What Should You Prepare Before Creating a Dashboard?
Before building the dashboard, define its audience, purpose, and data requirements. Epicor environments can differ by product version, interface, security configuration, and available customization tools, so the exact menu names and setup steps may vary. Confirm which dashboard designer and query tools are available in your installation.
Prepare the following items before starting:
- Business objective: Identify the decision the dashboard should support, such as monitoring invoice approvals, supplier balances, or purchase commitments.
- Data source: Determine whether the dashboard will use a Business Activity Query (BAQ), a supported data view, or another available source.
- Measures and dimensions: Choose values such as invoice amount, due date, supplier, company, department, or transaction status.
- Access requirements: Confirm that intended users can view the underlying data and perform any permitted drill-down actions.
- Refresh expectations: Decide how frequently the information must update to support operational or financial decisions.
Also review the relevant Epicor ERP Modules to understand where the source transactions originate. This helps ensure that dashboard measures align with the business process being monitored.
How to Create a Dashboard in Epicor Step by Step
Step 1: Define the dashboard layout. Sketch the information users need to see first. Place high-priority measures near the top, supporting charts beneath them, and detailed transaction grids where users can investigate exceptions.
Step 2: Prepare the data query. Create or select a BAQ that returns the required fields. Apply relevant filters, joins, date conditions, and grouping logic. For an accounts payable dashboard, the query might return supplier name, invoice number, due date, outstanding amount, and payment status. Validate the results against the corresponding ERP records before using them in visualizations.
Step 3: Open the available dashboard designer. In the relevant Epicor interface, access the dashboard creation or maintenance function supported by your version. Create a new dashboard definition and configure its data source or query reference. Some environments distinguish between dashboard definition, customization, deployment, and runtime access.
Step 4: Add visual components. Insert the available grid, chart, summary, or KPI components. Bind each component to the appropriate query fields. For example, a chart can group overdue balances by supplier, while a grid lists the invoices contributing to each balance.
Step 5: Configure filters and interactions. Add practical filters for company, date range, supplier, department, or status. Where supported, configure drill-down behavior so users can move from a summary figure to the underlying transaction.
Step 6: Save, test, and publish. Verify that the dashboard loads the expected data, filters work correctly, and totals reconcile with source records. Test it with representative user permissions, then deploy or share it using your organization's established Epicor procedures.
Which Financial and Operational Measures Should You Display?
The dashboard should prioritize measures that lead to an action rather than displaying every available field. For accounts payable, useful measures include total outstanding invoices, invoices past due, invoices awaiting approval, and upcoming payment obligations. Purchasing teams may track open purchase orders, requisition status, and committed spend.
For procurement visibility, a dashboard can connect approved requisitions with purchase orders and subsequent transactions. The process design explained in How to Create a Purchase Order System helps clarify how requests, approvals, and orders fit together. A supporting PO Document Guide: What's Included & How to Create One can help teams identify the purchase order details that should remain visible for review and control.
Financial dashboards should also account for tax reporting needs. When invoice or purchasing data is used for tax monitoring, tax codes and jurisdiction-specific rules must be represented accurately. Guidance on How to Structure Tax Accounts in Your COA can help teams organize tax-related account information for clearer reporting and audit review.
How Do ERP Integration and Automation Support Dashboard Workflows?
A dashboard becomes more useful when its data definitions align with the ERP transactions and finance processes that generate the figures. Epicor Integration Finance describes the connection between Epicor data and finance workflows, including how transaction information can support consistent reporting across systems. When extending finance processes around epicor, preserve established business rules, field mappings, access controls, and posting logic.
For organizations using complementary finance technology, the Hyperbots Platform supports company-specific configuration of ERP integrations, workflows, roles, and general ledger structures through a no-code framework. Its Process Specific Capabilities address individual finance workflows, while Ready to Deploy Capabilities include pre-trained agents and ERP connectors designed for finance tasks.
Where AI-assisted finance workflows are introduced, Self Learning Capabilities allow systems to learn from human actions and refine workflow decisions. A Human in the Loop approach keeps people involved in exception handling and approvals. These capabilities complement dashboard visibility; they do not replace the need to validate the source data, definitions, and permissions behind each displayed measure.
Best Practices for Maintaining an Epicor Dashboard
Review dashboard performance and usefulness after deployment. Confirm that totals match trusted ERP reports, that filters behave consistently, and that users understand how each KPI is calculated. Assign ownership for maintaining the underlying BAQ, field mappings, and dashboard components when business processes change.
Use a consistent naming convention for dashboards and queries, document each metric's definition, and limit access to information according to job responsibilities. Keep the layout focused: a dashboard intended for daily payment planning should emphasize due dates, approval status, and available payment information rather than unrelated production statistics.
For broader ERP and AI initiatives, articles such as How Agentic AI Is Transforming Finance on Epicor ERP provide context for extending finance workflows around the ERP. Evaluate any integration against actual business requirements and verify that the dashboard continues to display reconciled, authorized data after configuration changes.
Summary
To create a dashboard in Epicor, define the business objective, prepare a reliable BAQ or supported data source, build the layout, connect visual components, configure filters, and test the results against source transactions. Select measures that support specific operational and financial decisions, then maintain clear ownership of data definitions, access, and refresh behavior. A focused, validated dashboard helps teams monitor performance, investigate exceptions, and make informed decisions using ERP data.