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Dashboard Overview

A dashboard is a single page that combines widgets - charts, data tables, KPI metrics and text notes - built from the sheets in your workspace. Use a dashboard to put your key numbers, trends and context in one live view that your whole team can see.

A dashboard combining KPI metrics, charts and a data table into one live view
A dashboard combining KPI metrics, charts and a data table into one live view

Dashboards are part of a workspace. They live alongside your sheets, can pull data from any sheet in the workspace, and are visible to your workspace members.

Creating a Dashboard

From your workspace, click New -> New Dashboard.

In the New Dashboard dialog:

  1. Enter a Dashboard Name
  2. Pick a Theme (ex: Minimal, Executive, Studio)
  3. Click Create
Creating a new dashboard; enter a name, pick a theme and click Create
Creating a new dashboard; enter a name, pick a theme and click Create

The new dashboard opens immediately, ready for sheets and widgets. You can change the theme at any time from Dashboard Settings, and even restyle every widget in one click.

Building a Dashboard from Claude or ChatGPT

AI apps such as Claude, ChatGPT and Claude Code can build dashboards in your workspace through the InstaCharts MCP server. Ask your AI assistant for a dashboard from one of your sheets, and it creates the dashboard with its theme, KPI widgets, charts, data table, notes and slicers in a single step. The assistant can then rearrange widgets, add pages, change the theme, logo and custom colors, and share the dashboard. The dashboard appears in your workspace, where you can keep editing it like any other dashboard. Connecting AI apps is available on paid plans, and the MCP Tools Reference lists every dashboard tool.

Adding Sheets to a Dashboard

Every chart and data table widget is backed by a sheet. When you add a sheet to a dashboard, you choose between:

  • New Sheet - upload a new spreadsheet file. This sheet will be accessible through this dashboard only.
  • Existing Sheet - pick any sheet from your workspace.
Adding a sheet to a dashboard; upload a new sheet or pick an existing one from your workspace
Adding a sheet to a dashboard; upload a new sheet or pick an existing one from your workspace

A dashboard can use multiple sheets. Each widget selects which sheet it reads from, so one dashboard can summarize several spreadsheets (ex: a sales sheet, an expenses sheet and an inventory sheet) without merging files.

Because widgets stay connected to their sheets, the dashboard always reflects the latest data. Sheets that sync with Google Sheets keep the dashboard current automatically, and a sheet holding offline data can be refreshed by updating it with a newer file. Chart and data table widgets pick up the new data either way.

Removing a Sheet from a Dashboard

Open the dashboard’s sheet list and choose Remove from dashboard in a sheet’s row menu. A confirmation lists what happens to the widgets that use the sheet before anything is removed:

  • Chart and data table widgets built on the sheet are deleted
  • KPI widgets calculated from the sheet switch to a custom value and keep the number and trend they showed, so you can update them by hand or point them at another sheet
  • Slicers that filter the sheet are removed from every dashboard page
  • A sheet uploaded as a New Sheet for this dashboard is deleted along with its data, because it is only available through this dashboard. Sheets from your workspace stay in the workspace

Managing Dashboards

Dashboards are listed in your workspace next to your sheets. From the workspace you can open, rename, or delete a dashboard.

Next Steps