Dashboard
Your operational command center. At a glance: how many projects are active, what's in the pipeline, how much revenue you've generated this month, and what needs your attention right now.
Overview
The Dashboard is the first screen you see after logging in. It is read-only — it shows live data from all other modules without you needing to navigate between them. Every number links to the underlying record so you can drill in immediately.
The Dashboard is designed to answer one question in under ten seconds: is my business operating well right now?
Smart Alerts Panel
If any critical or warning-level smart alerts exist for your organization, they appear above everything else on the Dashboard. You cannot miss them.
- Up to 3 unread warnings or critical alerts are shown inline. A 'View all alerts' link goes to the full Insights page.
- Each alert shows a severity icon (amber for warning, red for critical), a title, a link to the affected entity (project, deal, invoice), and a dismiss button.
- Dismissed alerts do not re-appear for that user. If the underlying issue persists, ACOS may create a new alert after 7 days.
- If there are no unread alerts, the panel is hidden — the Dashboard starts with the KPI cards.
Smart alerts are generated by automated rules, not manually. They run on a schedule (nightly, daily, or weekly depending on the type). See the Smart Alerts docs for the full list of alert types and when they trigger.
KPI Cards
Four metric cards run across the top of the Dashboard. Numbers animate on load (count-up effect). Each card links to the relevant module for drill-down.
| Card | What it shows | Links to |
|---|---|---|
| Active Projects | Count of projects with status = active or in_progress | Projects |
| Pipeline Value | Total value of all open (non-won, non-lost) deals | CRM |
| Revenue MTD | Sum of paid invoice amounts for the current calendar month | Finance |
| Team Utilization % | Org-wide billable hours ÷ available hours this month × 100 | Reporting |
Understanding utilization %
Utilization is calculated as: billable hours logged this month ÷ (team size × standard hours per month) × 100. Standard hours per month = 160h (40h/week × 4 weeks). A healthy service agency typically targets 65–80% billable utilization. Below 50% suggests underutilized capacity. Above 90% sustained suggests burnout risk.
Recent Projects
The five most recently active projects are shown as a compact list with health indicators. "Recently active" means a time entry, task update, or status change happened in the last 7 days.
Health color-coding
- Green — margin above 30%. Project is healthy.
- Amber — margin between 15–30%. Worth monitoring.
- Red — margin below 15%. At risk. Investigate immediately.
Margin is calculated from the project's cached fields (total revenue minus total cost, divided by total revenue). These are updated every time a time entry is created, edited, or deleted via a background Celery task. Dashboard data is always current within seconds.
Pipeline Snapshot
A grouped summary of your CRM pipeline: deal count and total value per stage. This gives managers a quick read on where deals are concentrated without opening the full Kanban board.
Only open deals are counted (status = open). Won and Lost deals are excluded. Each stage shows: stage name, deal count, and aggregate value in your organization's currency.
Activity Feed
The last 10 significant events across your entire organization, newest first. This feed gives every role a pulse on what's moving.
Events that appear in the feed
- Deal moved to a new stage
- Deal converted to a project
- Project status changed
- Task marked Done
- Invoice sent or marked paid
- New team member accepted invitation
- Smart alert created (critical only)
Who sees what
All roles see the activity feed, but events are scoped to your organization. Members can see project and task activity but not financial events (invoice amounts, revenue). Managers and above see all events.
Roles & Access
The Dashboard is accessible to all roles. However, what each role sees varies:
| Role | KPI Cards visible | Finance data visible |
|---|---|---|
| Member | Active Projects only | No |
| Manager | All four KPIs | Yes (project-level) |
| Admin | All four KPIs | Yes (org-wide) |
| Owner | All four KPIs | Yes (org-wide) |
Best Practices
- Check the Dashboard first thing each morning. The smart alerts panel will show you the most urgent issues immediately.
- If the Revenue MTD card feels lower than expected, cross-reference with the Finance → Invoices list — there may be invoices in Draft status that haven't been sent yet.
- Use the recent projects list to spot margin problems before month-end. Red margin on any project means you should open it and review cost breakdown immediately.
- If Team Utilization is consistently below 60%, you likely have capacity that isn't being billed. Review time entries for non-billable hours.
FAQ
Why is my Revenue MTD showing zero even though I have paid invoices?
Revenue MTD counts invoices with status = paid and paid_at in the current calendar month. If you marked invoices paid in a previous month, they won't appear here. Check the Finance module for the correct historical view.
The utilization % seems wrong compared to my manual calculation.
ACOS uses 160h/month as the available-hours denominator (40h × 4 weeks per person). It counts all active users in your org — including people who haven't logged any time that month. If you've invited team members who aren't working on billable projects, they will pull the utilization percentage down.
Can I customize what appears on the Dashboard?
Custom dashboard widgets are planned for the Scale plan in a future phase. Currently the Dashboard layout is fixed. You can hide individual smart alert cards by dismissing them.
Why does the activity feed show events from months ago?
The feed shows the last 10 events regardless of date. If your team hasn't been active recently, older events will fill the list. Activity frequency is itself a signal — a quiet feed may mean work is happening outside of ACOS.