Project Dashboard Overview

The project dashboard consists of 6 charts and graphs that aggregate and summarize data for analysis. Project dashboards automatically update when project data is entered or updated, regardless of the view in which the changes were made.

The dashboard updates in real time and tracks costs, hours, planned vs actual data, assignments, task progress and more.

 

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Navigating & Customizing the Project Dashboard

You have the ability to customize your project dashboard layout. The data that you can customize depends on the specific graph.

• Drag and drop dashboard tiles to create an order that works for you
• Click the cog wheel to open the options for each tile. From there you can hide / show  data or change colors of your graph
• Click the "X" to expand your dashboard tile to focus on one data set

Health Panel

The health graph will give you an overview of the five other graphs on the project dashboard. The health graph shows metrics for time, tasks, workload, progress and cost. You can hover over the information on the health widget for additional data.

 

Time Panel

The percentage that your project is ahead of schedule, on schedule or behind schedule, all notated by color. It uses the data entered on project tasks to determine results.

 

• If you have a task that was due to be complete by today and it's not, then it's behind.

• If you have a task that was due to be completed in the future and it's already complete, then it's ahead.

• If you have a task that was due to be 50% complete by today and it's 45% complete, then it's behind. However, if it's 55% complete then it's ahead.

• The system looks at every task and works out the percentage that was due to be complete by today, versus the actual % complete and determines if it's ahead or behind.

To update the results, change the percent complete by changing the task progress using the pull-down on the list or board views or update the percent complete column on the Gantt.

Tasks Panel

How many tasks still need to be completed within a project.

The color key indicates the color of not started, complete and in-progress tasks. You can change the key by clicking the settings gear icon at the top right of the graph.

 

• Not Started: The number of tasks that haven't been started. These tasks are currently marked as 0% complete. 
• In Progress: The number of tasks that have been started but are not finished. These tasks are marked as between 1%-99% complete.
• Complete: The number of tasks that have been completed. These tasks are marked as 100% complete.

You can change the task progress using the pull-down on the list or board views or update the percent complete column on the Gantt. You can hover over each portion of the graph to get more information about the status of each task. 

Progress Panel

Shows the percentage completed of your project. If you have created summary tasks on the Gantt, you'll see those summary tasks listed here.

If you haven’t created summary tasks, you will see the individual task names. The progress will show the percent complete on the tasks listed or the summary tasks.

 

 

If you've created summary tasks, the dashboard takes into account the duration of the tasks and the percent complete so not every task is weighted equally. You can click the settings gear to add planned progress to the graph.

You'll notice that this graph is the only graph where you can't customize the color that indicates percent complete. Hover over each line graph for additional information.

Workload Panel

Shows how project tasks are distributed amongst team members. The color key shows completed, remaining or overdue tasks based on the percent complete. You can change the colors by clicking the setting gear on the top right of the graph.

 

 

Cost Panel

Indicates your actual costs versus your planned budget. 

On the cost widget, you will see three different costs. 

• Budget
  • This is the amount that you have entered under the budget field under project settings. You can change your budget at any time and it will be reflected on the Dashboard.
• Actual Cost 

  • Resource cost: To update the resource cost, either change the hourly rate for each person on the manage users page or change the actual hours for each task on the project.

  • Task cost: To update the task cost, change the actual cost for each task.

• Planned Cost
  

  • Resource cost: To update this, either change the hourly rate for each person on the manage users page or change the planned hours for each task in the project.

  • Task cost: To update this, change the planned cost for each task.

You can change the colors of the bars by clicking the settings gear in the top right of the graph.

Customizing the Dashboard

The data that you can customize depends on the specific graph. For example, you can adjust the threshold on the time chart. The project dashboard can be customized by clicking the small settings gear on the top right of each chart.  

Printing the Dashboard

You can easily print or download the portfolio dashboard to a PDF by clicking the print icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page. You'll be able to print the entire screen or individual charts. 

 

Learn more about our dashboard's capabilities by watching the Listen & Learn video below.

If you have any questions on project dashboards, please email support@projectmanager.com.