edit mode.

Binding a chart

Catalog widgets come pre-bound. For custom charts, bindings are set in the chart editor: a filter’s Value type can be Parameter, and a metric’s own parameter (an “as of” date, a window) can be bound to a dashboard parameter. A Date range parameter supplies a single date through an edge: start of range, end of range (inclusive), or day after the range (for “before” comparisons).

The link icon on a Grid or Saved Grid widget opens Bind to dashboard parameters, with two sections:

Grid parameters — the parameters the grid itself declares (a report-style grid’s own inputs). Choose Not bound or a dashboard parameter of a compatible type; a date-range parameter driving a single-date input needs an edge.
Column filters — any filterable column of the grid, with an operator (equals, before, at least, is one of…) and a dashboard parameter whose type fits the column.

A bound column’s filter is projected from the parameter every time the dashboard loads and shows locked in the grid’s filter row; the viewer’s own filters stack on top of it. Binding never changes the saved view itself.

10. The chart editor

Add Widget → Chart (or the pencil on an existing chart) opens the chart editor. The left side is the definition, the right side a live Preview that runs the query with the dashboard’s current parameter values. Click Save to place the widget (or update it).

Data

Field	Meaning
Title	The widget title.
Data from	The record type the chart is about — Work Order, Customer Invoice, Job, Appointment, Lead… One record type per chart; relationships to other types are reached through the field picker (for example Customer › Name from a work order).
Chart type	Bar, Line, Area, Pie, Donut, Funnel, or KPI number (one or more figures, no axis).

Dimension and series

Field	Meaning
Dimension (X axis)	The field each bar, slice or point stands for: a status, a type, a name, a date. Not shown for KPI numbers.
Bucket	For a date dimension: by day, by week, by month, by quarter, or by year. The axis is labelled by the bucket’s first day.
Split series by	A second field that splits each dimension value into several series (one bar per status within each month, say). Optional.
One series per measure	Instead of splitting by a field, draw each measure as its own series — the usual way to put Invoiced and Collected side by side.
Horizontal	Bar charts only: draw the bars sideways. The usual choice for ranked lists of names.
Stacked	Stack the series instead of grouping them (not for line charts).

Measures

Each row is one figure to compute per dimension value (or one headline figure on a KPI number; a KPI with several measures shows the first large and the rest beneath it):

Field	Meaning
Aggregate	Count of rows, Count distinct of, Sum of, Average of, Minimum of, Maximum of. When the field is a metric, the aggregate is fixed to Sum (the metric defines its own arithmetic).
Field or metric	A plain field (numbers, dates, text), or a metric — a measure the system knows how to compute for this record type, such as Balance as of on a customer invoice, Cost to date on a job, or Open A/R on a customer. Metrics appear in the same picker, marked as metrics.
Metric parameters	When a metric declares parameters (an as of date, a from/to window), each gets a selector: Today, a Fixed value, or a dashboard parameter (a date-range parameter offers · start and · end).
Label	The series name and KPI caption. Defaults to something like Sum of Balance.

Add rows with Add measure; a chart needs at least one.

Filters (all must match)

Each row restricts the rows the chart reads:

Field	Meaning
Field	Any field reachable from the record type.
Operator	Depends on the field’s type: dates offer within (a period), after / more than, at least, before / less than, at most, equals, is empty, is not empty; numbers the comparisons; text equals, does not equal, contains, is one of; yes/no equals; records and choices equals, does not equal, is one of.
Value type	Fixed value (typed in), Parameter (a dashboard parameter of a fitting type), Relative period (for within on a date: This Month, Last 7 Days…), Compare with field (another field on the same record), or a Values list for is one of.

A filter bound to a required parameter blocks the chart until the viewer chooses a value.

Top N

Tick Top N by first measure and set N (1–5,000) to keep only the largest N dimension values, ranked by the first measure. Without it, a chart shows every value — a chart with more than 5,000 groups is cut off and shows a partial chip; narrow the query or add a top-N.

