Dashboard

Overview

The Dashboard is the central command center of the Artis project management system. It provides a real-time, personalized view of all active projects, their statuses, financial metrics, and upcoming deadlines. The Dashboard serves as the primary workspace for project managers, designers, proofers, and account managers, enabling them to monitor workload, prioritize tasks, and respond quickly to urgent matters.

The page combines a dynamic project list with essential sidebar widgets displaying announcements, tasks, deadlines, team news, and financial alerts. Users can filter and sort projects using multiple criteria, access specialized project views through quick links, and export data to Excel for external reporting or analysis.

Business Value

Why Does This Matter to the Company?

1. Operational Visibility - The Dashboard eliminates the need to navigate through multiple screens to understand current workload. All active projects with their status, deadlines, and financial health are visible at a glance, reducing time spent searching for information and increasing time available for productive work.
2. Proactive Financial Management - Real-time display of invoice group budget utilization, projects approaching billing deadlines, and artworks requiring purchase order estimates enables proactive financial actions before problems escalate into billing delays or budget overruns.
3. Resource Optimization - By showing projects filtered by team member, status, or client hierarchy, managers can quickly identify workload imbalances, reassign resources, and ensure even distribution of work across the team.
4. Client Service Excellence - Quick access to deadline information, status updates, and project financial details allows staff to respond to client inquiries instantly, improving client satisfaction and trust.
5. Risk Mitigation - Visual indicators for hot projects, exceeding invoice groups, and overdue tasks highlight potential issues before they become critical, enabling preventive action.

Business Benefits

For Individual Users

• Personalized View: Upon login, each user sees their assigned projects by default, allowing immediate focus on personal responsibilities
• Daily Hours Tracking: The sidebar shows hours logged for the current day, helping employees meet daily time entry requirements
• Task Management: Clear visibility of tasks assigned to the user and tasks they have delegated to others
• One-Click Access: Direct links to project details for any item in the dashboard

For Team Leaders and Managers

• Team Workload Overview: Filter by any team member to understand individual workload and project assignments
• Status-Based Filtering: Quick access to projects in specific workflow stages (design, proofing, approvals)
• Client Portfolio Monitoring: Hierarchical client filters (Corporation > Division > Business Unit > Marketer) for client-focused views
• Export Capability: Excel export maintains current filter settings for offline analysis and reporting

For Account Managers

• Invoice Group Alerts: Real-time notification when invoice groups exceed 95% of budget allocation
• Billing Reminders: Advance warning when invoices are due, preventing missed billing cycles
• Artwork Estimate Reminders: Alerts for artworks that lack proper purchase order assignments, ensuring accurate billing

For Operations and Finance

• Financial Metrics per Project: Display of total project value, direct costs (D/C), and per-piece amounts
• Budget vs. Actual Tracking: Accrued and actual percentage indicators show project financial health
• Billed Status Indicator: Clear marking when projects have been billed, preventing duplicate invoicing

Usage Scenarios

Scenario 1: Daily Work Planning

A designer starts their day by logging into Artis. The Dashboard immediately shows all projects assigned to them, sorted by due date. Projects with urgent deadlines appear first, and those marked as "HOT" display in red. The designer reviews the status notes column to understand where each project stands and clicks directly into the first project requiring attention.

Scenario 2: Manager Team Review

An account manager needs to check on a team member's workload during their absence. Using the employee filter dropdown, they select the team member's name. The Dashboard instantly refreshes to show all projects assigned to that person, allowing the manager to identify any urgent items requiring backup coverage and reassign if necessary.

Scenario 3: Client Meeting Preparation

Before a client call, an account manager uses the client hierarchy filter (selecting Corporation, then Division, then Business Unit) to see all active projects for that specific client segment. They export the filtered list to Excel, providing the client with a current project status report during the meeting.

Scenario 4: End-of-Month Invoice Processing

At month-end, a billing coordinator checks the "Exceeding Invoice Groups" section to identify any invoice groups approaching or exceeding budget. The "Invoice in X days" alerts help prioritize which client billing packets need immediate attention. The coordinator also reviews the "Artworks to Estimate" section to ensure all billable work has proper purchase order assignments.

Scenario 5: Quality Control Review

A quality manager uses the "Proofing Projects" quick link to see all projects currently in the proofing stage. This focused view allows efficient batch review of projects requiring quality verification, with direct access to each project's proofing interface.

Scenario 6: Urgent Project Monitoring

During a busy period, a senior manager clicks "HOT Projects" to display only projects flagged as urgent. The hot project count in the quick links section shows how many urgent items exist across the organization, enabling capacity planning and resource allocation discussions.

Industry Context

How Similar Functionality is Used Across Industries

Project Dashboard Concept

Project dashboards are standard in creative agencies, marketing production houses, packaging design firms, and professional services companies. They serve as the digital equivalent of a physical project board, providing at-a-glance visibility into current work.

Common Industry Practices

1. Advertising and Marketing Agencies: Use dashboards to track creative campaigns through production stages (briefing, concepting, production, review, delivery), similar to Artis's project status workflow
2. Packaging Design Firms: Monitor artwork through compliance reviews, proofing cycles, and client approvals - closely matching the Artis workflow stages
3. Print Production Companies: Track job status from design through prepress and production, using status-based filtering comparable to the Dashboard's quick links
4. Manufacturing Support: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems provide similar project/order dashboards for tracking production orders through workflow stages

Industry Best Practices Implemented

• Role-Based Default Views: Users see their own work first, following the principle of "show relevant information by default"
• Exception-Based Alerts: Budget overruns and deadline warnings follow the management-by-exception philosophy
• Hierarchical Filtering: Client organizational structure filtering mirrors how agencies segment their client portfolios
• Export Functionality: Standard business requirement for feeding data into client reports and internal management presentations

Business Logic Details

Project Status Workflow

The Dashboard displays projects based on their current workflow stage. Projects progress through defined status values that represent their position in the production pipeline:

• Early stages (1.x - 2.x): Project setup, initial design work
• Mid stages (2.x - 3.x): Production, proofing, revisions
• Late stages (3.x - 4.x): Finalization, approvals, delivery
• Completion (5+): Completed projects (typically hidden from active views)
• On Hold: Special status for paused projects (displayed in active views)

Financial Tracking

The system calculates and displays several financial metrics per project:

• Total: Complete project value including all costs and markups
• D/C (Direct Cost): Labor and material costs directly attributable to the project
• PP (Per-Piece): Costs associated with individual artwork items
• Accrued %: Percentage of estimated budget currently accrued in the system
• Actual %: Percentage of budget actually spent to date

Projects showing 50% or higher utilization display these percentages in red as a warning indicator.

Quick Link Categories

The Dashboard provides predefined views through quick links:

• Internal Projects: Work for the company itself (internal client ID)
• HOT Projects: Projects flagged as urgent requiring immediate attention
• Design Projects: Projects in active design stages
• Proofing Projects: Projects currently in quality review
• Open Projects: Projects with open (flexible) scope
• Approval Projects: Projects in client approval workflow stages
• Core Projects: Core request artwork projects

Invoice Group Monitoring

The system continuously monitors invoice group budget utilization and alerts users when:

• Invoice groups exceed 95% of their allocated purchase order amounts
• Invoices are due within a specified number of days
• Artworks exist without proper billable purchase order assignments (shown as "Artworks to Estimate")

Key Features

Project Grid

Sidebar Widgets

Export Function

The Excel export feature creates a downloadable spreadsheet containing all projects matching the current filter settings. The export includes all visible columns plus additional data fields for comprehensive reporting.

Functional Components

Filtering System

The Dashboard implements a cascading filter system:

1. Employee Filter: Select a specific team member to view their assigned projects
2. Status Filter: Focus on projects at a specific workflow stage
3. Campaign Filter: View projects within a specific marketing campaign
4. Client Hierarchy Filter: Progressive drill-down through Corporation > Business Group > Division > Business Unit > Marketer

Filters work independently and can be combined for precise project selection. The "Clear all filters" link resets to the default view.

Status Quick Buttons

Numeric buttons (1, 1.5, 1.9, 2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 3, 3.5, 3.9, 4, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5) provide instant filtering to projects at that specific status value without using the dropdown selector.

Sorting

All grid columns support click-to-sort functionality:

• Click once for ascending order
• Click again for descending order
• Sort state persists in the URL for bookmarking

Announcements

The announcement system notifies users of company-wide communications. New announcements trigger a visual alert in the page header. Users can expand or collapse the announcements panel, with the system remembering their preference and tracking which announcements have been viewed.

HOT Project Indicator

Projects flagged as "HOT" display in red throughout the Dashboard, providing immediate visual identification of urgent work regardless of other filtering or sorting applied.

Relationship to Other System Components

Project Details Page

Every project ID in the Dashboard links directly to the full Project Details page where users can view complete project information, update status, manage artworks, track time, and perform other project-specific operations.

Time Tracking

The Dashboard integrates with the time tracking system in multiple ways:

• Daily hours entered by the current user display in the sidebar
• Project financial metrics (Total, D/C, PP) derive from time entries and billing rates
• The "Red Hot" feature allows users to quickly add 15-minute increments to projects directly from the Dashboard

Invoice and Billing System

The Dashboard serves as an early warning system for the billing workflow:

• Invoice deadline alerts connect to the Invoice Group management system
• Exceeding invoice group warnings link to purchase order and budget tracking
• Artwork estimate reminders integrate with the Estimate management system

Client Management

Client hierarchy filtering connects to the client management system, using the organizational structure (Corporation > Business Group > Division > Business Unit > Marketer) defined in client setup.

Employee Management

The employee filter draws from the employee management system, showing active staff members. The birthday, anniversary, and PTO displays derive from employee records and absence request approvals.

Approval System

The "Approval Projects" quick link displays projects currently in the client approval workflow, connecting to the digital approval journey system for artwork review and sign-off.

Reports

The Excel export provides data feeds for external reporting. The same data displayed in the Dashboard can be exported and used in client reports, management presentations, or integrated with other business intelligence tools.

Summary

The Dashboard serves as the operational nerve center of the Artis project management system, consolidating critical information from across the platform into a single, actionable view. By presenting project status, financial health, deadlines, and team news in an organized interface with powerful filtering capabilities, the Dashboard enables users at all levels to:

• Stay informed about project progress and urgent matters
• Act proactively on financial warnings and deadline alerts
• Prioritize effectively using status-based views and sorting
• Respond quickly to client and management inquiries
• Collaborate efficiently through task visibility and team filtering
• Report accurately via integrated export functionality

The Dashboard transforms complex project data into accessible, actionable intelligence, supporting the company's goals of operational excellence, client satisfaction, and financial performance.