Pulse Dashboard Fundamentals

Adapted from the PULSE Dashboard & Reporting Software Fundamentals Training handout (PDF, June 2023), the printable companion to our fundamentals training class.

This is the orientation we give a new Pulse Dashboard user: how to get your data on screen, how to change what a report shows, and how to hand a finished view to a colleague. Nothing here needs a report writer or a call to IT — every change described below is one you make yourself, from the report in front of you.

Getting started

• Spend 10 minutes a day for the first few weeks getting comfortable with the reports. That is more useful than one long session.
• Pinpoint the 10 reports you want to use every day, and start there rather than at the top of the module list.
• You cannot change someone else's reports by accident. What you change is your own dashboard, so experiment freely.

Five things account for most of what you will do. Master these and you can create or modify almost any report:

• Sorting
• Filtering
• Grouping
• The Column Chooser
• The right mouse button

What people look at first

Based on what customers tell us they use, these are the views that earn their keep first — roughly in order of popularity:

• A top-level overview of pending and invoiced customer orders
• Production component shortages
• Customer sales against your forecast
• Inventory status — trends, months on hand and activity
• Product costing and margin analysis
• Past-due purchase orders, and orders that should be closed

Refreshing your data

Reports show the data pulled from Macola® the last time they were refreshed, so a refresh is usually the first thing you do when you start Pulse Dashboard.

To refresh	Do this
Every module, or the one you are in	Click Refresh All Modules or Refresh Current Module at the top of the screen
One tab	Right-click the tab name and choose Refresh Tab, or double-click the tab header
One report	Click the refresh icon in the report header, or double-click the blue report header bar

Tip

Refresh only what you use daily. For a tab you open occasionally, right-click the tab name and clear the Refresh with Module checkbox. That tab then refreshes only when you ask it to, and every module refresh after that is quicker.

The icons on every report

Each report carries the same set of icons in the top right corner of its header.

Print, Excel, refresh, Setup and Filter, in the header of every report.

Icon	What it does
Print	Prints, exports or emails the report
Excel	Exports the report to Excel exactly as it appears on screen, with the report and column headers
Refresh	Reruns this one report against your Macola® data
Setup — the red wrench	Controls the report's own settings: the dates calculations are based on, how many months to show, which accounts to use and more
Filter	Narrows what the report retrieves, on one or more columns

The Excel icon at the top of the screen, next to Refresh All Modules, does something broader: it exports every report on the current tab.

Adding a tab

Your own tabs are where you keep the reports you have arranged for your job.

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1. Module tabs — the bold row across the top switches between modules. These are the modules you are licensed for.
2. The + button — at the end of the report tabs inside a module, it adds a new, empty tab of your own.

Two rows of tabs: modules across the top, your report tabs beneath.

Click + at the end of the row of report tabs. The new tab arrives empty, ready for you to add reports or copy them in.

Adding reports to a tab

There are two ways to fill a tab:

• Right-click inside the empty tab, or on the tab name, and choose Add New Report to pick a standard report.
• Copy an existing report from another tab or module, then change your copy.

The tab's right-click menu is worth learning early — most of what you do to a tab lives there.

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1. Refresh Tab — reruns every report on this tab against your Macola® data.
2. Add New Report — opens the list of standard reports you can drop onto the tab.
3. Refresh with Module — clear this checkbox and the tab refreshes only when you ask, which keeps module refreshes quick.
4. Publish Tab — sends the whole tab, reports and all, to another user's dashboard.

Right-clicking a tab header reaches refreshing, adding reports, sharing and publishing.

Changing the columns on a report

The Column Chooser is available on most reports and drill-down reports, and it is the tool that turns a standard report into yours. Columns can be added, removed and re-ordered, and you can build new columns from a formula.

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1. Available data fields — everything this report can show, listed by Category, Full Caption and Column Caption. The blank line under those headings is a filter row: type in it to find a field in a long list.
2. Add to Visible — adds the highlighted field to the report. Double-clicking the field name does the same thing.
3. Visible Order — the columns the report will show, top to bottom as left to right. The Format column here sets decimal places, currency and percent signs.
4. Up, down and X — highlight a column and move it with the arrows, or remove it from the report with the X.

The Column Chooser: what the report could show on the left, what it will show on the right.

When you have finished choosing columns, click OK to save the layout and return to the report. Everyday tips lists the format codes the Format column accepts.

Sorting a report

Double-click a column header to sort by that column, or right-click the header and choose Sort Ascending or Sort Descending. Clear Sorting puts the report back the way it was.

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1. Sort Ascending and Sort Descending — sort on the column you right-clicked. Clear Sorting, just below, removes the sort again.
2. Column Chooser — the same Column Chooser, reached from the column you are already looking at.
3. Filter Editor — for a filter that needs more than one condition.

Right-clicking a column header: sorting, grouping, the Column Chooser and the Filter Editor.

The same menu holds Group By This Column, which is how you get subtotals by customer, vendor, item or product category.

Filtering a report

A standard report often carries more than you need. Filtering is how you narrow it to one customer, one product category or one buyer's items. There are several ways in, and they suit different jobs:

• The Filter icon in the report header builds the filter at the server, so less data comes back. This is usually the most efficient choice, and the one to reach for on a large report.
• The filter row — the blank line under the column names — filters on what you type, matching any value that contains it.
• Filter Editor, from the column header's right-click menu, builds a filter with more than one condition: and, or, <, >, between, and the values to compare against.

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1. The filter row — typing 90 under Cust # keeps every customer number containing 90. One column per cell, so you can filter on several at once.
2. The filter bar — shows the filter in force, here Contains([Cust #], '90'). Clear the checkbox to suspend the filter and see all the rows again; click the red icon to remove it for good.
3. Edit Filter — reopens the filter for changes: another column, a different operator, new values.

A filter typed straight into the report, and the bar along the bottom that controls it.

Publishing a tab to your colleagues

Publishing works at the tab level: it sends an entire tab of reports to another user's dashboard. Right-click the tab header and choose Publish Tab. The next time that user starts Pulse Dashboard, the new tab is there.

Publishing may be switched off for your login

Some sites turn publishing off for some users. If Publish Tab is missing from your tab menu, that is why — call our support desk and we will tell you how your system is set up.

Keep a test tab

When you want to change a report, add a new tab first and copy the report onto it. You then have a test area that leaves the original untouched. If the new version doesn't work the way you hoped, the report you started from is still where it was.

Where to go next

• Everyday tips — right-click menus, tab colors, number formats and sharing your work
• How Pulse Dashboard works — what is happening behind the refresh, the filter and the drill-down
• Training and webinars — the 55-minute fundamentals class, plus advanced sessions for report builders
• How Pulse Dashboard calculates its numbers — what each figure on screen is derived from
• Catalog of custom report tabs — pre-built tabs you can ask us to send you

Tip

Need a hand? The PULSE support team is happy to help — call (513) 723-8095 or email [email protected]. Support and training come with Pulse Dashboard, so there is no clock running on a question.