The Entrepreneur Dashboard

Dashboard versions

The layout everyone starts from is the workspace default, and it is read-only. The first time you change it (any Properties change, a reset, or a source-CRM indicator dropped into a section) TechieCRM asks you to save your dashboard version: the name offered is your own ("Ann Rep's dashboard"), and Others can see and load this version is ticked. Press Save and the change is applied to your new version, which is now the one you are viewing; press Cancel and the change is discarded. From then on every change you make is saved to your version straight away, with no further prompt.

Right-click ▸ Dashboard versions shows which layout you are viewing ("Showing: ...") and lets you switch between the Workspace default, your own versions ("yours") and the public versions of your colleagues ("by "; the login is shown when TechieCRM has no display name for the owner). Save as new version... keeps the layout on show as a new version of your own. Manage versions... opens the versions window:

• Load shows the selected version on your dashboard (double-clicking does the same).
• For your own versions: Rename (type the new name and press Rename), Others can see and load this version (untick to make it private; a private version disappears from everyone else's list), and Delete (after a confirmation; a colleague who had it loaded goes back to the workspace default).
• Use as workspace default appears for the database administrator only (the source-CRM login MASTER, or a login that may modify users): the selected version becomes what everyone who has not chosen a version sees. Select the Workspace default row and press it to go back to the built-in layout. The most recent choice wins when more than one administrator has set one.

A colleague's version is read-only for you: changing anything while it is loaded creates your own version with that change, and theirs is untouched. A version that contains an indicator you are not allowed to see simply shows the section without it (see An indicator that is not shown under The cluster at a glance). Your versions and your choice of version are part of your TechieCRM preferences: they follow you to every computer you sign in on through the same roaming that carries your theme, and on a computer without TechieCRM's local database they are kept locally and sent on when the database is back.

Opening the records behind an indicator

Click any indicator (a gauge, a light, a box, a wing or a row on the centre screen), or press Enter on it, and TechieCRM opens the module behind it with the matching filter where the module has one. Right-click ▸ Open ... does the same. The modules open through the same rules as the icon bar and the ribbon: a module your plan does not include does not open, and the usual message says why.

When a module cannot filter the way the indicator means. Some lists have no filter for what the light counts (the Service list has no "unassigned" filter, the To-Do list no "overdue" filter, the Inventory list no stock-level filter, and the Sales list filters close dates by month, quarter or year only). The module still opens, unfiltered, and the status bar says what was meant, for example "Unassigned tickets: opened unfiltered (the Service list has no 'unassigned' filter)". The list is never narrowed to something misleading.

Putting the dashboard on your desktop

Right-click the cluster and choose Put on desktop. The cluster leaves the Agenda (a card there says "The Entrepreneur Dashboard is on your desktop." with a Bring it back button) and appears as its own window on your desktop, with no title bar: everything outside the curved rim, and the notch under the bottom lights, is see-through, and the face itself is slightly see-through (80%) so you can see what is behind it. Gauges, lights and text stay solid. The window has its own entry in the Dock (macOS) or the taskbar (Windows, Linux).

• Move it by dragging anywhere on the face that is not an indicator. Resize it by the grip at the lower right; the window keeps the cluster's shape.
• Keep on top is on by default: the dashboard stays above other windows, which is the point of a dashboard. Right-click ▸ Allow fall below lets other windows cover it; Keep on top puts it back.
• Face opacity (right-click) sets how see-through the face is, from 50% to 100%.
• Clicking an indicator while the dashboard is on your desktop brings TechieCRM to the front first, then opens the module and records (see Opening the records behind an indicator).
• Dock it back with right-click ▸ Dock back into TechieCRM, a double-click on the face, the Bring it back button, closing the window, or by dragging the window over the Agenda's dashboard area (the area lights up; let go to drop it in).
• TechieCRM remembers, per computer, that the dashboard was on the desktop, where it was and how it was set, and puts it back there the next time you start.

Linux. On X11 (the default on most desktops) everything above works, with or without a compositor; without one the edges are hard and the face is not see-through. On Wayland the dashboard is see-through but the system places the window (its position is not remembered) and Keep on top has no effect; dock it back from the menu or with a double-click. Starting TechieCRM with QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb restores the X11 behaviour.

Driver view vs. fleet view

The dashboard reads its per-user numbers from User-ID user-defined fields and your own calendar, pipeline, and financials. That one design choice gives two views:

• Driver view: My Dashboard. This is the view everyone has: your gauges, calibrated to your own targets. The revenue figures (speedometer, odometer and trip meters) count your own won sales (the sales you are the owner of) and the targets, the Work gauge, the LOST, MISSED and BATTERY lights and the Dashboard Period are yours too. The panel's title strip reads Business Health; the sales behind it are still yours.
• Fleet view: the manager's wall of cars. Users who may see other people's information get a Fleet button on the dashboard's title strip, next to the ⚙ button:
• the MASTER user and users who can administer users see everyone;
• a team lead or line manager recorded in HR & Payroll (teams, and each employee's manager) sees the people they lead or manage, and themselves.

