Creating Your First Dashboard

Start from a blank canvas, a template, or an AI agent, learn the editor layout and keyboard shortcuts, and understand how autosave and drafts work.

6 min read

On this page

Start a new dashboard
The editor at a glance
Keyboard shortcuts
Drafts and autosave
A quick worked example
Create with an AI agent (beta)
Related guides

A new dashboard starts as a blank canvas. You add widgets to it, arrange them on a grid, and BankSync saves your work as you go. This guide covers what you see when you land, the editor layout, the keyboard shortcuts that speed it up, and how drafts and autosave behave.

No data source is required to begin

You only need a workspace where Dashboards is enabled. You can design the layout first, even with no bank, feed, or table. Data-bound widgets stay honestly unconnected until you connect compatible data.

Availability

Dashboards are in beta and roll out per workspace. If you do not see Dashboards in your left navigation, it is not enabled for your workspace yet, so the steps below will not be available. (In that case the dashboards address shows a 'not found' page rather than the editor.)

From an empty canvas to your first live widget.

Start a new dashboard#

Open Dashboards in the left navigation and choose New dashboard. You land on an empty canvas with the widget library already open on the right. A card in the middle of the canvas reads Nothing here yet, with the subtext "Ask a question or pick a chart to start." This card is your launch pad. Existing dashboards keep the library closed until you request it, preserving the full canvas for reading and editing.

A new dashboard's empty canvas with a centered 'Nothing here yet' card, an 'Add a widget' button, and 'Pick a chart kind' and 'Browse dashboards' links. — A brand-new dashboard opens to the 'Nothing here yet' launch card on a blank canvas.

From that card you can start in any of these ways:

Add a widget

The primary button. It focuses the widget library on the right so you can describe a chart, pick from suggestions, or browse chart kinds. If no compatible source exists, the widget keeps its place and guides you to connect a bank, create a table, or set up a feed.

Pick a chart kind

Jumps straight to the chart picker so you can choose a shape (line, bar, KPI, and so on) before binding it to your data.

Browse dashboards

Takes you back out to your existing dashboards if you opened a new one by mistake.

If you have opened dashboards before, a Recent: row of chips appears under the buttons so you can jump back into one. On a brand-new dashboard, a Start from a template gallery also appears below the card. Picking a template builds a ready-made dashboard for you and opens it, which is the fastest start if you are not sure what to chart. See Dashboard templates for the full list.

More than one way in

"New dashboard" is not the only entry point. Visiting the Dashboards page directly, or using the New dashboard button in the content tree on the left, lands you on the same blank canvas. If you arrived here from the launch card above, just use Add a widget rather than hunting for a New dashboard button.

The editor at a glance#

Once you start adding widgets, the editor settles into three regions. A widget is a single tile (a chart, a big-number KPI, or a table); the canvas is the grid they sit on; and the inspector is the right-hand panel where you configure whichever widget you have selected.

Content tree (left)

Your dashboards and folders. Show or hide it with the left bracket key ([) so the canvas can use the full width.

Canvas (center)

The grid your widgets live on. Drag a widget to move it, drag an edge to resize.

Inspector & library (right)

Add widgets from the library, then configure the selected widget in the inspector.

The dashboard editor with several widgets placed on the grid canvas (a KPI tile, a chart, and a table), the first widget selected with a highlight ring. — The canvas with widgets placed: the content tree sits on the left, the library and inspector on the right.

The left-rail content tree showing nested folders, an active dashboard, and an Unfiled group, with a New dashboard control. — The content tree on the left lists your dashboards and folders. Toggle it with the left bracket key.

The strip across the top is the editor toolbar. It carries the action buttons you reach for while editing: Undo and Redo, the Filters toggle, Fullscreen, Widgets (the library), and Share.

