Dashboards and charts
Charts and dashboards sound like the same thing described at different zoom levels, but in Chartsy they play genuinely different roles. A chart answers one question. A dashboard is a standing set of questions you want answered every time you look.
Definitions
- Chart
- One metric plotted against one dimension - MRR over time, revenue by plan, customers by country. A chart is a question with a picture attached to it.
- Dimension
- The axis a metric is broken down by: time, plan, country, or any metadata field you use. Changing the dimension while holding the metric fixed is usually how you find the cause of a movement.
- Dashboard
- A saved arrangement of charts that recalculates on its own. Once built, it keeps answering the same questions against fresh data without being rebuilt.
- Saved question
- A ChartsyAI answer you kept. It is the bridge between the two: you ask something once, and if it turns out to matter, you pin it and it becomes part of a dashboard.
The usual workflow
- Start from a template so the obvious charts already exist.
- Ask ChartsyAI the questions the template does not cover - in plain English, not a query language.
- Pin the answers you would want to see again onto the dashboard.
- Rearrange until the board reads top to bottom in the order you actually think about the business.
The result is a board specific enough to be useful, built without anyone writing SQL.
Date ranges and filters
A dashboard has controls that apply to everything on it - most importantly a date range. Changing it re-scopes every chart at once, which is what makes comparing two periods quick rather than a per-chart chore.
Filters narrow the population rather than the period: one plan, one country, one metadata value. A filtered dashboard answers the same questions about a subset of your customers, which is the fastest way to check whether a problem is general or localised.
Charts show top values, not all values
Breakdowns cap the number of series so a chart stays readable - a board with forty overlapping lines communicates nothing. When you need the complete list rather than the leaders, export it instead of trying to render it.
Chart, dashboard, or chatbot?
- Ask the chatbot
- For a one-off question you will not ask again. Nothing to set up, and follow-ups keep context. AI chatbot
- Pin a chart
- For a question you will ask again but that does not deserve a board of its own.
- Build a dashboard
- For a recurring review - a weekly check-in, a board meeting, a specific decision you revisit. If you find yourself asking the same five questions in sequence, that sequence is a dashboard.
- Subscribe to a report
- For when you want the answer without opening anything. Weekly email reports
