Admin tutorial 3: Creating custom charts

Audience: Administrators

Overview

Custom charts are charts that are created using your base chart data for filtering and modeling purposes. Chart documents allow Administrators and Read/Write users to make on-demand changes to formatting, branch styles, employee data and reporting lines. Changes are tracked in the Changes panel, so that users can audit the manual adjustments they've made.

The following article provides instructions for:

• Creating a custom chart
• Editing a custom chart
• Auditing manual changes made to a custom chart
• Saving a custom chart

Creating a custom chart

1. Click on Edit, and then click on the Create custom chart option.

2. Click on the pencil icon (under the Which employee would you like at the top of this chart heading) to search for the record that you would like to be at the top of this custom chart.

3. Click on the Levels dropdown menu to select the amount of levels under the top record to include in this custom chart.

4. Optionally, click on the pencil icon (under the Would you like to apply filters... heading) to add a filter to this custom chart.

Note

Filters can be modified later.

5. Create the filter by selecting a Field, Comparison, and Value that targets the records that you'd like to include in this custom chart. In this example, we will include only employee records that have a FT/PT value equal to Full-time.

6. Click on the Field dropdown menu, and then select a field (i.e FT/PT).

7. Click on the Comparison dropdown menu, and then select a comparison value (i.e. equals).

8. Click on the Value dropdown menu, and then select a corresponding field value (i.e. Full-time).

Note

Records that report to other records that do NOT meet this criteria can be found in the Staging panel for this custom chart. If desired, you can check the Include filtered managers option, so that the hierarchy remains intact.

9. Click on the Save option to preserve your filter, and then click on Create to create the custom chart.

Editing a custom chart

The following section provides examples of the various types of edits that users can make to custom charts, such as:

• Inserting and removing subchart breaks 
• Changing branch styles
• Updating reporting lines and employee data
• Updating box formatting
• Creating rules for a custom chart

For an in-depth review of editing options, please reference the Editing Custom Charts article.

Inserting and removing subchart breaks

Subcharts are pages of your chart. The following section provides information for adding and removing subchart (page) breaks on custom charts.

10. Click on a box, and then click on the Remove subchart break icon in the contextual toolbar. The subchart beneath the selected box appears on the page.

11. Optionally, right-click on a record, and then select the Remove subchart break option to achieve the same effect.

12. Repeat this process as desired.

Note

To avoid manually removing subchart breaks, please review the Creating Single-Page Charts article to learn how to easily create a single-page custom chart.

Changing branch styles

Branch styles are the way that boxes are stacked/positioned in the chart. Manually update branch styles to get the desired layout for the custom chart.

13. Click on a record, and then click on the Branch styles icon in the contextual toolbar. Select a new branch style. The branch style is applied to the branch that that record belongs to.

Updating reporting lines and employee data

Manually update who reports to whom, and change employee data on-demand. The changes made in the custom chart do NOT appear on the base chart used to create this custom chart.

14. Click and drag a record to re-order it, or update its reporting line. A green arrow appears as you hold the record next to and below records to indicate the placement.

15. Double-click on a field in the box to start modifying it. Click Enter on your keyboard to preserve your change.

Note

You can update employee data for fields that are not displayed in boxes by using the detailed record editor.

Updating box formatting

Box formatting can be updated by clicking on a box, and then using the options in the contextual toolbar.

16. Click on a record, and then select an option from the contextual toolbar (i.e Border color) to update the box formatting. Choose a new color from the color picker to update the color of the box border for the selected record.

Creating custom chart rules

Custom chart rules are rules are applied only to the custom chart on which they are created. Custom chart rules allow you to leverage your data to mass apply ad-hoc formatting changes. By default, custom chart rules are created with a basic rule that targets the record's department.

In this example, we will make a custom chart rule to apply the box formatting to all records that have a title starting with 'Dir.'.

Note

Chart rules are specific to the custom chart on which they are created and will NOT impact the views for users on other charts.

17. Hover over a box that has formatting changes, and then select the wand icon to create a rule specific to this custom chart. 

18. Click on the Field dropdown menu, and then select a field (i.e. Title).

19. Click on the Comparison dropdown menu, and then select a comparison option (i.e. Starts with).

20. Click on the Value textbox, and then type a corresponding field value (i.e. 'Dir.').

The formatting that you applied to the box before launching the custom chart rule is already selected. Click on Save to apply these changes to the records in this custom chart that match the criteria defined above.

21. Records with titles that start with 'Dir.' now have the formatting applied.

Click on the View rules tab, and then select Rules from chart to audit any formatting changes that you've made into custom chart rules.

Note

Once singular formatting changes are made into custom chart rules, they will no longer appear in the Changes panel under formatting changes.

Auditing manual changes

22. Click on the Changes tab in the right-side menu, and then expand the manual changes that you've made to this custom chart to see the change details.

23. Optionally, hover over a change, and then click on the 🗑 icon to revert the change.

Saving custom charts

24. To save your custom chart, click on the Finish editing option in the top right corner.

25. Click on Save to preserve your changes.

26. Select a folder in which to save your custom chart (i.e. Charts), and then enter a name for it. Click on Save to save your custom chart.

Note

Folder access is managed by Administrators via a user's access group.

27. The custom chart has been saved and is now displayed in a Read Only format.

To continue to make edits to this custom chart, click on the Edit button in the top right corner, and then select the Edit this custom chart option.

Now that you know how to create and edit charts, it's time to learn how to export and share them. Continue to Admin tutorial 4: Exporting and sharing charts.