The new Dashboard feature preview

We’re excited to announce that the new PocketSmith web Dashboard is now in feature preview. You’ll see a link in the Dashboard toolbar to give it a try.

The new Dashboard is completely customizable, giving you the flexibility to arrange your Dashboard to suit your needs 📈🍩🧮

Overview

The new Dashboard is completely configurable, with a strong focus on flexibility. We see this Dashboard as a place to bring together insights that are important to you so that you can easily view your key financial information in one place.

Widgets

To start with, we've built thirteen widgets that you can choose to add to your Dashboard, and each widget can be added multiple times with separate configurations. Everything is customizable, allowing you to arrange and manage your Dashboard(s) to best suit your needs. 

• Balance graph widget (banner)
• Earning & spending donut chart widget (banner & column)
• Your accounts widget
• Budget widget
• Bill reminder widget
• Saved search widget
• Number of uncategorized transactions widget
• Number of unconfirmed transactions widget
• Date and time widget
• Total balance widget
• Balance alert widget
• Transactions column widget (banner & column)
• Category sankey widget (banner)

Create multiple Dashboards & using Dashboard templates

You're able to create multiple Dashboards to reflect different aspects of your finances. For example, one to monitor your everyday spending, another to track your progress towards being mortgage-free, and another to track your investment or retirement funds.

Layout

Dashboard templates

Easily add preconfigured Dashboards in a couple of clicks by using Dashboard templates. 

Templates provide a handy base for further customizing your Dashboard and quickly letting you see how capable the new Dashboard is.

We currently have six template options for users to choose from:

• Default Dashboard 

  
  

  The equivalent of the current old Dashboard with a few extras

• Last 30 days 

  Gives information on what has happened in the month preceding today, letting you check up on your immediate past

• Control spending 

  To keep close tabs on your spending and help to identify problem budgets over the past few months

• Debt management 

  Provides a starting point for focusing on paying down debt. Get it set up, then configure it to best suit your plans

• Credit card overview 

  Displays all your credit card balances, spending, and repayments quickly, all in one place

• World clock 

  
  

  A  few clicks, and you’ve got a clock for every timezone.

Adding a Dashboard template

To create a new Dashboard:

1. Click +Add new dashboard

   

2. Select your desired template from the list of options in the dropdown menu

   

3. Click SAVE to create your new Dashboard

Editing the Dashboard layout

To edit the layout of your Dashboard, head to the toolbar and toggle Show edit controls to 'on'

Adding new banner widgets and creating new columns

Use the controls shown below to add new banner widgets or to create additional columns for your Dashboard.

Adding new column widgets

To add a new widget to a column, click + ADD WIDGET at the top of the column you would like to add it to

Adjusting the height of banner widgets

To adjust the height of banner widgets, hover over the widget's bottom edge until the resizing icon appears, then click and hold to resize.

Rearranging the layout of your Dashboard

Use the Drag and drop handles (only visible when 'Show edit controls' is enabled) to rearrange the layout of widgets or columns

Deleting individual widgets 

To delete a widget, click the rubbish bin/trash can icon

Deleting entire columns

You can also delete entire columns by clicking the rubbish bin/trash can icon at the top of the column. Please note this will also delete any widgets within the column.

Configuring individual widget settings

To preview the current settings for a widget, hover over the widget's top right, a settings cog, and a pop-up will appear.

To make changes to these settings click EDIT WIDGET

Make changes to your settings as desired, then click SAVE. 

Configuring widget settings when 'Show editing controls' is enabled

If 'Show editing controls' is enabled, you can edit a widget's settings by clicking on the settings cog. This will take you directly to the widget's configure modal. 

Balance graph widget

The balance graph displays your account balances, allowing you to view your forecast balance and compare your past actual balances with your historic forecast balances.

The Balance graph is configurable, allowing you to

• select specific accounts or account types to be reflected in your graph
• choose to display all included balances together, stack by account type, or stack by individual account
• configure the date range shown
• include or exclude historic forecast, actual balances, and forecast balances
• adjust view options to display more or less detail

Time and date widget

Display the current time and date in your Dashboard.

Earning & spending widget

The earning and spending widget shows all your earning and spending over a selected date range, just like the regular Dashboard donut chart, but with some exciting new customizable extras. 

The earning & spending widget can be configured as a banner or a column widget, with the banner widget displaying labels for each category. In contrast, the column widget is more compact and only displays the title of the category segment that has been selected.

When configuring the earning and spending widget, you can:

• filter the accounts reflected
• view totals for the selected period
• display categories table
• include or exclude individual categories
• collapse subcategories into parent categories
• sort by category amount or by category order
• include or exclude transfer transactions
• include or exclude uncategorized transactions

Add multiple Earning & Spending widgets to compare different accounts or date ranges at a glance. 

Number unconfirmed widget

Shows the number of unconfirmed transactions. Click to be taken to the awaiting confirmation page. 

