Filters, targets and exports

Every FlowAnalytics dashboard is controlled the same way. You set what the page should cover in the filter bar, you decide what counts as good enough by setting targets, and you take the result out of the portal by exporting the page or downloading a single chart. This article describes those controls once. The dashboard articles refer back to it rather than repeating them.

The filter bar

The filter bar sits directly under the tabs. The filters you choose apply to every card and every chart on the page, so a figure is only ever as broad as the selection above it.

The filter bar is not identical on every dashboard. Which filters appear is decided by the data the dashboard reports on, so a dashboard offers only the filters its figures can be broken down by.

Office, floor and zone

Select the office filter to choose which part of the portfolio the page covers. The filter follows the company structure, so you can select whole offices or narrow the selection to a single floor or zone.

On the Portfolio dashboard the filter takes several offices at once and the label shows how many are selected, for example 5 offices. On the other dashboards you select one office and then optionally narrow down within it.

Asset type

Select Asset Type to limit the page to desks, rooms, parking spaces or another asset type in use in your offices. Leaving it unselected includes every asset type.

Filtering by asset type is what separates desk figures from room figures. An office utilization figure covering both desks and rooms is an average of two quite different things, so set the asset type before comparing anything.

On the Rooms page the asset type is fixed to Room and cannot be changed, because both dashboards on that page concern meeting rooms only.

Time period

Select Time Period to set the period the figures cover. The dropdown offers five presets and a custom range.

Use a preset period

1. Select Time Period.
2. Select Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, Last 90 Days, Last 180 Days or Last 365 Days.
3. Select Apply.

Set a custom date range

1. Select Time Period, then Custom Date Range.
2. Select the start date in the calendar, then select the end date. The range you have chosen is shown above the calendar.
3. Select Apply.

Select Back to presets to return to the preset list, or Cancel to close the dropdown without changing the period.

Days

Select Days to choose which weekdays are included. The default is All Weekdays (Monday-Friday), which excludes weekends.

This matters more than it looks. Including weekends in an office that is empty on Saturdays and Sundays lowers every utilization figure by around a third without telling you anything. Selecting individual days is the way to see whether a hybrid policy is landing on the days you intended.

Time

Select Time to choose which hours of the day are counted. The dropdown offers two presets and a custom selection:

• Working Hours. 09:00 to 17:00.
• Peak Hours. 09:00 to 11:00 and 13:00 to 15:00, the hours when an office is normally at its busiest, with the middle of the day left out.
• Custom Working Hours. The individual hours you choose.

Use a preset time range

1. Select Time.
2. Select Working Hours or Peak Hours.
3. Select Apply.

Select individual hours

1. Select Time, then Custom Working Hours.
2. Select the check box for each hour to include, or Select all to include every hour.
3. Select Apply. The hours you have selected are summarised above the list, and the filter shows the range you have applied.

The hours do not have to run consecutively, so the lunch hour can be left out of an otherwise full day. Select Back to presets to return to the preset list, or Cancel to close the dropdown without changing the time range.

Advanced filters

Select Advanced to open the filters that are not in the main bar. Room capacity is one of them, so any dashboard covering rooms can be limited to a given room size from here.

Which filters sit in the main bar and which sit behind Advanced differs by dashboard, and it is a matter of prominence rather than capability. Where a filter is central to what a dashboard answers it is lifted forward as a quick filter: capacity is behind Advanced on most pages, but sits in the main bar on the Rooms page, because room size is what those two dashboards are about.

So if a filter you expect is missing from the bar, open Advanced before concluding the dashboard cannot do it.

Check what is included in the figures

Under the filter bar, a summary line shows how many assets the current selection covers and how many filters are active, for example 72 Assets selected and 4 Active Filters.

1. Select Expand to list the active filters and their values.
2. Select Clear all to remove the filters and return the page to its default selection.

Check this line before you act on a figure. A number that looks surprising is very often a selection that is narrower or broader than you thought.

Save and reuse filters

A filter combination you return to regularly, such as one floor in one office during working hours, can be saved and reapplied. Saved filters belong to the page you saved them on.

