Before you begin
Plans: Professional and Enterprise
This article contains answers to common questions about our analytics feature:
| Section | Questions |
|---|---|
| Basics | |
| Refresh & timeout | |
| Seats & access | |
| Sharing looks & dashboards | |
| Editing looks & dashboards |
Basics
Which sites can I see analytics for?
You can view data for any of the sites you've been assigned access to through your user account.
What are the different folders used for?
- My Folder: If you are a creator, this is where you can store any looks and dashboards you create for your own use. Only you can access the content in this folder.
- Group: This is where the looks and dashboards created by your organization are stored. Anyone at your organization with access to analytics can access the content in this folder.
- Shared: This is where our ready-made looks and dashboards are stored. You can't edit the content in this folder, even if you have creator permissions. However, creators can use them as a base for creating new looks and dashboards. To learn how, see Create a new look or Create a new dashboard.
How do date filters work?
The following list explains the most common date filters in analytics:
- Filters that use is in the last and months are based on 30 day increments. For example, a "is in the last 1 months" filter would show data from the past 30 days (not including today), and "in the last 2 months" would show data from the past 60 days.
- Filters that use is in the last and complete months are based on past calendar months. For example, if you applied a "is in the last 1 complete months" filter on July 15, it would show data from June 1-30 (which is the last completed calendar month).
- Filters that use is in the last and complete weeks are based on past weeks, defined as Sunday to Saturday. For example, if you applied a "is in the last 1 complete weeks" filter on Wednesday August 2, it would show data from Sunday July 23 to Saturday July 29 (which is the last completed calendar week).
- Filters that use is previous displays data from the last completed day, week, month, etc. For example, "is previous month" shows data from the last completed month.
This is similar to "is in the last" and "complete months", "complete weeks", etc. However, "is previous" only displays one week, month, etc. at a time, whereas you can display multiple months, weeks, etc. with "is in the last". - Filters that use a is in range do not include the end date that you select. For example, if you selected July 1 to 31, it would show data from July 1 to 30. To include July 31, you would need to set the filter from July 1 to August 1.
How do time zones work in Analytics?
The time zone you view looks and dashboards in can impact the data displayed. For example, if a dashboard tile displays the number of closed work orders yesterday, this number will likely differ depending on whether you view it in Eastern Standard Time or Singapore Standard Time.
Each look and dashboard has its own time zone settings. They can be set to either:
- Use a specific time zone, such as America - Los Angeles.
-
Viewer time zone, which determines the appropriate time zone based on the viewer's site access:
- For administrators, it uses the time zone set in Settings > CMMS Settings > Time Zone.
- For users with access more than one site, it uses the time zone configured for the site that's currently selected in the site picker (at the top of the feature menu):
Site time zones are configured in Settings > CMMS Settings > Sites. To learn more, see Change the timezone for a site. - For users with access to just one site, it uses the time zone configured for that site (in Settings > CMMS Settings > Sites).
Dashboards have an additional Each tile's timezone setting that allows each tile to use its own time zone settings. For example, you could choose this setting for the dashboard and then have one tile that displays data from your Detroit site using the Eastern Standard Time and another that displays data from your Dallas site in Central Standard Time.
Note
When viewing a look or dashboard, you can temporarily change the time zone without editing the actual settings. To learn more see Change the time zone while viewing a look and Change the time zone while viewing a dashboard.
When you create a new look, dashboard, or tile, the default time zone settings differ depending on how it was created:
| Creation method | Default time zone setting |
|---|---|
| Add a new visualization to a dashboard |
The new tile respects the dashboard's time zone settings. If the dashboard is set to use each tile's time zone, the new tile uses the America - Los Angeles time zone. This is the overall default time zone for Analytics. |
| Copy a look or dashboard |
The new dashboard uses the same time zone settings as the one you copied. Note: All the looks and dashboards we provide use the Viewer time zone setting. This means that if you copy these looks and dashboards, the copies will respect the viewer's time zone by default. |
| Save a look as a new dashboard | The new dashboard uses the Each tile's time zone setting. |
| Save a look to an existing dashboard |
The new tile respects the settings of the dashboard. If the dashboard is set to use each tile's time zone, the new tile uses the same time zone as the look it originated from. |
| Save an explore query as a new look | The new look uses the time zone selected in the Explore view. |
To learn more, see the following articles:
- Change the time zone for a look
- Change the time zone for a dashboard
- Change the time zone for a tile
Why do I get an error when I click Go to Dashboard in alert emails?
