3 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Data Visualizations in ReportPlus

Whether you’re a new user or a seasoned professional, you’re most likely aware of how ReportPlus can help you organize business data into dashboards you can later use for an eye-catching presentation. However, you’re probably in need of a series of quick tips, tricks and timesavers to help you make use of all that the tool has to offer. Have you ever come up with an excellent visualization in one dashboard only to have to build it again on a different one? Shouldn’t there be an easy way to do that? There is. Here are 3 ways you can deal with that using ReportPlus.

COPY to transfer widgets to different Dashboards

Use the Copy function to transfer data between different dashboards and include information available on a different widget. Take a look at the following case:

You noticed that hiring over time has decreased dramatically in the last year (screen 1) even though you are in dire need of more people. You think this is related to salary differences in relation a low team average (screen 2), so you want to compare the data to present it to your HR team. By copying the necessary widget(s) from Dashboard 2 into Dashboard 1, you will not need to go back and forth between dashboards. To copy data, simply tap and hold on the desired widget and tap on “Copy”, navigate to your desired dashboard, tap and hold, and tap on “Paste”.

Tips and tricks

• Copying the widget will not keep the dashboard’s original theme if transferred to a dashboard with a different theme.
• Note: after you have copied the widget, you can modify if necessary (including title and visualization).

DUPLICATE to copy within the same Dashboard

If you want to keep information within one dashboard, you can duplicate a widget to get an exact copy of the data. You might want to keep the same data but change the visualization or how much information is displayed. In the following case, for example, a widget with price information about cameras was expanded to focus on Nikon vs. Canon models and their prices.

Tips and tricks

• Duplicating a widget will not keep the size if your widget was enlarged. When the cameras widget above was duplicated (twice in this case), the resulting widget was the default size.
• When you duplicate the widget, make sure you modify the title as needed. Duplicating will copy the original widget’s title, which, as in this case, is not always applicable.

MERGE data for visual impact within the same Dashboard

By using the Merge function in ReportPlus, you will be able to combine two existing widgets and aggregate their information, building a new widget. The following example shows a comparison between the Accounts Payable (A/P) and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GA AP) between a set date (01-Aug-2014 and 01-Mar-2015)

Tips and tricks

• As opposed to copying and duplicating, to MERGE widgets you need to tap on the wrench icon next to the Dashboard’s name and tap on “Merge widgets”.

• Since you are combining data, it is highly recommended that you use one of the two-series chart types (check out our Guided Learning section).

• You might have noticed there were two widgets for the combined data (GA AP REVENUE X A/P and A/P X GA AP REVENUE).

• To get the GA AP REVENUE X A/P widget, you will need to click on A/P first and then on GA AP REVENUE when merging the widgets.
• To get the A/P x GAAP REVENUE widget, you will need to click on GA AP REVENUE first and then on A/P.

Wrap up

ReportPlus is a cloud-based or on premise data visualization service that allows you to visualize the metrics that matter most to your business in one place. Monitor the most important KPI’s and know the health of your business with real-time dashboards, create rich interactive reports and access data on the go with ReportPlus apps for iOS, Windows and Android, or on the Web.

Download the app on Windows Desktop, iOS or Android today!