The dashboard editor's action toolbar: Undo, a disabled Redo, an active Filters toggle, Fullscreen, Widgets, and a primary Share button. — The editor toolbar's action buttons: Undo and Redo, Filters, Fullscreen, Widgets, and Share. The dashboard title and the Saving/Saved badge sit alongside it.

Keyboard shortcuts#

A few keys make the editor faster. They work whenever your cursor is not in a text field.

[ — Dashboards

Show or hide the content tree on the left.

] — Library

Show or hide the widget library on the right.

f — Fullscreen

Hide the navigation and both side panels for a distraction-free, full-width canvas. The matching toolbar button is labeled Fullscreen (and Exit fullscreen while you are in it).

Undo and redo

Undo and Redo cover layout changes and adding or detaching widgets. Use the toolbar buttons, or press Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z to undo and Shift+Cmd+Z / Shift+Ctrl+Z to redo. An automatically selected source is shown immediately, and Undo remains available until your next edit.

Drafts and autosave#

A brand-new dashboard is a draft: an unsaved scratch space that does not appear in your dashboards list yet. BankSync turns it into a real, saved dashboard the moment you do something meaningful with it.

When a draft becomes a saved dashboard

You name it
Give the dashboard a title in the toolbar.
You add your first widget
Drop a widget onto the canvas, connected or not. Both are meaningful design work and preserve their exact layout position.
You add your first filter
Create a dashboard filter.
You pick a template
Choosing a template from the launch card builds and opens a saved dashboard right away, with no naming or widget step required.

As soon as one of those happens, the dashboard is saved, its address in your browser changes to its permanent link, and it shows up in your dashboards list. From then on, every change saves automatically a moment after you make it. The toolbar shows Saving while a change is in flight and Saved once it is stored. There is no Save button to press.

The dashboard editor's title strip showing the 'Cashflow' dashboard name beside a green check and a 'Saved' badge, with the content-tree toggle and the Widgets and Share toolbar buttons. — After a change is stored, the toolbar shows a green check and a 'Saved' badge next to the dashboard name. No Save button to press.

Exploring will not create a stray dashboard

Only the actions above commit a draft. Clicking around (opening the widget library, toggling the side panels, pressing the keyboard shortcuts, or browsing chart kinds) does not save anything, so you can explore the editor freely. Nothing lands in your dashboards list until you name it, add a widget or filter, or pick a template.

Sharing needs a saved dashboard

An unsaved draft has no Share option yet, because there is nothing permanent to link to. Name the dashboard or add a widget first, then the Share action appears. See Publishing & sharing for details.

A quick worked example#

Here is a start-to-finish run so you can see how the pieces fit together:

Build a 'Cashflow' dashboard

Open a new dashboard
From the Dashboards page, choose New dashboard. The "Nothing here yet" card appears.
Name it
Type "Cashflow" into the title field in the toolbar. The dashboard saves and gets its own link the moment you name it.
Add your first widget
Click Add a widget to open the library, then describe what you want, for example "spending by month", and add the suggested chart to the canvas.
Arrange it
Drag the widget where you want it and drag an edge to resize. The toolbar flashes Saving, then Saved.
Keep going
Add more widgets the same way. Everything you do keeps saving on its own, so you can close the tab whenever you like.

Create with an AI agent (beta)#

You do not have to build everything by hand. If you drive BankSync through an AI agent (for example Claude), the agent can create dashboards, folders, widgets, and queries for you using BankSync's dashboard tools, then publish them. This authoring path is in beta and currently available in staging environments only, so it may not be present in your production workspace yet. The in-app Ask tab in the widget library offers a similar plain-language on-ramp without an external agent (see Adding widgets).

Adding widgets: the four ways to add a widget to the canvas.
Pick a chart kind: the full catalog of chart shapes and when to use each.
KPI, table & gauge widgets: the non-chart widgets for single numbers, formatted rows, and goal dials.
Organizing dashboards: folders, renaming, and the content tree.
Dashboard templates: start from a prebuilt dashboard instead of a blank one.

Add your first widget