Custom dashboard: an overview for your team
Anyone who wants a custom dashboard usually has the same problem: the information exists, but it is scattered. Sales in the CRM, projects in a planning tool, finances in the accounting software, website traffic in analytics and the rest in spreadsheets. To know where things stand, someone has to open three systems and puzzle for an hour. So it does not happen consistently. An internal dashboard brings the key numbers together in one place, the same for everyone. In this article you will read what belongs in a good dashboard, when real-time data makes sense and how to build it.
What is an internal dashboard?
An internal dashboard is a visual overview of the numbers that matter to your team or organisation, updated automatically from your existing systems. It is not a new database, but a window onto the data you already have. Instead of looking up information, you open the dashboard and see what you need to know.
The difference from separate reports lies in three things: everything is in one place, it updates itself and everyone looks at the same version of the truth.
What problem does a dashboard solve?
A dashboard solves the problem of data that lives in separate systems and therefore goes unused. Without an overview, teams make decisions on gut feeling, problems are spotted late and discussions are about which number is right instead of what to do about it.
With a dashboard:
- you are faster: what took hours to gather, you see in seconds;
- everyone is aligned: no different versions of the same number;
- you spot things earlier: deviations stand out before they become a problem;
- you keep focus: the dashboard shows what is important, and therefore also what is not.
Which data belongs in a dashboard?
A dashboard should only contain the numbers you actually steer by: a handful of key figures, their trend, the status of ongoing work and signals when something deviates. The art is leaving things out. Not everything you can measure belongs on the screen.
Key figures. The numbers that tell you how things are going, such as revenue, new enquiries, lead time or customer satisfaction.
Trends. Not just today's position, but also the direction compared with last week or last year.
Status. Where do ongoing projects or orders stand, and what is getting stuck?
Signals. An alert when a target is not met or a value falls outside its range.
Operational or strategic
An operational dashboard steers the daily work: open tasks, tickets, today's orders. Team members look at it several times a day. A strategic dashboard shows whether you are on course for monthly and annual targets, and is reviewed weekly or monthly by management. Many organisations need both, with a separate view per role.
Where does a dashboard's data come from?
The data comes from the systems you already use: your CRM, planning tool, accounting software, webshop, Google Analytics, spreadsheets or your own database. The technically difficult part usually lies in those connections. Data from different sources has to be retrieved, aligned and brought together in one place.
That is why we decide in advance for each number: where does the data live, how often does it change and is there an API to retrieve it? You can read how we make those kinds of connections under system integrations.
When do you need real-time data in your dashboard?
You need real-time data when your team has to act immediately on what is happening. For most strategic numbers, an update every hour or every day is more than enough. Monthly revenue does not need to change by the second.
Real-time is valuable for:
- operational control, such as occupancy, stock or incoming orders;
- outages and exceptions where you need to step in quickly;
- peak moments such as a campaign, launch or event.
How does real-time work technically?
There are roughly three ways. With polling, the dashboard asks at fixed intervals whether there is anything new. Simple, but never fully up to date. With webhooks, the source system itself sends a message as soon as something happens. With an open connection between dashboard and database, changes flow through directly. Supabase has the latter built in as standard, which makes real-time screens relatively simple.
Real-time does ask more of your infrastructure and of the design. A screen that constantly moves is restless. So use real-time selectively: a counter that goes up, a list of the latest arrivals and a colour that changes when there is a problem.
Build or use a standard tool?
A standard dashboard tool is enough if your data lives in common systems and you mainly want to display numbers. Custom work pays off if your data comes from your own systems, if you need processing that standard tools cannot do or if the dashboard is part of a portal or application.
For custom work we choose the technology per project. We often build a dashboard inside an existing application in Next.js with Supabase or Xano as the backend. If you want to show the dashboard to clients or partners, it merges with a client portal. Managing the underlying data often requires an admin panel. You can read more about our approach on the dashboards page.
What do the costs of a dashboard depend on?
The costs mainly depend on the number of data sources, the quality of that data and the degree of real-time. Every extra source means an integration. Data that is not neatly structured has to be cleaned up first. Real-time updates require more build work and heavier infrastructure than a daily refresh. The number of users, roles with their own views and the design requirements also count.
How do you get started with a dashboard?
Start with five numbers you really steer by, not twenty. For each number, determine where the data comes from and how often it needs to refresh. Put the dashboard where people already look, such as a screen in the office or the start screen of your internal environment. After a few months, evaluate which numbers are used and remove what nobody looks at. Want to explore together which dashboard suits your team? Get in touch.