Everyone else sees only their own dashboard and has no Fleet button. Until teams and managers are filled in under HR & Payroll, only the MASTER user and user administrators have one. The button appears a moment after the dashboard opens, once TechieCRM has checked whom you may see, and only while you are connected to the database. The same rule decides whose targets you can set (see Setting your targets). - Seeing another user's dashboard: open the Fleet view and click that person's car.

Using the Fleet view. Click Fleet to switch to it; click it again to return to your own dashboard. TechieCRM remembers which view you used last and opens that one next time. Along the top of the Fleet view:

Below the controls is the team total, a full dashboard of the whole team, and then one small dashboard per person: their name, a Revenue gauge against their target, a Work gauge, one dot per warning light (lit in the light's colour, a ring when not checked or not in your view) and their "% of target". Click a person's car (or double-click their row in the table) to open their full dashboard in a window. If you may set that person's targets, the window has a Set targets… button; saving there reads the Fleet again.

How the team total is added up

• Revenue, lifetime revenue and the trip meters add up everyone's. The revenue target is the sum of the targets of the people who have one, and the gauge's tooltip says how many do ("Targets set for 7 of 9").
• Work, the idle line and the redline add up everyone's.
• Cash, Credit and Runway use the company figures once, plus the figures assigned to each person: the company bank balance is never counted once per person.
• The AR and AP lights read every invoice and bill, as on your own dashboard.
• Any other light is lit when it is lit for anyone, and its tooltip names the people (never the records). CAL is lit when anyone has no targets. LOST, MISSED and BATTERY show the question mark ring when someone's could not be checked and nobody's is lit.

Work in the Fleet counts the appointments in the shared calendar that each person owns and that start in the period. Your own dashboard counts what your calendar shows for those dates, so the two can differ slightly for the same person (for example with private or repeating appointments).

When the Fleet reads its figures. When you open it, change the period, or click Refresh. Figures read less than five minutes ago are reused when you switch back to the Fleet; Refresh always reads them again. While it reads, the line at the top says "Loading 9 people…" and the last figures stay on screen. If part of the figures cannot be read, amber text in the Fleet's top row, beside Refresh, names what is missing (for example "⚠ Some figures could not be read: meetings"); click it to read them again. Those gauges read SET UP and those lights show the question mark ring; everything else still shows. The text goes away once every figure is read.

The money gauges and lights are about the business as a whole, not only your own sales. Cash, Credit and Runway (and the CASH and CREDIT lights) read the company figures plus any figures assigned to you, but only if you may see the company's money (see Company figures); otherwise they show your own figures, or NOT IN YOUR VIEW. The same applies in the Fleet view: without that right, the team total and every car show only the figures assigned to people. The AR and AP lights read every invoice and bill in Accounts Payable / Receivable.

Setting your targets (calibration)

A few numbers are your expectations, entered once and adjusted as the business grows. They set where the coloured bands and the idle/redline/speed-limit marks sit.

Open the Set targets window from the dashboard itself: click the ⚙ button at the right of the dashboard's title strip, or click the blue CAL light. (The ⚙ button is greyed out when nobody is signed in.)

Type amounts in dollars (5000, 5,000 or $5,000.00 all work) and the work figures as whole numbers. Leave a box empty to clear that target. Click Save; the dashboard redraws straight away, and the CAL light goes dark once you have an income target or a work minimum. Only the boxes you changed are saved. If something cannot be saved, the window says which targets were saved and which were not, so nothing is left half-done without you knowing.

Under each box the window shows who last changed it and when, for example "Last changed by Mia Manager (MGR) on 2026-09-20 14:05".

Whose targets you can set

• Your own: always.
• Other people's: only if you may see that person's information: the MASTER user and users who can administer users can set anyone's; a team lead or line manager recorded in HR & Payroll (teams and each employee's manager) can set their people's. These users get a Person list at the top of the window; everyone else sees their own name there. Until teams and managers are filled in under HR & Payroll, only the MASTER user and user administrators can set other people's targets.
• Your own Income Target after someone else set it (typically your manager): you can see it, but you can change it only if your user ID has permission to modify Quotas in your source CRM. Without it the box is read-only and the window says who set it. Your other targets stay yours to change.
• Without an active licence TechieCRM is read-only, and the window shows targets but cannot save.

