Custom Dashboards

Zoho Books allows you to create custom dashboards to get a specific overview of your business. Using custom dashboards, you can add new panels that provide insights on the key metrics of your business. Also, you can reorder and resize the panels so that you get to see what’s important at a glance.

Note: This feature is available only in the Elite and Ultimate plans of Zoho Books.

Create Custom Dashboards

Prerequisite: If you want to invite a user to your organisation to view and manage dashboards, ensure that you have provided the necessary permissions before you invite the user. However, all admins in your organisation will be able to view and manage custom dashboards by default.

You can create multiple custom dashboards in Zoho Books. Here’s how:

Go to the Dashboard tab.
Click Configure in the top-right corner and select + New Dashboard from the dropdown.
In the pop-up that appears, enter a Name for the custom dashboard and provide a short Description, if required.
Select the users for whom you want to provide access to view and manage the custom dashboard from the Share this with dropdown.
- Select Only Me to view and manage the custom dashboard yourself.
- Select Everyone to allow all the users in your organisation to view and manage the custom dashboard.
- Select Only Selected Users & Roles to provide access to specific users in your organisation and configure necessary permissions for them. To do this,
  - Select Only Selected Users & Roles from the Share this with dropdown.
  - Select the required users from the Add Users dropdown.
  - Configure the required permissions for the selected users from the Permissions dropdown.
  - Click Add User. The list of users who can access the custom dashboard will be displayed.
  - You can change permissions for each user under Permissions. There are two permissions that can be configured for a user:
    
    1. Select View Only to let users only view the custom dashboard.
    
    2. Select View and Manage to let the users view, edit, delete, and share the custom dashboard.
Click Save.

The custom dashboard has been created. You can now add the required panels to it in the dashboard setup page.

Add Panels to the Custom Dashboard

The custom dashboard consists of two different panels:

Predefined Panels

Zoho Books has predefined panels that are available by default. You can create a custom dashboard and add these panels to it. Here’s how:

In the Dashboard Setup page, click Predefined Panels in the left pane.
Hover over the required predefined panel and click the Create Panel icon. Learn more about predefined panels.
Click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the Dashboard Setup page.

The predefined panel will now be displayed in the custom dashboard.

Report Panels

It displays the list of reports and custom reports that you can choose to display on the dashboard.

To add a report panel:

In the Dashboard Setup page, click Report Panel in the left pane.
Hover over the required report panel and click the Create Panel icon.

Panel	Description
Sales	This panel provides a summary of all the sales transactions with respect to Sales By Customers, Sales By Items, and Sales By Salesperson in your organisation.
Receivables	It contains a list of reports about the amount your customers owe you.
Payments Received	It contains a list of reports about the payments you have received from your customers.
Payables	It contains a list of reports about the amount that you are yet to pay your vendors.
Purchases and Expenses	It contains a list of reports about the Purchase and Expense transactions you have recorded in Zoho Books.
Custom Reports	It contains a list of custom reports you generated, based on the preferences you had set in the existing reports.

In the pop-up that appears, enter the required details in the Panel Details tab.

Field	Description
Time Period	Select the time period for which you want to create the panel. The time period for a panel can be Today, This Week, This Month, This Quarter, This Year, etc.
Panel Name	Enter the name of the Panel.
Description	Provide a short description about why you are creating the panel.

Click Next.
In the Preferences tab, enter the required details.

Field	Description
Chart Type	Select the chart type of the report panel. It can be a Pie Chart, Bar Chart, or a Line Chart.
X-Axis Field	Select the required X-Axis field. You can add the details of the panel, like Item Name or Customer Name.
Y-Axis Field	Select the required Y-Axis field. You can add the measurable details of the panel, like Amount or Quantity.

Click Save.
Click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the Dashboard Setup page.

The report panel will now be displayed in the custom dashboard.

Other Actions

You can also perform various actions on the Dashboard Setup page, like:

Reorder Panels

Once you add panels to your custom dashboard, you can reorder them based on your preference. Here’s how:

In the Dashboard Setup page, drag the panel to the desired location.
Click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the page.

Resize Panels

Note: You can only resize and edit the report panel.

To resize the report panel:

In the Dashboard Setup page, click the panel to be resized.
Drag the corners of the panel to adjust it’s size as required and click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the page.

Edit Panels

To edit a panel:

Click the More icon near the panel name that you want to edit, and select Edit from the dropdown.
Make the necessary changes to the panel and click Save.
Click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the page.

Delete Panels

To delete a pane:

Click the More icon near the panel name that you want to delete, and select Delete from the dropdown.
Click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the page.

Dashboard Lists

To view the custom dashboard that you’ve created:

Go to the Dashboard tab.
Click the View All dropdown below the Dashboard tab. It contains the following list of dashboards present in your organisation:

Dashboard Category	Description
Created By Me	It contains the list of custom dashboards that you’ve created.
Shared With Me	It contains the list of dashboards that the other users in the organisation have shared with you.
Created By Other Users	It contains the list of custom dashboards that are created by the other users of your organisation. You will only be able to view this list if you are an admin.
System Dashboard	It contains the default dashboard of your Zoho Books organisation.

You can now use the custom dashboard to get a specific overview of your business.

Mark as Favorite

If you have multiple custom dashboards, and frequently use a certain ones, you can mark them as favorites for easier access.

To do so:

Click the View All dropdown below the Dashboard tab.
Click the Favorites icon near the required dashboards.

These custom dashboards will now be available as tabs under the Dashboard tab.

Note: You can mark up to a maximum of three dashboards as favorite.

Provide Access to Manage Dashboards

If you want to invite users to your organisation to manage the custom dashboards, you will have to create a new role with specified permissions and associate it to the required users. Here’s how:

Go to Settings and select Roles under Users & Roles.
Click New Role in the top-right corner of the page.
Scroll down to the Dashboard section and select the required panels for which you want to provide access. Make sure that the selected panels at least have the View Access permission. To do this,
- Hover over the required panel and click Update.
- In the pop-up that appears, click Enable View Access.
- Click Select All below the required access to be provided.
Check the Allow Dashboard Management option.

Enter the other required details and click Save.

After creating a role with the required permissions, you can associate the role to the users and invite them to your organisation.

Other Actions in Dashboard

In the Dashboard tab, you can perform various actions after creating a custom dashboard.

Edit Dashboards

To edit the custom dashboard:

Go to the Dashboard tab.
Click Configure in the top-right corner and select Edit Dashboard from the dropdown.
Make the necessary changes to the dashboard and click Save Changes.

You can also edit the panels when you edit a custom dashboard.

Delete Dashboards

To delete a custom dashboard:

Go to the Dashboard tab.
Click Configure in the top-right corner and select Delete Dashboard from the dropdown.
In the pop-up that appears, click Delete to confirm.

Note: You will not be able to edit, reorder, or delete the default dashboard.

Reorder Dashboards

To reorder the panels in your dashboard:

Go to the Dashboard tab.
Click Configure in the top-right corner and select Reorder Panels from the dropdown.
In the Dashboard Setup page, reorder the panels to their preferred locations.
Click Save.

The panels in the custom dashboard will be reordered.

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