Build a look and dashboard for a Custom Report

In this article, you'll learn how to create a basic look and dashboard for your Custom Reports.

Build a basic look

Before building a dashboard, you first need to create a look. A "look" is a single visualized report. For our walkthrough, we will put together a Tag Trends dashboard. To get started:

1. Click Reports > Custom Reports on the left menu. On the left of the report builder is a pane called "Custom Reports." Under "All Fields" are different categories containing dimensions and measures you can use to build a Look. 
2. Select your dimension. For our example, we'll select the Tag dimension. To do that, click "Contacts" on the left pane, then click "Tag."
   
   
3. Select your measure. For any report you create, you must include at least one measure to create a visualization. To continue with our example, we'll select "Count." 
   
   
4. Run the query. To properly assess your visualization options, click the “Run” button on the top right corner to retrieve the data that will populate your report.
5. After reviewing your data, you may realize that you want to filter this down to view only a subset of the current results. This is where you can implement a Field Filter. You can select any dimension or measure and add it as a filter. In our example, we will add the Tag Dimension and filter the results only to view a few specific tags.
   
6. Once you have the dataset, you can review your visualization options. There are many options to choose from.
   
7. Customizing your Look can be done by selecting any visualization option and then the “Edit” button on the top right corner. This lets you add titles, change colors, add trend lines, and numerous other customization options for your visualization.
8. Once you are done customizing your visualization, you should be ready to save your look. To do so, click the Gear icon in the top right corner. You will have the option to save it as either a standalone look or to a dashboard.
   

Create a dashboard

1. When saving your look, you can save it “As a new dashboard.” This lets you create a new dashboard and save your first look (or tile) to it. You’ll also see options to name this dashboard and select a folder to save it.
2. From there, you will see a link to your newly created dashboard. Clicking it brings you to your dashboard page. You will see many customization options from here, starting with the “Add” option. With this option, you can add new or existing looks, text for section headers, etc.
   
3. Adding filters lets you select any dimension or measure and add it as a dashboard filter. Note that these filters can be configured to affect any number of Looks you have within your dashboard by navigating to the “Tiles to Update” configuration while adding your filter:
   
4. Once you add new tiles and filters, click the "Save" button to save the changes to your dashboard. This ensures any new items you added are applied.