Changing a target someone else set is logged, and they are told

When you change one of your own targets that someone else last set (most often an Income Target your manager set, which you can change only with the Quotas permission above), TechieCRM keeps a record and lets that person know:

• Before you save. Under your targets a line says which of them were set by someone else and that changing one is logged and the person notified. When you click Save with such a change, the window asks first, for example: "You are changing a target someone else set: Income Target (per period): $5,000.00 to $4,000.00 (set by Mia Manager (MGR)). TechieCRM will log this change as a note on your record and notify MGR (who set it) by Messenger." Click No and nothing is saved.
• The note. A note headed "Target change (logged automatically by TechieCRM)" is filed on your own user record: who changed it and when (in UTC), each old and new value, and who had set each one and when. It is filed as a History entry and appears in your Interactions ▸ Notes (select your user row in Clients). This is TechieCRM logging activity, so it is filed whether or not your user ID may add notes.
• The message. The person who set the value gets a Messenger message from you starting "Automatic notice from TechieCRM", naming the target, the old and new values, and when you changed it. If the stored value does not say who set it, or that person no longer has a login, your manager is told instead: your nearest active manager recorded in HR & Payroll, or failing that the lead of an HR team you belong to. If there is nobody to tell, the note says so.
• After you save the window's status line says what happened, for example "Saved. The change is logged as a note on your record. Notified by Messenger: MGR."

Your change is kept even if the note or message fails. The targets are saved first. If the note cannot be filed or the message cannot be sent (for example the database connection drops at that moment), the window shows a warning box beginning "Your targets were saved." that names what did not happen, the same is written to the TechieCRM log, and you may want to tell the person yourself.

The note cannot be changed or deleted by anyone, including you: it is a History note, and History notes are a permanent activity log (see Chapter 17, History notes are locked).

On your own targets, changing a value you set yourself, or one nobody had set yet, is not logged.

A manager's change to a team member's targets is logged too, and the team member is told

When a manager (or a user administrator, or the MASTER user) changes someone else's targets in this window, every change they save is logged, whoever set the old value, including a value the manager set themselves last time, and a value that was never set before:

• Before you save. When you pick a team member, a line under their targets says: "Changes you save here are logged as a note on Ann Rep's record, and TechieCRM tells Ann Rep by Messenger (and anyone else who set a value you change)." When you click Save with any change, the window, titled "Change Ann Rep's targets", lists each change with who had set the old value ("set by you", "set by Ann Rep (ANN)", or "not set before") and asks first. Click No and nothing is saved.
• The note. One note per save, headed "Target change (logged automatically by TechieCRM)", is filed on the team member's own user record, so it appears in their Interactions ▸ Notes, not yours. It names you as the person who made the change, with the time in UTC, each old and new value, and who had set each one (or that it was not set before). Like every History note it is locked: nobody can change or delete it, including the team member.
• The messages. The team member always gets a Messenger message from you, starting "Automatic notice from TechieCRM", listing every change ("you set it on …" for values they had set themselves). Anyone else who last set one of the changed values (another manager, say) is also told, about the values they set. You are not sent a message about your own change. If the old value does not say who set it, or that person no longer has a login, nobody extra is told; the team member still is.
• After you save the status line says, for example, "Saved. The change is logged as a note on ANN's record. Notified by Messenger: ANN."
• Your change is kept even if the note or message fails, exactly as above; the warning box then begins "Ann Rep's targets were saved."

Logging these changes does not depend on anyone's rights or on the licence: it is TechieCRM recording activity.

The sales quota comes first. If your source CRM uses Quotas (Sales quotas per user), the dashboard uses your quota as the income target automatically and only reads the Income Target field when you have no quota for the current fiscal year. The Set targets window shows the quota, read-only, with where it comes from, for example "Sales quota for this month: $8,333.33 (from Quotas: 'FY26 Sales'; $100,000.00 for 2026). The dashboard uses the quota; the Income Target applies only when there is no quota.", or "No sales quota for 2026: the Income Target is used." Quotas are changed in Quotas, not here. Quotas are annual, so the dashboard scales yours down to the period you are viewing: the year shows the whole quota; a quarter or a month shows that period's quota milestones if you set them, otherwise an even quarter/twelfth of the annual figure; a week shows the month's share spread over the days in that month.

If the window says the target fields are not set up, the database has not been prepared yet (see Preparing a database). The MASTER user sees a Set up target fields… button; other users are told that an administrator must set up the dashboard fields.

The same five values are ordinary user-defined fields, so they also appear under Clients ▸ Users ▸ (the user) ▸ User-Defined Fields ▸ Entrepreneur Dashboard, and a change made there shows in the Set targets window too.

Company figures

Bank balances, business credit lines, a cash target and the monthly burn are the figures behind the Cash, Credit and Runway gauges and the CASH and CREDIT lights. They are entered on the Company figures tab of the Set targets window.

