New in Calxa this month will be made up of two releases to improve your reporting options before the end of this month:

  1. First, the ability to use Metrics directly in reports, without needing to create a KPI.
  2. And secondly, custom data sources in Dashboards will give you full control over the content of your charts.

 

 

Metrics in Reports is New in Calxa

Previously, to add Metrics to reports, you needed to create a KPI first. We’ve now removed that step and anywhere on a report or chart where you can choose a KPI, you can now choose one (or more) of your non-financial Metrics. This will simplify reporting on that data and give you much more flexibility. Use KPIs when you want to calculate something based on metrics, but use the simple metric when that’s all you need.

As well as adding them directly to reports, you can add Metrics to Account Trees and include them in the rows of your reports. You could, for example, follow your Sales Revenue line with the Unit Sales metric. Think about what would enhance the reports for your audience and what would help their understanding.

 

 

New Default Data Sources in Dashboards

Calxa’s new dashboard capability continues to improve. We’re on track to roll out all stages of our dashboard roadmap. Our first release of custom dashboards had a limited set of available data sources, mostly based on 6-month timeframes. We’re expanding those this month to include year to date options for P&L Accounts, Balance Sheet Accounts and KPIs (which includes Metrics, of course!).

The other change we’re introducing is the option to select a budget as well as an organisation when viewing any dashboard. This will make it simpler to switch between your different setups.

 

 

New in Calxa: Custom Data Sources in Dashboards

With the addition of custom data sources to dashboards, you’ll have full control over the information you present. A Data Source is the collection of filtered information that provides data to the charts in your dashboards. One data source can be used in many dashboards.

When you create data sources, you’ll choose between:

  • Accounts (movements or closing balances)
  • KPIs or Metrics
  • Cashflow Forecast
  • Profit Waterfall

Have a look at our help video here.

For each of those you’ll choose the date range you want (with similar flexibility to that in report criteria). Then, use the filters specific to each type, such as an Account Tree and level.

Sometimes it may make sense to keep your data source broad and then filter it in each chart you use it on. Other times you might choose to be very specific in the accounts or KPIs to include. The choice is yours!

 

 

Coming Next in Dashboards

We are aware that the current dashboard editor requires some advanced skills and some effort to learn. Of course, we also acknowledge that this doesn’t suit everyone. With this in mind, we’re working on a basic editor that will allow any user, not just the advanced or adventurous, to create custom dashboards. Give us a few weeks and you’ll be able to add new tiles, choose a data source and chart type and be ready to go with some simple selections. There will still be the option to tweak each chart further using the advanced editor, but you won’t have to use that. Most of you won’t even need to create custom data sources.

 

And don’t forget to add some KPIs while you’re at it! Check out the latest software change log for all the details. As always, you are most welcome to reach out any time you need a hand or simply book a session with our team.