Dashboard

A dashboard is a single screen that brings together the most important numbers about a business and shows them as simple charts and figures that update on their own. Rather than opening several reports, an owner can glance at one page and see sales, cash and orders at a time.

The name comes from a car's dashboard, where the few dials you need to drive safely sit in front of you at once. A well-built dashboard matters because it turns scattered data into an at-a-glance picture, so problems are spotted early and decisions rest on current facts rather than gut feel.