Turn a spreadsheet into a canvas of charts in one step

From a new file to the big picture

A fresh export lands on your desk: last quarter's orders, the marketing budget, a sheet the sales team keeps. Before you can ask a sharp question, you need to know what is in it. Which numbers matter? How do they move over time? Where are the big differences? Building that first set of charts by hand can eat the best part of an hour.

DashboardGPT now does that first pass for you. Import the file, choose Build a canvas, and a canvas of charts built for your columns appears, ready for you to explore, rearrange and follow up on in plain English.

New to asking questions of your data? Chat with your data: the complete guide covers the basics first.

What you get

DashboardGPT looks at what your columns hold, such as money, counts, categories and dates, and picks the charts that suit them. It checks that each chart returns results before placing it, so you never open a canvas full of empty boxes.

• Headline figures across the top, such as total revenue or the number of orders.
• Trends over time when your data has dates, such as revenue by month.
• Breakdowns and rankings, such as revenue by region, each region's share of the total, or the top ten products.
• Sensible maths. Rates and scores are averaged rather than added up, and numbers that only name something, such as a zip code or a year, are never totalled.

A file with only a few columns gets fewer charts. DashboardGPT keeps the charts that work and never pads the canvas to reach a number.

Step by step

1. Upload a CSV or Excel file, or import a Google Sheet, from the Datasets page.
2. When it is ready, choose Build a canvas. You can also choose Build canvas on the dataset's page at any time.
3. Check the canvas name, which starts as the dataset's name followed by overview, and choose Create canvas.
4. The new canvas opens straight away and shows its progress as it plans the charts, checks the data and places them. Choose Keep working to hide the progress while it finishes.
5. Start exploring. Select any chart and ask a follow-up: "Only the North region", "Show it by week", "Why did March dip?"

Building a canvas needs editor access to the workspace. A new canvas counts toward your plan's canvas allowance like any other, and the pricing page shows what each plan includes.

The More insights section

Below the first charts, a More insights section adds up to six more charts from the same data, such as further breakdowns and comparisons.

• On Team and Enterprise, every chart in the section is open, and the canvas looks like any other.
• On Explore and during the free trial, these charts are blurred and locked. Their titles stay visible, so you can see what is waiting, and Included in Team shows the plans.
• Upgrade and they open. Charts that were locked open as soon as your organisation subscribes to Team or Enterprise, with nothing to rebuild.

Make it yours

Nothing on the new canvas is fixed. Every chart is an ordinary chart, just like one you created by asking a question.

• Move, resize and delete charts until the story reads the way you want.
• Edit and filter any chart, or choose How it's calculated to see how its numbers were worked out.
• Keep what you change. Once you edit a chart from the More insights section, it becomes a regular chart and stays open even if your plan changes later.
• Share it. Save or share the canvas as a PDF, or publish it to Superset, as you would any canvas.

Working from a Google Sheet? How to chat with a Google Sheet shows how to keep it refreshed so the canvas keeps up with the sheet. Preparing a CSV first? How to chat with a CSV file has a two-minute checklist that makes every chart better.

Ready to see your own data laid out? Sign up and upload a file, compare what each plan includes on the pricing page, or contact us if you would like a hand getting your team started.