👤 Roles: Admin, Partner Admin, Office Admin

Overview

When the out-of-the-box visualizations don't tell the full story, you can build your own from scratch. This article covers the full workflow for creating custom visualizations, defining new metrics, assembling dashboards, and connecting everything with drill-through interactions. If you haven't already, review Getting Started with Reports and Dashboards and Customizing Reports and Dashboards before diving in.

Creating a New Visualization

Visualizations are the individual charts, tables, and headline numbers that make up your dashboards. To create one from scratch:

Click Reports in the left-hand navigation panel.
Open the Analyze tab to launch the visualization editor.
The left panel shows the data catalog — all available metrics, facts, and attributes.
Drag a metric or fact from the catalog into the Metrics section on the canvas.
Drag an attribute into the View by section to break the data down by category (e.g., by customer, region, or product type).
The visualization updates in real-time as you add items.
Click Save in the top bar and give your visualization a name.

Tip: Use the filter buttons at the top of the data catalog to toggle between Metrics, Facts, and Attributes. Use the search bar to find items quickly.

Choosing a Visualization Type

Choose from a variety of chart types for your visualization

The editor supports over 20 visualization types. Click the chart type icons at the top of the canvas to switch between them. Available types include:

Bar Chart and Column Chart — compare values across categories.
Line Chart — show trends over time.
Pie Chart and Donut Chart — display proportions of a whole.
Stacked Area Chart — show cumulative trends over time.
Combo Chart — combine bars and lines in a single chart.
Headline — display a single key number prominently.
Pivot Table — create a multi-dimensional table with rows, columns, and metric values.
Heatmap — show intensity of values across two dimensions using color.
Scatter Plot — plot two metrics against each other to show correlations.
Bubble Chart — like a scatter plot, but with a third metric controlling bubble size.
Funnel Chart and Pyramid Chart — show stages in a process or hierarchy.
Treemap — display hierarchical data as nested rectangles.
Waterfall Chart — show how values add up or break down sequentially.
Bullet Chart — compare a measure against a target.
Sankey Chart and Dependency Wheel — show flows and relationships between categories.
Repeater — display a repeated layout for each attribute value.

Not every chart type supports every configuration. The editor automatically adjusts available options based on the chart type you select.

Configuring What Appears on the Visualization

Search and browse available metrics, attributes, and dates in the data catalog

Depending on the chart type, you'll have different drop zones available:

Metrics — the values being measured (e.g., total revenue, trip count). All chart types support at least one metric.
View by — the attribute used to break down the data (e.g., by customer or region).
Trend by — a time-based attribute for showing data over time (e.g., by month or quarter).
Stack by — an attribute used to show contribution (e.g., stack revenue by product type).
Segment by — split a line or area chart into multiple series.
Rows / Columns — for pivot tables, define the row and column dimensions.

Drag items between these zones to reshape your visualization. Remove an item by dragging it back to the data catalog.

Setting Date Granularity

When you add a date attribute, you can control how it groups data:

Click the date item after adding it to a drop zone.
Select the Group by option: Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, or a custom date attribute.

This lets you view the same data at different levels of time detail.

Adding Filters to a Visualization

You can filter a visualization independently from any dashboard it sits on:

Drag a date or attribute from the data catalog into the filter bar at the top of the canvas.
Click the filter to configure which values to include or exclude.
You can also filter by metric values (e.g., show only rows where revenue exceeds $10,000) or apply a ranking filter (e.g., top 10 by revenue).

Filters applied here are baked into the visualization and travel with it to any dashboard.

Configuring Visualization Properties

A completed visualization with metrics, trend configuration, and live preview

Use the Configuration panel on the right side of the editor to fine-tune your visualization's appearance.

Axes

Toggle the X-axis and Y-axis on or off.
Set axis name visibility and position.
Choose axis label rotation angle for readability.
Set minimum and maximum values to control the axis scale.
For bar, column, and line charts, assign metrics to a secondary axis (right-hand side) to compare metrics with different scales.

Legend

Show or hide the legend.
Choose the legend position (top, bottom, left, right).

Data Labels and Gridlines

Toggle data labels to show values directly on chart elements.
Show or hide gridlines on the canvas.

