Old Vs New dashboards comparison

As part of our new dashboards release, we’re also upgrading all the existing dashboards in Brightpearl to benefit from a new look and upgraded data visualisations.

There will be noticeable changes as we do so. This document will help you maintain the functionality that the current default dashboards offer and will also serve as a quick start guide along with Dashboards overview.

There are currently five dashboards in Brightpearl:

• Home dashboard
• Customer dashboard
• Sales dashboard
• Accounting dashboard
• Helpdesk dashboard.

Before diving into each of these pages and detailing the changes made to each, here are a few new key terms that will be mentioned throughout this document :

• Dashboard: A dashboard is the page itself that will be filled with widgets. It has a name, description and assignees. A dashboard can be filtered by channels and date, and the filters will apply to widgets within it.

• Widget: A single visualisation, typically presenting one metric broken down by a criterion over time. Widgets have a name and extensive filters to allow for granular control of the data you want.

• Metric: A metric is the basis for the data a widget will display. Sales value, sales net value, purchase volume and contacts created are all metrics.

• Breakdown and series: Most widgets have configurable breakdown criteria, such as “Channel”, “Lead Source” or “Created By”. Breaking down a metric by a criterion gives multiple series. For example, sales value broken down by channel will show one series per channel.

What’s new?

User Interface

The dashboards project brings a new improved UI. Widgets are no longer flash based and are better suited to modern requirements. Existing dashboards will be replaced with new ones. This will bring better filters as well as a more integrated design.

Filters

There are two approaches to filter information, filtering the dashboard itself or filtering the individual widgets.

• Dashboard level: Filter all selected widgets by channels and/or date. This provides a quick way to affect all of the information present in a dashboard
• Widget level: From here choose if the widget’s channels and dates are inherited from the dashboard or not. Each widget also allows for specific filters relative to the information displayed. For example changes in breakdowns (channels, status etc) or a subset of order statuses.

Upgraded widget catalogue

The new dashboards project will see Brightpearl catalogue grow from 24 (with 15 flash-based) to 30 first wave widgets. More widgets will come in the next few months. These new widgets will bring more powerful filters and customisation options.

Performance

Departing from flash based widgets as well as leveraging Brightpearl’s new reporting architecture will allow for bigger, richer dashboards. Each widget will be able to display up to 1000 points of data, allowing for example to display a weekly sales profit broke down over 20 channels over a year.

What's going away?

User level customisations

The current dashboards are user-customised, meaning each login within a business can have its own dashboards. While this may seem like a nice feature to have, it also makes sharing a dashboard between employees impossible.The new dashboards will let users create as many dashboards as they want. In that regard each login can create a dashboard to fit their needs.

Widget level filters

Although the options are very limited, the current widgets can be filtered. For view only users, new dashboards won’t be editable meaning the widget filtering capabilities will not be accessible. However dashboard level filters will still be available.

Widget level permissions

Widget level permissions against accounting and sales widgets will not be implemented. Accounting and sales dashboards will still be behind their respective permissions. More details on the new Dashboards permissions.

What’s staying the same?

Default dashboards

The default "Home", "Sales", "Contacts" and "Accounting" dashboards will remain similar. However, as mentioned above, since the user level customisation will not be ported, some users might see different dashboards and lose their additions. Please refer to the widget comparison table for more information on what widgets are part of the default dashboards.

Dashboards level permissions

The permissions for Sales and Accounting dashboards will be conserved.

Widgets comparison

This table details where to find the same information in the new dashboards.

Widget	Description	Default dashboard	Replaced by	Comments
Sales table	A list of sales orders and sales credit volume and value broken down by status	Sales	Sales value by status Sales pie by status Sales volume by status
Sales chart	A line chart showing the net value of sales over time. Can be broken down by “status”, “channel” and “created by”	Home, Sales	Sales net revenue by status Sales net revenue by channel Sales net revenue by employee	Similar design replaced by multiple widgets.
Sales not yet invoiced	Pie chart of sales volume excluding invoiced sales and cancelled sales	Sales	Sales pie by status	Same design, widget replacing has 2 predefined filters.
Invoiced sales chart	A line chart showing the gross value of sales over time. Can be broken down by “status”, “channel”, “created by” and “invoiced yes/no”	Sales	Sales value by channel Sales value by status Sales value by employee	As for sales (net) this will be a sales chart widget with the tax date as the date condition.
Sales pipeline	A bar chart displaying sales volume broken down by status. Can be filtered by employee and channel.	Sales	Sales volume by status (bar)
Recent activity	An overview of all customer notes and order updates	Home, Contacts	Activity report
Contacts created	Line chart of volume of contact created. Can be broken down by lead source or created by.	Home, Contacts	Customer created by employee Customer created by lead source
Contacts by Tag	Contact pie broken down by Tag. Can be configured to show all contacts or only contact assigned to the user	Contacts	Customers by tag	Same design minus the assigned contacts.
Contacts pipeline	Vertical bar chart showing contacts broken down by status. Can be configured to show all contacts or only contact assigned to the user. as well as being broken down by employee	Contacts	Customers by status	The broken down by employee won’t be replicated in the first wave. All the rest is doable by the new pie widget.
Contacts by Status	Vertical bar chart showing contacts broken down by status. Can be configured to show all contacts or only contact assigned to the user.	Contacts	Customers by status	Same design minus the assigned contacts.
Accounts charts	A line chart showing the profit and loss reports account balances over time. Accounts can be selected or deselected.	Accounts	Accounts charts (v2)	Same design minus the filters
Bank Balances	A line chart showing the bank accounts (assets accounts) balance over time. Accounts can be selected or deselected.	Accounts	Bank balances (v2)
Balance Sheet	Widget version of the balance sheet report.	Accounts	Accounting metrics	Those 4 widgets will be combined in a new widget called accounting metrics. Key metrics from all these widgets will be displayed and will link to their respective report. 4 KPI will be displayed at the top for quick progress visualisation.
Customer debt	Widget version of the aged debtors report.	Accounts
Supplier debt	Widget version of the aged creditors report.	Accounts
Profit & Loss	Widget version of the profit and loss report showing only the last two periods.	Accounts
Tickets raised	Total tickets created over time	Helpdesk	Tickets raised
Time spent	Resolution time (from open to closed) widget is broken	Helpdesk	Not replaced
Ticket by category	Pie chart of tickets by category.	Helpdesk	Tickets pie
Ticket status	Pie chart of tickets by status.	Helpdesk	Tickets pie
Ticket ratings	Pie chart of tickets by customer ratings. More often than not empty as it is dependent on customer feedback.	Helpdesk	Tickets pie
Product overview	Total number of products, price lists, options and option values with links to edit those.	None	Not replaced	These widgets are replaced by a more advanced suite of product related widgets where the users are able to review top and bottom seller as well as breaking them by employee, channel etc.
Recently added	15 most recently created products. No filters.	None	Not replaced
Best sellers	15 most sold products (volume wise). No filters.	None	Best selling products Least selling products