Limits of a custom chart

One record type per chart, reached through relationships only; no joins across unrelated types.
No arithmetic between measures (a ratio, a difference). Where you need one, look for a metric that already computes it (Margin on open jobs, Gross margin percent…), or put both figures on the chart and read the gap.
Up to 12 columns (dimension, series and measures together).
A chart reads live data under the viewer’s permissions; a shared dashboard’s chart runs as the viewer, not the author.

Error and empty states

Tile shows	Meaning
Choose “Period” to load this chart.	A required parameter has no value yet.
No data for the current parameters.	The query ran and found nothing.
This chart has no dimension. / …no measures the query returns.	The definition is incomplete — open the editor.
partial chip	More than 5,000 groups; only the first are drawn.
An error message	The query could not run: a field no longer exists, you lack read access to a record type it touches, or it timed out.

Owners share a named dashboard from its Share button (the Home dashboard cannot be shared).

Type a person’s name or a role in Add a person or role and pick one. People and roles can be mixed; a role shares with everyone who holds it.
For each row choose Can view or Can edit.
Save replaces the whole list; removing a row un-shares.

What each level allows:

	Owner	Can edit	Can view
Open the dashboard, change parameter values, use grids and links	✓	✓	✓
Edit mode: move, resize, add, remove widgets; widget settings; bindings; chart editor	✓	✓
Rename; edit parameters	✓	✓
Share; delete	✓

Points to know:

Permissions are the viewer’s. A shared chart runs with the viewer’s read permissions, and a grid widget applies the viewer’s grid rules. A viewer who cannot read a record type a chart uses sees an error tile, not the owner’s data.
The owner’s views and grids travel with the dashboard. A Grid widget on a shared dashboard shows the owner’s saved view even though the viewer has no such view of their own; the viewer can read it through the dashboard but not edit the view.
Editing is live for everyone. Two editors saving at once are protected by the version check (Section 5); a change by one appears for the other after a reload.
Losing a share simply removes the dashboard from your list.

12. The Business Overview

Navigation: General Ledger → Business Overview

The Business Overview is a built-in dashboard: ServiSuite composes it from the catalog for every viewer, so a new organization has a company-wide view on day one and every organization gets the same figures. It needs the Business Overview Dashboard permission (General Ledger group).

What it shows

A Filters control (Period, Customer, Vendor), seventeen KPI numbers, one balance tile per bank cash account, and eleven charts:

Cash in and out — Open A/R, Overdue A/R, Open A/P, Past-due A/P, Net cash position
Operations — Open work orders, Open jobs, Job backlog, Open pipeline value
Counts and ratios — Unpaid invoices, Open contract value, Active employees, Average days outstanding, Inventory value, Margin on open jobs, Cost to date vs estimate, Billed and collected on open jobs
Bank balances — the book balance of each GL cash account your live banks post to, as of today (banks sharing an account show the same balance)
Trends over the Period — Invoiced vs collected by month, Payments out by month
Aging — A/R aging, A/P aging, Who owes the most, Who you owe the most
Service and jobs — Work orders by status, Open vs closed jobs, Contract value by type
Sales — Leads by stage, Converted leads by creation month

Each tile is the catalog widget of the same name (Section 7), so its definition is the one listed there. Balances and aging reflect today; period-based charts follow the Period filter (default This Year). The Customer and Vendor filters narrow Who owes the most and Who you owe the most.

Arranging it

The Business Overview is locked: its widget set and parameters are fixed in the software, but you can arrange it. Click Edit, drag and resize tiles, use widget settings for a title or accent, and Save. The arrangement is saved for you alone and comes back every time you open the screen; other users see their own arrangement, or the standard layout if they have never changed it. There is no Add Widget, no Remove, no Parameters button, and the Business Overview is never listed with your dashboards or shareable — add the same widgets to a dashboard of your own if you want to go further.

When the software’s composition changes in an update (a tile added or retired), your arrangement is kept for the tiles you had and the newcomer takes the first free slot.

What you don’t see

Tiles are left out when your role cannot read the records behind them: the financial KPIs need the customer and vendor invoice records, the company-wide figures (Net cash position, Inventory value, Margin on open jobs) additionally need Business Settings, the bank tiles need banks and ledger accounts, and so on. An administrator who wants a role to see the whole screen grants read on those record types in the role’s permission sets.