To change which transactions are presented for review on the awaiting confirmation page, see: Transaction confirming options

Number uncategorized widget

Shows the number of uncategorized transactions. Edit this widget's settings to limit to account types or to limit to selected accounts.

Click on the widget to be taken to the Categorize Items page or Transactions page as per your preference!

Your accounts widget

A list of accounts and their balances. Choose to include all accounts, selected account types, or selected accounts. You can also choose to display grouped accounts as one combined account, or to list accounts within the group. 

Budget widget

The budget widget lets you keep track of your budgets at a glance. 

Choose to display all budgets, only income budgets, or only expense budgets. Alternatively, you can select the budgets that you want to keep an eye on specifically. You can also choose to filter budgets by a threshold, only displaying those that have reached over a certain percentage spent/earned.

The display order can be configured by category order, alphabetic order, or percentage used. Choose to display unbudgeted categories and whether or not you'd like to display any roll-up budgets for parent categories. 

Bill reminder widget

Choose to display any overdue, paid, or upcoming bills here 📅 ✅

Filter by account type or a selection of accounts, and configure the date range to show X number of weeks/months past, and X number of weeks/months ahead.

For a budget category to be included in Bill reminders, the category just needs to be set up as a bill category. To learn how to do this, see: Setting up bill and scheduled income categories

Saved search widget

Displays recent transactions from any selected saved search you've previously set up on the Transactions page. 

If no saved search has been selected, then all transactions (within the parameters) will show. 

Total balance widget

The total balance widget displays your accounts' total balance (or selected accounts) on the current day, a specific date, or a time frame relative to today (e.g. 7 days in the future).

Choose whether you'd like to display your actual balance, your forecast balance, or both in order to see the difference between the two.

Balance alert widget

The balance alert widget lets you know when specific accounts or groups of accounts reach or go above or below a specified balance amount.

Choose whether the alert applies to any account or the sum total of the accounts selected.

Select the account(s) you'd like the alert to apply to or choose to include or exclude specific account types. For example, if you're setting an alert for when an account balance goes below $80, you'll want to exclude any account types that would usually have a negative balance, such as credit cards or loan accounts.

Set different balance alerts for different accounts or account types by adding additional balance alert widgets.

The transaction column widget shows the total sum of transactions over a selected date range as a column chart, like the Transactions histogram.

The transaction column widget can be configured as a banner or a column widget, with the banner widget displaying both the average earned and average spent. The column widget is more compact and better suited for viewing shorter periods of time and it does not display the average.

When configuring the transactions column widget, you can:

• use a saved search
• show as savings and deficit or average and totals
• include or exclude transfer transactions
• include or exclude uncategorized transactions
• select transaction grouping 
• show both earning and spending transactions
• limit to only earning or only spending transactions
• filter the accounts reflected
• include or exclude individual categories
• view totals for the selected period

Add multiple Transaction column widgets to track specific categories at a glance. 

The Category sankey diagram depicts the flow of values between hierarchical structures, which makes it particularly good for showing how money flows from the parent category to sub-categories. 

This widget is only available as a banner widget due to its width.

The configuration options for the Category sankey are: 

• use a saved search
• show percentages or totals for period
• show categories in a flat hierarchy
• include or exclude transfer transactions
• include or exclude uncategorized transactions
• collapse categories below a percentage of your choosing 
• show both earning and spending transactions
• limit to only earning or only spending transactions
• filter the accounts reflected
• include or exclude individual categories
• view totals for the selected period

You can even export the chart as an image for sharing! Just hover over the widget's top right, and click the downward arrow in a cloud.

The chart will be exported in a PNG format. 

It's now possible to make a Dashboard with a single column of widgets, and when viewed in a browser on your mobile device, this will be zoomed perfectly to fit. 🙌

1. Head to the Dashboard on the PocketSmith web app and click +Add new dashboard and select 'Blank dashboard'. Note this will be easiest on a desktop or laptop computer
2. Add any column widgets as a single column of widgets
3. Log into the web app on your phone's mobile browser (Chrome, Safari, etc.) and make sure to check the "remember me" checkbox when logging in
4. Navigate to your newly created Dashboard from step 1
5. Make use of the “Add to Home screen” functionality on your mobile to add a direct link to the relevant Dashboard on your home screen for easy access

6. Tap the home screen link and be shown the Dashboard you've designed! 

   

Deleting a custom dashboard

If you need to delete one of your custom dashboards, you can do so by following the below steps:

1. Select the custom dashboard you would like to delete

   
   

   

2. Enable 'Show editing controls'

   

3. Scroll to the bottom of the dashboard, then click DELETE DASHBOARD

   

Caveats while the new Dashboard is in feature preview

While the new Dashboard feature is in feature preview there are likely to be bugs and quirks. While we've tested the Dashboard extensively, our users have unique data and use PocketSmith in unique ways. As such, there may be quirks that you experience due to your account set up that we’ve not seen before. So, if you do encounter anything that doesn't work as you would expect - please get in touch and let us know!

Aside from bugs, there is still some work to do in the overall user experience.