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Example files from Kyo Logic's dashboard webinar to help you plan your own FileMaker views.
You open FileMaker to find out which work needs attention today, then move between several screens to piece together the answer. A dashboard can bring the relevant measures into one view. Kyo Logic’s free FileMaker dashboard demo accompanies John Mathewson’s original dashboard webinar and gives you a resource to explore as you plan your own approach.
Key takeaways
This resource originated with Kyo Logic’s 2018 webinar on creating dashboards in FileMaker. The session covered approaches to dashboard design, implementation considerations, pivot tables and graphs, and establishing key performance indicators, or KPIs: measures used to track a specific business objective.
The demo gives you a way to explore those topics as you think about your own reporting needs. What belongs on your dashboard will depend on your data and what your team needs to see.
Before building, we recommend thinking about what you want to measure or make visible. That might be the jobs due this week, orders that need follow-up, or work waiting for the next step.
A good starting point is something your team already looks up during the day. What information would make that easier to see in one place?
For a production manager, an overall count may be less useful than a list of the jobs that need intervention. An account manager may need the customer and promised follow-up date beside the total. Those day-to-day needs can help you decide what belongs in each view.
It helps to agree on what a measure means before building the calculation. If your dashboard says a job is late, which date is it comparing? Does a completed job still count? What happens when someone changes the promised date?
Writing down the definition in plain language, including the period you’re measuring and which records belong in it, gives your team a chance to work through different interpretations before they become confusing numbers on a screen.
How often the information updates matters, too. A screen checked at the start of a shift may have different requirements from one used throughout the day. When your team knows how current the figures are, they can judge whether those figures are useful for the decision at hand.
A total can answer how many. A chart can help compare periods or categories. A list can show which records need action.
Pivot tables, which group data across categories so you can compare totals, were one of the topics in the original webinar. That kind of view can be useful when you want to see how a measure varies across teams or periods.
For a first version, we would recommend a few measures that are useful to the person reading them. Other information can have its own view if it serves a different role. That helps the dashboard stay easy to scan.
The ZIP includes two FileMaker example files, PivotTablesAndDrillingData18.fmp12 and TrendLines18.fmp12, plus AccessInformation.txt with the access details. An untouched copy of the examples will give you something to refer back to as you explore them in a test environment.
As you explore, you may spot ideas that would work in your own application. It helps to think about which of your records would supply the data and what you would want the calculation to show. That connects what you see in the demo with something useful for your team.
Once you have a first version, comparing its figures with records your team can check directly will help you spot calculation problems. That includes a case where there are no matching records. Feedback from someone who will use the dashboard can help, too: what do they understand from the screen, and what would they do next? Their answers can show you where a label, calculation, or layout needs a little more work.
Is this an add-on I can drag onto a layout?
Not quite. This download contains example FileMaker files from the dashboard webinar. You can open them separately to explore the techniques before working out how they might fit your own application.
Can the demo give me ideas for my own dashboard?
Yes! You can explore the examples and think about where similar views would help your team. We recommend starting with what you want to measure or make visible, then looking at how those ideas could work with your data.
Should every department use the same dashboard?
Not necessarily. A production manager may need to see jobs waiting for attention, while an account manager needs upcoming customer follow-ups. We would recommend views that suit each team, with shared definitions for any measures they have in common.
What should I do if the dashboard total disagrees with a report?
We recommend checking whether both views include the same records, date range, and status rules first. A dashboard counting all open jobs will differ from a report showing only jobs due this week. Once those definitions line up, it is easier to see whether a calculation needs adjusting.
The free FileMaker dashboard demo gives you examples to explore as you work out what would be useful in your own application. If you would like help defining the measures or building a view for your team, talk with Kyo Logic about data visualization. We build custom Claris FileMaker and manufacturing software for teams in New England and beyond.
John is the founder and CEO of Kyo Logic, as well as the chief architect of KyoSync II (which synchronizes data across multiple systems that can’t connect or communicate directly). John works very closely with clients and the Kyo Logic team to help create custom applications and platforms.
John is also an avid electronics enthusiast and audiophile. He created the Caitlin LSA-1 which is a microprocessor-controlled audio preamp used in very high-end audio systems. John has lived in Montreal, Fort Worth, Johannesburg and currently lives in Westport, Connecticut.
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