13. Building dashboards with the AI assistant

With the Assistant permission, you can ask the assistant to put widgets on a dashboard instead of using the editor. It works on the dashboard you are looking at; otherwise on your Home dashboard; or on one you name (“…on my Collections dashboard”). It can only change dashboards you own or may edit, and only with data your role can read.

Ask for	What it does
A figure or chart the catalog has (“add A/R aging to my dashboard”, “show me open jobs”)	Adds the matching catalog widget, creating or reusing the parameters it needs. It prefers the catalog whenever a prebuilt widget fits, so you get the vetted definition. If the dashboard already has that widget it adds another and tells you.
A custom chart (“revenue by service type this quarter as a pie”, “top 10 customers by open balance”)	Builds the chart definition — record type, dimension, measures, filters, top-N, chart type — and places a chart widget, the same as the chart editor would. You can open the pencil afterwards to see or change what it built.
A change to a chart it made (“make that a bar chart”, “add last year as a second series”)	Updates that widget in place.
A grid (“a grid of unpaid invoices over 60 days”)	Builds the grid, saves it, and places a Saved Grid widget.
A list of your dashboards	Tells you what you have and what is on each.

The dashboard updates on your screen as soon as the widget is added; the assistant replies with a link to it.

What it will tell you it cannot do

The assistant works within the same rules as the chart editor. It will say so, and offer the nearest thing it can draw, when you ask for:

arithmetic between figures (a ratio, a percentage, a difference) that no metric already provides;
a chart that needs two unrelated record types at once;
data from a record type your role cannot read;
a definition it could not get to run after a few attempts — it stops rather than guessing.

14. Permissions

What	Needs
Your Home dashboard; creating, editing, sharing and deleting your own named dashboards; viewing dashboards shared with you	No permission — available to every user.
Each widget’s data	Read access to the record types the widget uses. The catalog hides unusable widgets; a starter that includes one is greyed out; a shared chart you cannot read shows an error tile.
Grid widgets	The same grid permissions as the grid screen (the module’s search grid, its columns and rows).
Links widget targets	The target screen’s or report’s own permission.
Business Overview	The Business Overview Dashboard permission (General Ledger group), plus read on the record types behind the tiles you expect to see.
Building through the assistant	The Assistant permission; the assistant also only reads what your role can read.

15. Troubleshooting / FAQ

A catalog widget is greyed out. Hover it: Needs read access to: … names the record type your role cannot read. An administrator can grant read on it, or you can pick another widget.

My chart shows “Choose ‘Period’ to load this chart.” The chart is bound to a parameter marked Required and the control is empty. Pick a value in the Parameter control, or edit the parameter and clear Required (or give it a default).

The numbers on a shared dashboard differ from what the owner sees. Charts run as the viewer. If your role is limited to certain rows (your own customers, your branch), the chart aggregates only those.

A tile says “partial”. The chart has more than 5,000 groups. Add a top-N in the editor, or filter the data down.

Save was refused: “changed in another tab”. Someone (or another tab of yours) saved the dashboard after you opened it. The latest version has been loaded; make your change again.

I can’t drag anything. You are not in edit mode (click Edit), or the dashboard is shared with you view-only.

The Business Overview is missing tiles I expected. Your role cannot read the records behind them — see Section 12. The dashboard never shows a placeholder for a tile you cannot read.

I widened a tile on the Business Overview and it stuck. That is the per-user arrangement. Enter edit mode and drag it back, or leave it — it affects only you.

Open A/R on the dashboard doesn’t match my stored customer balances. It isn’t meant to: the dashboard reads the posted balance (the invoice’s postings), like the Schedule of A/R, not a stored balance column. If the two disagree, the Schedule is the figure to trust.

Can I share my Home dashboard? No. Create a named dashboard and share that; New from starter or From catalog… rebuilds any set of widgets in a minute.

Where did the parameter values go? Parameter values are not saved in the dashboard. They live in the page address; bookmark the address to keep a set of values, or set Default on the parameter so everyone starts there.