Who can enter them. The tab appears only for the MASTER user and for users whose source-CRM user ID has the Accounting right to add or change records (adding a row needs the "insert" permission; editing or deactivating one needs "modify").

• Add… enters a new row: its kind, a name, the amount, the credit limit (credit lines only), For (The whole company or one person, that person's own figure) and optional notes.
• Edit… (or double-click a row) changes it. Deactivate stops a row counting on the dashboard after you confirm; the row is kept, never deleted.
• Each save records who made it and dates the figure (the As of column), and the dashboard redraws.

Who can see them. The company's money is shown only to the MASTER user and to users whose source-CRM user ID has read access to Accounting. Everyone else sees NOT IN YOUR VIEW on the Cash, Credit and Runway gauges (and hollow CASH and CREDIT lights), rather than SET UP: SET UP means nobody has entered the figure; NOT IN YOUR VIEW means it is not shown to you. Figures entered for you personally still show on your own dashboard.

Where the numbers come from

The dashboard reuses the data you already keep in TechieCRM instead of asking you to re-enter it. Only the calibration fields above and the company financial figures are new.

Bank balance, business credit, a cash target and the monthly burn are things the source CRM never modeled, so TechieCRM adds a company-financials layer to hold them (see Preparing a database). The Cash and Credit gauges and the Runway readout read SET UP until those figures are entered on the Company figures tab (see Company figures).

How often it reads. Counts that change by the minute (tasks, tickets, meetings) are read every minute; sales and money every five minutes; company financials, backup, licence and quota every fifteen. Refresh in the right-click menu reads everything again at once. Saving targets or company figures reads again straight away. Every read runs in the background, so the Agenda never waits for the dashboard.

The copy in the Dashboard module. The dashboard also appears as a native entry in the Dashboard module. It reads the same calendar as the copy at the bottom of your Agenda, so both show your scheduled work and today's meetings.

Preparing a database (administrators)

This section is for administrators enabling the dashboard on a source-CRM SQL database for a client who has not yet migrated to the TechieCRM native database.

The dashboard needs a small amount of field structure added to the source database. TechieCRM creates it for you; there is also a standalone script for DBAs who prefer to run SQL directly.

What gets added

• Per-user user-defined fields (the calibration fields above) under an "Entrepreneur Dashboard" folder, in the reserved field range 61000–61019 (Client_Type 16, user fields). These are added only when an administrator runs the prep below: they go into the source CRM's own field-definition table, so TechieCRM never adds them on its own.
• The company table TCRM_Company_Financials (bank / credit / cash target / burn), which holds the financial layer the source CRM lacks; Assigned_User is NULL for company-wide values or a user id for a person's own. TechieCRM creates this table automatically the first time it connects to a database, so it is usually there already; the prep creates it if it is not.
• A TCRM_Payable table (bills due). Only the prep creates it; the automatic first-connect setup does not, and the dashboard does not read it. Bills are kept in Accounts Payable (Chapter 13).

What does not get added: nothing that already exists. Sales targets stay in Quotas, revenue in Sales, expenses in Personal ▸ Income & Expenses, invoices in the existing billing table. The prep only fills genuine gaps.

To prepare a database

The simplest way: sign in as the MASTER user, open the dashboard's Set targets window (the ⚙ button) and click Set up target fields…. TechieCRM first shows exactly what it will add: the field definitions and list items in the source CRM's own field-definition table, and the company tables if they are missing, and only goes ahead if you click Yes. Other users do not see the button.

Or, from the command line:

1. From the TechieCRM installation folder, check what is already there, then run the prep. It is idempotent, so it is safe to run again:

python -m src.entrepreneur_dashboard_setup --verify python -m src.entrepreneur_dashboard_setup --prep

It connects with the database settings in your .env file (DB_SERVER, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD); add --server, --database, --user and --password to override them. Use a SQL login that can write to the source CRM's field-definition table (a database owner, for example). The new fields are recorded as created by the MASTER user unless you add --owner <user id>. The command reports what it created. 2. Or, for a DBA: run docs/db/entrepreneur_dashboard_prep_alpha.sql against the target database after setting the @Owner variable to the acting CRM user. It is idempotent and includes a commented teardown.

The prep does not consume the source CRM's field-sequence counter and works even on databases whose counter has overflowed, so it is safe on any source database. No data is invented; you enter your own targets and financial figures afterward.

Alpha note. The Entrepreneur Dashboard is an early feature. The car-style cluster, the gauges, the sixteen warning lights listed above, the centre screen, the Set targets window with its Company figures tab, the Fleet view, the prep (fields + tables) and the Accounts Payable/Receivable data layer, opening the records behind an indicator and putting the dashboard on your desktop are built. Changing what a section shows (Properties) and saving your own named layout are coming.