Lightspeed Insights allows you to create your own custom reports tailored to your specific data and reporting needs. This guide walks you through some best practices, creating and editing saved reports, and  building your dashboards. 

A Lightspeed Insights custom plan is required, and you must have either an admin or the Build Insights permission to create custom reports and dashboards. This process is now fully self-serve, and custom report creation is no longer supported by our Account Management team.

What’s in this guide?

Dashboard and reporting best practices
Creating a Look
Creating a dashboard
Editing a saved Look or dashboard

Dashboard and reporting best practices

Before creating a custom report or dashboard, there are few important tips to keep in mind to make sure your custom reports are clear and efficient. For reference on report-building terminologies, refer to our article on report terminology in Lightspeed Insights. 

• Limit the number of Looks or Tiles: Looks are your saved reports that can be added to one or more dashboards while Tiles are unsaved reports that can be added only within a single dashboard. We recommend no more than 20 Looks or Tiles per dashboard. This keeps your dashboards focused on the most important insights and improves load times. 
• Refresh report at reasonable intervals: Run the reports only once every 10 minutes. Refreshing more frequently won't provide new information and may increase data usage unnecessarily. 
• Limit the number of dimensions and measures: Having too many dimensions and measures may reduce report clarity and restrict available visualization options. Select only what is necessary to keep your reports clear and focused. 

Creating a Look

Looks can be created directly in Lightspeed Insights. You can create multiple Looks as needed and save them to multiple dashboards. This allows you to reuse and organize your reports across different views. 

To create a Look:

1. Navigate and log in to Lightspeed Insights using your Back Office credentials. 
2. From the navigation menu, select Build From. 
3. Under Build From, select a report category to start building a custom report. 
   
4. (Optional) If you have multiple sites, under Location, find Site Name, then click Filter by field to view data for each specific site. 
   
5. Under the Filters section, click + Filter to add a filter, then choose the data criteria to be applied.
   
6. Under the DIMENSIONS section, select the desired dimension to include in the report. Dimensions can be added, removed, or rearranged as needed. 
   • To add a dimension: Select the dimension. When selected, it appears blue in the column header. 
   • To remove a dimension: Select the dimension again to remove it. 
   • To reposition a dimension: Drag the blue column header to your preferred position within the report.
     
7. Under the MEASURES section, select the desired measure to include it in the report. Measures can be added, removed, or rearranged as needed. 
   • To add a measure: Select the measure. When selected, it appears yellow in the column header. 
   • To remove a measure: Select the measure again to remove it. 
   • To reposition a measure: Drag the yellow column header to your preferred position within the report.
     
8. (Optional) To add more filters, click + Filter. Then select the dimension or measure to apply as a new filter. 
   
9. Click Run.
10. To see the total value in your report, select the Totals checkbox.
11. Under Visualization, select your preferred data visualization for your report. A message appears if the visualization is not compatible with your datasets. 
    
12. Once you're finished, click the cog wheel icon (settings). 
13. Select Save > As a Look. 
    
14. (Optional) To add a report to an existing dashboard, select Save > To an existing dashboard. You can then select which dashboard to save it to. 
    
15. (Optional) To download the report, click the cog wheel icon (settings), then select Download. Choose from the available formats, then click Download. 
    
16. Enter the following details
    • Title: Enter a descriptive name that reflects the report content and time range. 
    • Description (Optional): Include a brief summary of the datasets included in the report.
    • Folder: By default, My Folder is selected, which is your personal folder in Insights. The Look can also be saved to a Shared folder, provided you have the required permissions to edit shared reports or dashboards. 
17. Click Save. 
    

Creating a dashboard

Dashboards provide a consolidated view of your data by combining multiple Looks or individual Tiles. You can either create a dashboard by adding existing Looks or by building Tiles directly within a dashboard. 

Creating a dashboard from a Look

You can create a dashboard directly from a saved Look. Start a dashboard with a saved Look and enhance it with more data as needed.

To create a dashboard from a Look:

1. Once you're finished creating a Look, click the cog wheel icon (settings).
2. Select Save > As a new dashboard to save the Look inside a new dashboard.
3. Enter a title for the dashboard.
4. Click Save. 
5. (Optional) To add a report to an existing dashboard, select Save > To an existing dashboard. You can then select which dashboard to save it to. 
   
6. (Optional) To add more Looks to this dashboard, follow the steps 2-11 in the creating a Look section. 

Creating a dashboard from a Tile

Tiles are similar to Looks except that they are unique to a single dashboard. The creation process is very similar to creating a dashboard from a Look, but the key difference is that you're working with an unsaved Look which is uniquely saved to a dashboard. 

To create a dashboard from a Tile:

1. Follow the steps 2-11 in the creating a Look section.
2. Click the cog wheel icon (settings).
3. Select Save > As a new dashboard. 
   
4. Enter a title for this dashboard. 
5. Click Save. 
6. (Optional) To add a report to an existing dashboard, select Save > To an existing dashboard. You can then select which dashboard to save it to. 
   

Editing a saved Look or dashboard

Once a Look or dashboard has been saved, you can return to it at any time to update filters, adjust dimensions and measures, or modify the layout. This ensures your reports stay current and continue to provide relevant insights.

To edit a saved Look or dashboard:

1. From the navigation menu, select My Reports. 
2. Select your name to access all reports in your folder. 
   
3. Select the dashboard you want to edit. 
4. Click the ellipsis (menu), then select Edit dashboard.
   
5. Click the pencil icon on that Look to start modifying the report.
   

What's next?