Your First Dashboard

~7 min read

Your First Dashboard

When you finish setup, dashboardSMASHBOARD creates four ready-made dashboards for your GA4 property — one for each stage of how people move through your site. Nearly every card already has a goal attached (the ranked-channel and landing-page cards are the exceptions), so you see whether you're on track from the first load. Nothing needs configuring.

Dashboard	The question it answers
Acquisition (opens by default)	Are people finding us, and are the right channels growing?
Engagement	Once people arrive, are they doing anything meaningful?
Monetization	Are visitors converting to revenue, and is revenue on track?
Retention	Are customers coming back, and is the business building a base?

All the starting goals are relative growth goals (for example "grow by 10% versus the previous period"), so they make sense for a site of any size. Treat them as a starting point — every goal, visualization and time window can be changed.

These are a starting point, not a prescription. You can edit, remove, add and rearrange cards on every dashboard, and create as many extra dashboards as you like.

Acquisition

Are people finding us, and are the right channels growing?

Card	What it shows	Goal	Visualization
Total Sessions	Sessions this month	Grow 10% vs. previous period	Gauge
New Users	New users this month	Grow 10% vs. previous period	Metric with trend
Sessions Trend	Daily sessions, last 30 days	Grow 10% vs. the prior 30 days	Sparkline
Organic Search Sessions	Sessions from organic search this month	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Metric with trend
Traffic by Channel	Top channels by sessions, last 30 days	None — ranked comparison	Bar
Bounce Rate	Bounce rate this month	Reduce 5% vs. previous period	Sparkline

Engagement

Once people arrive, are they doing anything meaningful?

Card	What it shows	Goal	Visualization
Engagement Rate	Share of sessions that were engaged	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Gauge
Key Events	Key events (conversions) this month	Grow 10% vs. previous period	Metric with trend
Key Event Rate	Share of sessions with a key event	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Sparkline
Avg Session Duration	Average session length	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Metric
Pages per Session	Pages viewed per session	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Sparkline
Top Landing Pages	Top landing pages by sessions, last 30 days	None — ranked comparison	Bar

Monetization

Are visitors converting to revenue, and is revenue on track?

Card	What it shows	Goal	Visualization
Revenue	Total revenue this month	Grow 10% vs. previous period	Metric with trend
Revenue Trend	Daily revenue, last 30 days	Grow 10% vs. the prior 30 days	Sparkline
Transactions	Purchases this month	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Metric
Avg Order Value	Average purchase revenue	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Gauge
Cart Volume	Daily add-to-carts, last 30 days	Grow 5% vs. the prior 30 days	Sparkline
Revenue by Channel	Top channels by revenue, last 30 days	None — ranked comparison	Bar

Monetization needs ecommerce tracking. Revenue, Transactions, Avg Order Value and Cart Volume read GA4's ecommerce data. If your property doesn't send purchase and add-to-cart events (GA4 enhanced ecommerce), these cards will show zero or no data. You can remove them from the dashboard, or leave them in place for when tracking is set up.

Retention

Are customers coming back, and is the business building a base?

Card	What it shows	Goal	Visualization
Sessions per User	How often each user returns	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Gauge
Audience Growth	Active users this month	Grow 10% vs. previous period	Metric with trend
Sessions per User Trend	Daily sessions per user, last 30 days	Grow 5% vs. the prior 30 days	Sparkline
Stickiness (DAU/MAU)	Daily active users as a share of monthly active users	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Metric
Engagement Rate	Share of sessions that were engaged	Grow 5% vs. previous period	Gauge
Pageviews Trend	Daily pageviews, last 30 days	Grow 5% vs. the prior 30 days	Sparkline

Creating more dashboards

Click the dashboard name at the top left to open the dashboard list, then click + New.
Enter a Name and, optionally, a Description (a good description is the question the dashboard answers).
Under Start from, choose Blank dashboard or one of the four ready-made templates (Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, Retention) — handy for a second copy you want to customize.
Click create.

There is no limit on the number of dashboards. Good dashboard names answer a specific question: "Q4 Goals", "Paid Campaign Check-in", "Blog Performance".

Switching and organizing dashboards

Click the dashboard name at the top left to open the list of all dashboards. From there you can:

Switch to a dashboard by clicking it.
Set as primary — the ★ next to a dashboard makes it the one that opens when you sign in.
Duplicate — make a copy to experiment with.
Delete — remove a dashboard. You can't delete your only remaining dashboard.

You can also duplicate or delete the dashboard you're viewing from the Dashboard ▾ menu.

The dashboard controls

The bar above every dashboard has:

Control	What it does
Dashboard picker (name with ▾)	Switch between dashboards, set the primary one, duplicate, delete, or create a new one.
↻ Refresh	Reloads your cards. Data is cached for 5–15 minutes depending on your plan, so a refresh within that window shows the same numbers — see Installation & Setup.
🔔 Notifications & alerts	Opens the alerts panel — see Notifications.
Dashboard ▾ menu	Add card…, Add section…, Export…, Share…, Settings…, Duplicate dashboard, Delete dashboard.

Name and description

The dashboard name and description appear in a title strip at the top of the canvas. Click either to edit it in place.

Canvas layout

A dashboard is a free-form grid. Drag any card or section by its handle to move it, and drag the bottom-right corner to resize. Cards snap to a 24-column grid and default to one third of the width.

Sections

Sections organize the canvas. Add one from Dashboard ▾ → Add section…:

Section	What it is
Heading	A bold title that breaks the canvas into named groups.
Divider	A horizontal rule that separates groups without a label.
Text	A paragraph of commentary or context.
Note	A highlighted callout for caveats and reminders.

Elements

Click + Element in the title strip to switch on summary panels that sit above the cards:

Element	What it shows
Status Summary	A ring showing how many cards are on track, at risk, and so on.
Biggest Movers	The largest percentage changes among the dashboard's cards.
Needs Attention	Cards that are off pace, at risk, or missing data.

Modifying a ready-made dashboard. Everything you change — cards, goals, layout, sections — applies only to your account, and is saved as you go.

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