Colors

Click the Colors icon in the Configuration panel.
Click on any metric or attribute value to change its color.
Choose from the color picker or enter a hex code for precise control.
Click Reset colors to revert to defaults.

Sorting Your Data

Configure sort order for your visualization data

Sorting controls the order that data appears in your visualization. You need at least one attribute in your visualization to enable sorting.

Click the sorting icon in the top bar.
Choose a sort method:
- Alphabetical — sort attribute values A–Z or Z–A.
- Numerical — sort by metric values, smallest to largest or largest to smallest. If you have multiple metrics, choose which one to sort by, or select Total to sort by the sum of all metrics.
- Chronological — available when using a date attribute grouped by day, week, month, quarter, or year.
If your visualization has multiple attributes, you can set different sort methods for each.

Stacking Data for Contribution Analysis

Stacking shows how individual parts contribute to a total. It's supported on bar charts, column charts, and stacked area charts.

Drag a metric into the Metrics section and an attribute into the View by section.
Drag a second attribute into the Stack by section to break each bar or column into segments.
Optionally, select Stack to 100% to show each segment as a percentage of the total rather than absolute values.

You can also stack multiple metrics without a Stack by attribute — select Stack metrics in the configuration to layer them.

💡 Tip: Use percentage stacking to quickly compare the relative mix across categories — for example, seeing how the share of each product type varies by region.

Creating Calculated Metrics

Calculated metrics let you perform arithmetic on existing metrics directly in the visualization editor, without creating a permanent metric in the catalog.

Add at least two metrics to the Metrics section of your visualization.
Hover over the + icon in the Metrics section.
Click Create metric.
In the Outcome is dropdown, select the operation:
- Sum (A + B)
- Difference (A − B)
- Product (A × B)
- Ratio (A ÷ B)
- Change ((A − B) ÷ B) — displayed as a percentage by default.
Click Choose Metric to select the two inputs.
The calculated metric appears in the Metrics section with an automatic name you can rename.

Calculated metrics are saved with the visualization. They do not appear in the data catalog and are only available within the visualization where they were created.

ℹ️ Note: If you delete a source metric, any calculated metrics that depend on it will also be removed. Be careful when cleaning up metrics in a visualization.

Creating Custom Metrics with the Formula Editor

Build calculated metrics using the formula editor

For more complex calculations that you want to reuse across multiple visualizations, use the formula editor to create a custom metric.

Open the Analyze tab.
In the data catalog, click the Metrics filter, then click Create metric.
The formula editor opens. Give your metric a name and optional description.
Write your formula in the expression area. The editor supports:
- References to facts, attributes, and existing metrics.
- Aggregation functions (SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN, MAX, MEDIAN, and more).
- Arithmetic operators (+, −, ×, ÷).
- Conditional logic and filtering within the formula.
Use autocomplete (press Ctrl+Space on Windows or Cmd+I on Mac) to browse available items and functions as you type.
Optionally, select a number format for how the result is displayed (e.g., currency, percentage, decimal places).
Click Save.

The metric now appears in the data catalog and can be used in any visualization.

ℹ️ Note: Editing a saved metric's formula or format will update it everywhere it's used — across all visualizations and dashboards. Use Save as new if you want to create a variation without affecting the original.

Editing and Managing Metrics

To edit a metric, find it in the data catalog, click the (...) menu, and select Edit.
To duplicate a metric, click (...) and select Make a copy.
To delete a metric, click (...) and select Delete. Deleting a metric is permanent and will break any visualizations or dashboards that reference it.

Comparing Data Over Time

The visualization editor has a built-in time-over-time comparison feature that lets you overlay prior period data on your current visualization.

Add a date attribute to your visualization (in the Trend by or View by section).
Click the filter bar and select the time comparison option.
Choose the comparison period — for example, "Same period last year" or "Previous quarter."
The visualization displays both the current and comparison period, making it easy to spot trends and changes.

This is especially useful for line charts and column charts where you want to see year-over-year or month-over-month trends at a glance.

Assembling a New Dashboard

Arrange multiple visualizations on a dashboard for a comprehensive view

Once you have a set of visualizations, you can bring them together into a new dashboard.

