Features of the Dashboard

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The Spectra Dashboard is one of the most powerful features in the Spectra software. Imagine trying to drive an automobile that did NOT have a dashboard. How fast are you driving? How much fuel do you have left? How hot is your engine running? What other alerts are you missing that inform you of the performance of your vehicle?

Are you running your business without a dashboard? How effectively is your business running? Is it overheating? Is there room for improvements? Are you missing key indicators that may be warnings of future problems?

Imagine having real-time analysis information at your fingertips that empowers you to make timely business decisions for your business to thrive and prosper. Imagine being able to drill down to see the “meaning behind the numbers” so you know why this number is the way it is and also how this number is impacting your business. That’s what the Spectra Dashboard is all about – empowering you with the key performance indicators you need to make the timely business decisions necessary to manage your studio.

This topic will give you a brief overview of the Spectra Dashboard. To find out how to set up and use the Dashboard, read "Managing Your Dashboard" and "Budget Maintenance" for detailed instructions.

The Spectra Dashboard

There are two types of panels that can be displayed on the Dashboard. The first is a Performance Panel. The second is a Report Panel.

Dashboard Performance Panels

A Performance Panel is designed to give you immediate feedback on how your studio is doing compared to your budgets (also known as your "targets" or your "plan"). Spectra has two types of performance panels available to you – Today’s Performance and Overall Performance. Read the  "Managing Your Dashboard" topic to learn how to create Dashboard performance panels.

• A Today’s Performance panel tells you specifically how your business is performing today, and today only.
  
  
  Today's Performance Gauge

• An Overall Performance panel gives you a broad range of indicators showing how well your studio is performing over a longer period of time, including today, this week, this month, or this year.
  
  
  Overall Performance Gauge

ATTENTION! If you’re looking at the fancy performance panels that are displayed on your default Dashboard and are wondering why none of them have moved off the zero point, don’t worry! Because the performance panels are based on your budgets, and you probably haven’t set up any budget numbers yet, the performance panels don’t have anything to report. They will come alive once you’ve plugged in some simple budget numbers. Find out more by reading the "Budget Maintenance" topic.

Dashboard Report Panels

A Dashboard Report Panel has almost infinite reporting possibilities to give you visual feedback as to the performance of your studio. These report panels are highly customizable, giving you the ability to choose from multiple performance indicators, multiple ways to group your data, multiple date ranges, and multiple ways to visualize your data with different chart types. These reports can also be saved and recalled later from the main Spectra Reports menu or viewed directly from the Dashboard. Read the  "Managing Your Dashboard" topic to learn how to create and use Dashboard reports.

Dashboard Report Panel

HERE'S A FLASH FOR YOU! Product Lines - If you aren't using product lines, it's time to start! Product lines are designed to group different lines (or products) you sell, such as prints, albums, frames, services, etc. Set up your products lines in Maintenance > Price List > Product Lines. Then add each of your Price List Items to the appropriate product line (any products not assigned to a product line will be classified as "Other"). Lead Sources - Create lead sources in Spectra so you can track where your business is coming from. Use Maintenance > Client > Lead Sources to set up your lead sources and then make sure to ask each new client how they found out about your studio. Session-Based Invoices: Most of your invoices should be created from a session record, even if the products being purchased are from another client's session. Only create client-based invoices when selling retail products that are not related to a session, such as stock frames or gift certificates. Otherwise your sales numbers for session types, photographer, and booker will not be correct. See "Working With Invoices" for more information. Basic Data Entry - Sometimes it's the most basic things that throw off your reports. Make sure you are entering the session type, photographer, sales person, booker, client groups, and lead source for all your records. Use Data Entry Validation to help you and your staff remember to fill in critical information.

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