---
title: "Creating Your First Dashboard"
description: "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."
section: "Dashboards"
canonical: "https://banksync.io/docs/dashboards/creating-a-dashboard"
---

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.

> **Prerequisites:** 'You need a workspace where Dashboards is enabled and at least one feed with synced data (so your widgets have something to chart). See Bank feeds → Create your first feed if you have not set one up.'

> **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.)

[![Creating a dashboard from scratch: clicking New in the dashboards tree, naming it Runway, the empty first-run canvas, adding the first widget from the library, and the autosave badge confirming.](https://cdn.banksync.io/videos/create-a-dashboard.poster.8b6880e2f7e445b9.png)](https://cdn.banksync.io/videos/create-a-dashboard.b083298a97efe131.mp4)

[Watch: Creating a dashboard from scratch: clicking New in the dashboards tree, naming it Runway, the empty first-run canvas, adding the first widget from the library, and the autosave badge confirming.](https://cdn.banksync.io/videos/create-a-dashboard.b083298a97efe131.mp4)

## Start a new dashboard

Open **Dashboards** in the left navigation and choose **New dashboard**. You land on an empty canvas. A card in the middle of it reads **Nothing here yet**, with the subtext "Ask a question or pick a chart to start." This card is your launch pad.

![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.](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/dashboards/empty-canvas.a6672d56f1853c5e.png "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 opens the widget library on the right so you can describe a chart, pick
  from suggestions, or browse chart kinds.
- **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](/docs/dashboards/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.](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/dashboards/editor-canvas.440b6387416c1d58.png "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.](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/dashboards/content-tree.d5aea2a845994db8.png "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.](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/dashboards/editor-toolbar.9fc2fb56ca4ea37b.png "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 recent layout changes (moving and resizing widgets) so you can recover if you nudge something out of place. Use the toolbar buttons, or press Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z to undo and Shift+Cmd+Z / Shift+Ctrl+Z to redo. The history is for layout only: adding or removing a widget is not part of undo (remove it from the inspector instead).'

## 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**

1. **You name it** — Give the dashboard a title in the toolbar.
2. **You add your first widget** — Drop any widget onto the canvas.
3. **You add your first filter** — Create a dashboard filter.
4. **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.](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/dashboards/editor-autosave.7950283f12c3aab8.png "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**

1. **Open a new dashboard** — From the Dashboards page, choose New dashboard. The "Nothing here yet" card appears.
2. **Name it** — Type "Cashflow" into the title field in the toolbar. The dashboard saves and gets its own link
   the moment you name it.
3. **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.
4. **Arrange it** — Drag the widget where you want it and drag an edge to resize. The toolbar flashes Saving, then
   Saved.
5. **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](/docs/dashboards/adding-widgets)).

## Related guides

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

[Add your first widget](/docs/dashboards/adding-widgets)