Click Reports in the left-hand navigation.
Click Create dashboard (or select it from the + menu).
Give your dashboard a name.
Drag saved visualizations from the catalog on the left into the dashboard canvas.
Arrange them by dragging to reposition and dragging edges to resize.
Set a date range filter at the top — choose an appropriate default (e.g., "Last 30 days" or "This quarter").
Add attribute filters by dragging them into the filter bar.
Click Save.

Your dashboard is private by default until you share it. See Getting Started with Reports and Dashboards for sharing instructions.

💡 Tip: Think about your audience when designing a dashboard. Place the most important metrics — like headline KPIs — at the top, and group related visualizations together using sections and tabs.

Dashboard Design Best Practices

Structure by topic — group related visualizations together, and use tabs to separate major themes (e.g., Revenue, Operations, Customer).
Use clear labels — rename filters, sections, and visualizations with descriptive titles your team will understand.
Add context with rich text — use text blocks to explain what a metric means or highlight key takeaways.
Set appropriate defaults — choose date ranges and filter presets that match your team's most common view.
Start simple — begin with the most critical metrics and expand over time as your team's needs evolve.

Configuring Drill-Through Interactions

Drill-through interactions let users click on data points in one visualization to navigate to more detailed views. You can configure three types of drill-throughs while editing a dashboard.

Drill into Visualization

This type opens a different visualization in a dialog when a user clicks a data point.

In edit mode, click on the visualization you want to configure.
Click the (...) button and select Interactions → + Add interaction.
Select the metric or attribute the user will click on.
Choose Drill into visualization from the action dropdown.
Select the target visualization from the list.
Review the Filter selection to control which filters pass to the target (filters from the clicked data point, active dashboard filters, and the visualization's own filters are all available).
Click Save on the dashboard.

Drill into Dashboard

This type navigates the user to a different dashboard (or dashboard tab), carrying over relevant filters.

In edit mode, click the visualization.
Click (...) → Interactions → + Add interaction.
Select the metric or attribute to drill on.
Choose Drill into dashboard.
Select the target dashboard from the list.
Click Save.

For filters to pass correctly, the target dashboard must have matching attribute or date filters configured. If a matching filter exists, the clicked value is automatically applied.

Drill Down

Drill down lets users click into progressively more granular data within the same visualization, following an attribute hierarchy.

In edit mode, click the visualization.
Click (...) → Interactions → + Add interaction.
Select the attribute to drill down on.
Choose Drill down.
Select an existing attribute hierarchy or create a new one:
- Click + Create attribute hierarchy.
- Give it a name (e.g., "Region → State → City").
- Add the attributes in order from broadest to most specific.
- Click Create hierarchy.
Click Save.

Once configured, clicking a value in the visualization (e.g., "Northeast") drills into the next level of the hierarchy (e.g., showing individual states within the Northeast).

ℹ️ Note: Attribute hierarchies are automatically applied to all visualizations on the dashboard that contain the hierarchy's attributes. You can remove drill down from specific visualizations through their individual Interactions settings if needed.

FAQs

Q: What's the difference between a calculated metric and a custom metric?

A: A calculated metric is created inside a single visualization using arithmetic on other metrics — it only exists within that visualization. A custom metric is created in the formula editor, saved to the data catalog, and can be reused across any visualization or dashboard.

Q: Can I change the chart type after building a visualization?

A: Yes. Click a different chart type icon at the top of the editor at any time. The editor will adjust the available drop zones to match the new type. Some configurations may not transfer to every chart type.

Q: How do I know which drill-throughs are configured on a dashboard?

A: In edit mode, click on any visualization and go to (...) → Interactions. You'll see a list of all configured drill interactions for that visualization.

Q: If I edit a custom metric, does it update everywhere?

A: Yes. Changes to a custom metric's formula or formatting are reflected in every visualization and dashboard that uses it. If you want a variation, use Save as new to create a copy.

Q: Can I set up multiple drill-throughs on the same visualization?

A: Yes. You can configure different drill actions for different metrics and attributes within the same visualization. For example, clicking a region could drill down to states, while clicking a revenue metric could drill into a detailed revenue visualization.

Q: What happens to a visualization if I delete a metric it uses?

A: The visualization will show an error or incomplete data. Deleting a metric is permanent, so double-check that no active visualizations or dashboards depend on it before removing it.

Building Custom Visualizations and Dashboards