Save the current filters

1. Set the filters you want to keep.
2. Select Save current filters.
3. Enter a name that says what the selection covers, then save it.

Apply a saved filter

1. Select Saved filters.
2. Select the filter you want to apply. The page reloads with that selection.

Where no filters have been saved for a page, the bar reads No saved filters yet for this page.

Set targets

The key figure cards show a target under the value, such as Target: 60%-80%, and the card indicates whether the current figure sits inside it. Targets are what turn a measurement into a judgement, so set them before you circulate a dashboard to anyone else.

Select Settings at the top right of the dashboard to open Dashboard Settings.

Set the targets

1. Select Settings.
2. Under KPI Target Configuration, set the target for each key figure. Some take a range, marked Stay within this range, which you can type or set with the slider. Others take a single value, marked Achieve at least this value.
3. Select Apply. The cards and the target lines in the charts update.

Each figure shows a recommended value under the field, for example a recommended 60-80% for average utilization. Select Reset on a single figure to return it to the recommended value, or Reset All to return every figure on the dashboard. Cancel closes the dialog without changing anything.

The recommendations are a sensible starting point rather than a rule. A utilization target of 60 to 80 per cent suits an office sized for a hybrid policy; an office that has just released a floor will sit higher, and that is the intention.

Targets are set for the whole dashboard and do not follow the office filter. Changing office in the filter bar keeps the same targets, so a target you set while looking at one office applies to every office you open that dashboard for.

AI insights

Several dashboards open with AI insights above the cards: a short written reading of how the office is being used, with the point that matters most stated first, such as a large share of booked desk time showing no presence.

Select the arrow at the right to expand it. Expanded, it has two parts:

• Insights. What the data shows, with the figures behind each observation. This is where you find things the charts do not state outright, such as which weekday is busiest and quietest, or how many tracked assets were never used once in the period.
• Suggestions. What to consider doing about it, tied to the figure that prompted it, such as shortening advance booking windows where booked but unused desks are blocking capacity.

Read the suggestions as prompts for a decision rather than instructions. Whether to remove mandatory booking, or to scale back Friday services, depends on things the dashboard cannot see.

AI insights are pre-calculated for the last 90 days, and they are calculated per office. Two consequences follow:

• They do not follow the period, days and time filters. Setting the period to the last 7 days changes the cards and the charts, but the insights still describe the last 90 days.
• They do follow the office. Change office in the filter bar and the insights change to that office.

So when a figure in the insights disagrees with a card above it, check the period before treating it as an error. The two agree only when the dashboard is itself set to the last 90 days.

Change how a chart is displayed

• Granularity. Where a chart offers Monthly, Daily and Hourly, select the level you need. Monthly answers whether something is changing over time, hourly answers when during the day the office is actually busy.
• Legend. Select an item in the legend to hide or show that series. On a chart with four stacked series this is the quickest way to isolate one of them.
• Sorting. Ranked charts have a sort control, such as High → Low or Most → Least, to turn the chart from a list into a ranking.
• Percentage or absolute values. The charts follow the Value type setting for the dashboard, so they show either a percentage or a number of assets. Change it under Settings, as described above.

Export a dashboard

Select Export or Export PDF at the top right to produce the dashboard as a file. The export follows the current filter selection, so set the filters first and check the selection summary before exporting.

An export is a snapshot of a period, which is exactly what a decision needs to be based on. When an export is going into a board paper or a lease discussion, note the office, the period and the days and hours it covers alongside it, because none of those are obvious from the numbers alone.

Download the data behind a chart

All charts have a download icon at the top right. Select it to export that chart on its own, in one of three formats:

To download a chart:

1. Set the filters so the chart shows what you want to export.
2. Select the download icon at the top right of the chart.
3. Select CSV, XLSX or PNG.

A chart download follows the current filter selection and the granularity the chart is set to, so a chart shown as Hourly exports hourly values. It also follows the Value type setting, so the figures come out as percentages or as asset counts depending on how the dashboard is set.