If you’re unsure what to include in your dashboard, use our guide below to create Cube’s standard FP&A dashboard. Feel free to pick and choose which metrics make the most sense for your company or even use these metrics across multiple dashboards.
Remember, your dimensional hierarchy and nomenclature are unique to your organization. We’ll provide sample names in the following recommendations, but please always refer to your dimensional hierarchy naming conventions when building questions.
1. Set up your dashboard
Add a new dashboard from the dashboard page of the Web portal or select the dashboard you would like to edit.
Learn more about creating dashboards.
Next, add a question to the dashboard by clicking the + New Question button in the upper right corner.
Considerations for adding questions
Construct the question
When constructing the question, you'll filter your Cube data to the appropriate slice needed to answer your question. Understanding your Cube hierarchy and how dashboards view your data here will help you easily locate your selections.
Learn more about dashboard questions.
Validate the data
Ensure the slice of data you filtered and how it is summarized and grouped matches your expectations by previewing your data table while building a question.
Additionally, you can validate the data by fetching data to a spreadsheet with the same filters applied.
Note: You may see double counts if your data slice includes values from tags or formulas. Learn more about how to account for these values correctly when building dashboards.
Customize and save the visualization
Customize the visualization chart type and settings to ensure the data is displayed in a way that is most effective for your audience. Resize and move charts so they create a dashboard that tells the story your audience will engage with.
Learn more about best practices for building effective dashboards.
Ready to get started?
2. Add FP&A Questions
Below are various FP&A data visualizations to include in your dashboard and the ingredients necessary to make it happen. Use the list below to quickly navigate the guide for a particular question.
FP&A Dashboard - Recommended questions to include:
- Income + Net Summary
- Income - Last 12 Months
- Revenue - Last 12 months
- COGS - Last 12 months
- Expense - Last 12 months
- Net Income - Last 12 months
- Revenue Trend
- COGs Trend
- Expense Trend
- Net Income Trend
- Expenses by Department
- Cash on Hand
- Budget v Actuals (Income + Expenses)
Income + Net Income Summary
How have our income and net income been trending over the past year?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Income and Net Income or EBITDA level account.
- Date: Previous 12 months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date: Quarter and Account 2
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings and then be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Income - Last 12 months
What was our total income for the last year?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Revenue (or equivalent)
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings to the following:
- Chart Type: Number
- Minimum Number of Decimal Places: 0
Click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Revenue - Last 12 months
What was our revenue over the last 12 months?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Revenue
- Date: Previous 12 months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings. Then click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
COGS - 12 Months
Has COGS been increasing or decreasing over the past year?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: COGS
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings. Then click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Expense - 12 Months
What have our expense trends looked like this year?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Expense or equivalent
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings. Then click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Net Income - 12 Months
What are net income trends over the past year?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Net Income
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings. Then click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Revenue Trend
How does our revenue this month compare to last month?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Revenue
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings to the following:
- Chart Type: Trend
- Settings
- Switch Positive Colors: OFF
- Minimum Number of Decimal Places: 0
Click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
COGS Trend
Have our COGS been higher or lower this month than last month?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: COGS
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings to the following:
- Chart Type: Trend
- Settings:
- Switch Positive Negative Colors: On
- Minimum Number of Decimal Places: 0
Click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Expense Trend
How much have we saved on expenses compared to last month?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Expense
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings to the following:
- Chart Type: Trend
- Settings:
- Switch Positive Negative Colors: On
- Minimum Number of Decimal Places: 0
Click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Net Income Trend
How much has our net income changed compared to last month?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Net Income
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Date:Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings to the following:
- Chart Type: Trend
- Settings:
- Switch Positive Negative Colors: Off
- Minimum Number of Decimal Places: 0
Click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Expenses by Department
What is the breakdown of total expenses by department?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Expense
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Department: All Departments
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Department 2
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings to the following:
- Chart Type: Pie
- Settings: Display > Show Percentages: On the Chart
Click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Cash on Hand
How much cash do we have on hand each month?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Bank
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals
- Department: All Departments
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by Account (if applicable) and Date: Month
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings. Then click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
Budget vs. Actuals (Income + Expenses)
How are our budgets comparing to our actuals over the past year?
Construct the Question
Use the following to define your question:
- Filters:
- Account: Income and Expense
- Date: Previous 12 Months
- Scenario: Actuals and Budget
- Department: All Departments
- Summarize: Sum of Value
- Group by: Scenario 1
Add it to the Dashboard
Click Visualize for the opportunity to update the chart type and settings. Then click Done to be navigated to your dashboard, where you can configure the size and location.
Click Save when you’re done configuring the layout and add a new question to continue building your dashboard.
3. Publish and share your dashboard
When your dashboard is complete, publish it and share it with your colleagues!
Learn more about best practices for building dashboards or how viewers interact with dashboards.
Ready to build the next dashboard? Try out one of these next: