1Create a dashboard

Click Dashboards in the sidebar, or the plus next to it. Click New dashboard.

The builder opens with an empty canvas and the widget palette above it.

2Add widgets

Click a tab in the palette: Text, Data, Input, Reports, Pages or Tools. Click a widget to add it to the canvas.

Click the widget to open its settings. Pick the table or workspace it reads from, and the fields it shows.

A list, count, chart or board opens on This week. To open it somewhere else for everybody, choose This month or All time under How far back in the widget's settings.

Every stat card, summary tile, grid and chart carries This week, This month and All time on the widget itself, on the web and the phone app. A board carries them above each column, so Done can show this week while Booked shows all time. Each person's choice is kept for them and comes back next time, on any device.

A chart carries This week, This month, All time and Custom above its bars, on the web, the phone and the chart's public page. Custom takes a from and a to date. The period counts the chart's own date field, named beside the choice. Over a span, the chart draws a bar for each day up to a month, each week up to 26 weeks, then each month.

3Arrange and save

Press and hold anywhere on a widget, then drag it to move it. Drag any edge or corner to resize it. A widget cannot be made smaller than its starting size. Click the cross to remove it.

Click Save layout. Click Discard to throw the changes away.

4Change it later

Open the dashboard. Click Edit layout at the top right.

Click Widgets to reopen the palette. Make the changes and click Save layout.

5Ask Scout to change a widget

Right-click a widget. A box opens beside it, titled Ask Scout to change and the widget's name. Type what you want, such as "show this by month as a line" or "only jobs that are not paid, with a total for Job Value", and press Enter.

The widget turns grey while Scout works, then shows the new version. Scout's reply under the box says what it changed. Keep typing to change it again.

When what you asked could mean quite different changes, such as "add the other column" on a table with several, Scout asks one short question instead of guessing, and changes nothing yet. Type the answer in the same box.

Ask for how it looks as well as what it shows: "move the total a little to the right", "give the card a soft green glow", "add a button that goes to the Time entries widget", "put a chevron in the corner that opens Contacts". Scout can change colours, sizes, spacing, borders, shadows and hover effects, and add buttons, links, chevrons, badges and lines of text. A button can scroll to another widget on the same dashboard, open a page in the app, or open a website in a new tab.

Drag the box by its title row to move it out of the way. It opens where you left it until you leave the page.

Click the curved arrows at the top of the box to undo or redo. With nothing typed in the box, Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes (Cmd on a Mac).

Click changes by Scout under the box to see everything Scout has changed on that widget, newest first, with what you asked and what it said. An undone change is crossed out; Redo puts that one back.

Right-click anywhere on the dashboard outside a widget to change the whole dashboard: rename it, add or remove widgets, or rearrange them. The box then reads Ask Scout to change this dashboard.

Right-click a row or a card inside a widget for that record's own menu. Its last item, Change this widget with Scout, opens the same box.

The same works on Quick Glance. Right-click a card to change what it shows, or the page around the cards to rearrange or remove them; the box then reads Ask Scout to change Quick Glance. Cards such as Check in to site or Quotes can only be moved or removed, so right-clicking one opens the box for the whole page. The Cards and List views place cards by section, so a change of size or place shows in the canvas view.

It works on a record's dashboard tab too, such as a matter's Time & Fees Report or a job's Job Items. Right-click a widget on the tab, or the tab around the widgets. The change is made to that tab on that record.

Click Open in Scout for the conversation about that widget. It starts with the widget as it is now, and lists every version with Undo or Redo beside the one either would act on. The widget's picture is beside the conversation in Scout's list.

6Narrow the whole board at once

A Filter bar sits above the board and narrows every widget under it. Add it from the palette's Input tab, then pick the fields it offers.

A date field in the bar opens on Today. Choose This week, This month or Custom date... instead, or All for every record the table holds.

A field naming a person opens on you, so the board starts with your own work. Pick somebody else, or All, for the rest of the team.

Click Set as my default view under that field to keep your choice for every later visit. The link then reads Default view, click to remove.

7Add, change and archive records on the dashboard

Data grid: click Add record under the grid. The form lists the grid's columns first, then every other field. On a record's own tab, the record it belongs to is already filled in, and a row typed into the grid's blank rows is saved against it too.

Board: click the plus beside a column's count to add a record with that column already chosen. Click a card's name to change it, and the bin beside it to archive or delete it. The arrow opens the record's own page.

Calendar: click an empty day to add a record on that date. Click a day that has records to list them, with a pencil and a bin beside each and Add on this day. Click a record's name on the calendar to change it.

Stat card: click its link, such as View all jobs, for the list. This week, This month and All time at the top narrow it by the list's date. A list already limited to certain dates has none. Under them, Search all details finds a record by anything it holds, even fields the list does not show. The box beside it narrows to one kind, such as one work type. Click a row to open that record in full. Closing it returns you to the list, filters still set.

8Change records from a dashboard on your phone

In the mobile app, open the dashboard. Tap a row in a grid, a card on a board or a record under a calendar day. It opens over the dashboard. Change it and tap Save, or tap Archive.

On a stat card, tap its link, such as View all jobs, for the list. This week, This month and All time at the top narrow it by the list's date. Under them, Search all details finds a record by anything it holds, even fields the list does not show. The chips beside it narrow to one kind, such as one work type. Tap a row and the record opens in the same sheet; the arrow at the top left, or Back, returns to the list.

Tap New record under a grid to add one. On a board, tap Add to under the column chips: the new card starts in that column. Tap Archive on a card to archive it. On a calendar, tap a day, then New record on this day, or the bin beside a record to archive it.

A task opens in Edit task. Change its name, due date or notes, tick Completed, or tap Delete.

9Read one record's own dashboard

Open a matter, a development or a job. It lands on Dashboard, in front of Details. What sits on it depends on what your workspace records, so a law firm, a developer and a trade each see their own figures. Each card appears at once, with a grey bar where its number goes until the number arrives.

A matter shows four. Work in progress is time recorded and not yet invoiced. Outstanding disbursements is disbursements recorded and not yet invoiced. Outstanding balance is what is still owed on invoices marked Sent or Overdue. Held in trust is what the firm holds for that matter. Click any of the four for the tab behind it.

A development shows its budget. Cost to date adds up what you have coded against the cost lines, out of what they budget. Revenue is the same for the sale lines. Over budget or Under budget compares the two. An underspend and an oversell both read as a gain, and only a shortfall reads as a problem.

A job shows Job value, which is its lines added together. Extras not taken appears where the quote offered something the customer declined.

Deadlines lists the soonest dated tasks still open on a matter or a development, with anything past its date marked. When no open task has a date, the card says so in one line. Time recorded splits a matter's hours into billable and non-billable, and prices each half.

Our suggestions on the right reads the email filed against the matter. It names two or three things worth doing, such as telling the client where things stand or putting a date on the checklist. Each one says what in the correspondence prompted it, and its link opens the tab that does it.

Suggestions update when the matter's email changes, not on a timer. Opening the tab again after nothing has arrived shows the same cards and costs nothing. The circular arrow beside the heading checks again.