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Dashboards: Custom Data Sources

Configure your own data sources with custom filters and dates to be used on your dashboards.

Shem Bogusz avatar
Written by Shem Bogusz
Updated over 3 weeks ago

Data Sources are the backbone of the Calxa dashboard, acting as the foundation upon which you build your visualisations. They determine what data and filters will be provided to your dashboard. You'll use familiar features such as Business Unit Trees and Account Trees to shape the data as well as choose the required date ranges.

With Calxa Premier you can create your own custom data sources. You'll then connect these to your custom dashboards to create tile visualisations such as charts and gauges. See the following additional help material for the next steps.

Default Data Sources

Data sources can be connected to multiple dashboards and used by multiple tiles on those dashboards. Calxa provides a number of default data sources that deliver data to the standard dashboards, however you can re-use them on your own custom dashboards, so a custom data source may not always be required. See the full list of defaults and their descriptions in this help article - Dashboards: Default Data Sources.

Add Custom Data Source

Copy Default

  1. Navigate to Dashboards-> Dashboard Tools-> Data Sources

  2. Select a default from the left navigation

  3. Click Make a copy

  4. Change the data source name and move to preferred group

Animation of copying a default data source.

Create New

  1. Navigate to Dashboards-> Dashboard Tools-> Data Sources

  2. Click Create new Data Source

  3. Enter following properties and click CREATE DATA SOURCE

    1. Data source: name for your data source

    2. Notes/description: optional notes or description for later reference

    3. Group: add to a group for sorting and grouping data sources
      See Group and Order Data Sources add new group below

Animation of creating a new data source.

Edit Custom Data Sources

Choose one of the following data source types

Shows where you choose the data source type.

  1. Accounts: calculates movements or closing balances for selected accounts which can be used on a large variety of tile types, but commonly used on Charts and Pies

  2. KPIs: calculates selected KPI results, where the date range configuration is primarily used for the Cards and Gauges tile types, while the multi-period configuration is commonly used for Charts

  3. Cashflow Forecast: calculates cashflow forecast values with inflows, outflows and bank at end, which is specifically designed to present a cashflow forecast chart

  4. Profit Waterfall: calculates movements with a start and end position for each P&L level 1 account header, including calculation rows, which is specifically designed to present a Profit Waterfall Range Chart
    ​

Choose the organisation and budget

Shows where to select the organisation and budget.

Applies to: Accounts, KPIs, Cashflow Forecast and Profit Waterfall data sources.

  1. Selected on dashboard (Dynamic): this data source will use the organisation and budget that is selected when viewing the dashboard

  2. Custom selection (Fixed): this data source will use fixed settings for the organisation and budget, overriding what is selected on the dashboard

    1. Organisation: select the organisation or organisation group

    2. Current budget: select the budget

    3. Approved budget: optionally add an approved or 2nd budget to the data source

  3. Business Units: (does not apply to Cashflow Forecast) select a Business Unit Tree if you would like the data in the resulting data source to be split by business unit

Tip: 💡use the preview shown on the right to see how the data will be split by business unit.

Select which accounts to use

Shows where to select which accounts to use.

Applies to: Accounts, Cashflow Forecast and Profit Waterfall data sources.

  1. Account tree: the accounts data will be split using the selected account tree headers

  2. Account selection: (only applies to Accounts data sources) choose All Accounts, Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet or a header in the account tree to select a section of the account tree only

  3. Include calculation rows: (only applies to Accounts data sources) toggle on if you would like to include the calculation rows like Net Profit from the account tree

  4. Summary or Detail only: (only applies to Accounts data sources) based on the account selection you can either summarise the values at the next account tree level or display the full detail of all accounts, within the selection

  5. Calculation Type: (only applies to Accounts data sources) select movements if you want to report on the changes that occur to account balances over the reporting periods or closing balances if you want report on the closing balance at the end of each period

Tip: 💡use the preview shown on the right to see how the data will be split by account. As you make changes to the account selection options the preview will be updated based on the current organisation and budget selection.

Shows the preview of an account selection.

Select which KPIs to include

Shows where to configure the included KPIs.

Applies to: KPIs data sources.

Select KPIs and Metrics: select which KPIs and Metrics to include and calculate in this data source.

Configure which dates to include

Applies to: Accounts, KPIs, Cashflow Forecast and Profit Waterfall data sources.

Date configuration

Date options vary depending on the Data Source type selected, choose from the dropdowns for:

Date Range

Multi-Period then the following settings:

  • Period type: Choose from Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly options on the dropdown

  • Start period: (applies to Accounts, KPIs (Multi-Period), Cashflow data sources) select from the preconfigured date options or select Custom to define other ranges

  • End period: (applies to Accounts, KPIs (Multi-Period), Cashflow data sources) contains two options to define where the consecutive periods end

    1. End period: select a predefined selection for most common end periods or use Custom to define another period

    2. Number of periods: set a number of periods such as 12 months, 8 quarters or 5 Years

Note: 💬use the preview shown on the right to see what period(s) will be calculated and where actuals will be included in these calculations. All periods will include budget calculations and forecast will be calculated for periods after the included actuals.

Group and Order Data Sources

If you have a large list of data sources, it may be beneficial to create groups and utilise alphabetical or custom sort orders.

Add New Group

  1. Click Add new Group.

  2. Enter Group name, Position and click ADD GROUP.
    ​

    Animation adding a new group.

Reorder Data Sources or Change Groups

  1. Use drag and drop to reorder Data Sources and move them to other groups.
    ​

    Animation showing drag and drop to reorder data sources.

  2. You can also choose to sort data sources alphabetically within each group
    ​

    Animation showing option for alphabetical sorting.

Reorder Groups

  1. Click settings cog next to one of the group names and select Reorder groups.
    ​

  2. Use drag and drop to reorder the groups.

  3. Click SAVE NEW ORDER.
    ​

    Animation showing reordering of groups.

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