Although all alert emails include a Go to Dashboard button, this button only works if:
- The alert was configured with the Include custom link toggle switched on
- You have an active Fiix user account with an Analytics license, and
- You have accessed Analytics within the past 4 hours
Because of these limitations, alerts should only be used to flag specific data changes, not as a way to send looks and dashboards. If you need to share Analytics content, you should send or schedule it instead. To learn more, see the Download and share section of the help center.
Refresh and timeout
How often do dashboards refresh?
Our ready-made dashboards do not refresh automatically. You can refresh the dashboard layout by clicking the reload button, or refresh the queried data by clicking Clear cache and refresh in the menu.
Refresh frequency can be configured per dashboard, as well as for individual tiles on a dashboard. For example, you could configure a dashboard so that most of its tiles only refresh once an hour, but one specific tile refreshes every 15 minutes. To learn more, see Change dashboard settings.
Note
To optimize system performance, we recommend setting your refresh frequency to 15 minutes or more. Refreshing more frequently can negatively impact performance.
How do I refresh my dashboard?
The reload (or refresh) button refreshes the dashboard display, but doesn't refresh the queried data. For example, after you select filters, you need to click the reload button to apply them:
Unlike the reload button, clicking Clear cache and refresh refreshes the queried data. For example, if you've just closed a work order, you might need to clear the cache before your look or dashboard reflects the change.
To clear the cache, open the menu and select Clear cache and refresh:
Tip: For looks, this item is in the gear menu instead.
What is the session timeout for analytics?
The session timeout for analytics depends on the timeout configured in your user account:
- If there isn't a session timeout configured in your user account, your analytics session times out after 1 hour.
- If the session timeout in your user account is 4 hours or less, analytics uses the same session timeout. For example, if the session timeout in your user account is 2 hours, your analytics session also times out after 2 hours.
- If the session timeout in your user account is longer than 4 hours, your analytics session times out after 4 hours. For example, if the session timeout in your user account is 5 hours, your analytics session still times out after 4.
To learn more about configuring session timeouts for users, see Change the session timeout for a user account.
Why are some v6 fields not available?
Due to a technical limitation, if you're using v6 Equipment, v6 Work orders, or v6 User management, some fields (such as user address fields) aren't available in Analytics.
Seats & access
What do the access levels for analytics mean?
There are 3 access levels for analytics:
- Viewer, which allows you view-only access to analytics. Viewers cannot filter, download, share, create, or edit looks and dashboards.
- User, which allows you to view, filter, download, and share looks and dashboards, but doesn't allow you to edit them or create new ones.
- Creator, which allows you to do all the things Users can do, plus the ability to create and edit new looks and dashboards.
To learn more about managing access to analytics, see Assign analytics seats.
How many seats do I have left for analytics?
The number of creator and user seats your organization is granted depends on the plan you're subscribed to:
| Plan | Creator seats | User seats |
|---|---|---|
| Professional | 1 | 5 |
| Enterprise | 3 | 20 |
In addition to these seats, you are also granted enough viewer seats for each CMMS user at your organization. This means that if you have (for example) 100 CMMS total users, you would be granted 100 viewer seats.
For your convenience, the CMMS displays the number of seats you have left for each access level directly where you assign access on the Analytics tab in Settings > Users:
How can I find out who our seats have been assigned to?
You can find out which users are assigned analytics seats using the Analytics Permissions dashboard. To learn more, see Analytics permissions dashboard.
What happens if a user is deactivated?
This depends on which version of user management you're using.
In v5 user management, when you deactivate a user who had access to analytics, their analytics seat is automatically removed and returned to the "pool" of available licenses. For example, if an employee leaves your organization, their analytics seat is freed up as soon as you deactivate their Fiix user account.
Additionally, some of their analytics content will also be deleted:
- Any content they created in their personal folder (i.e. My Folder) is deleted.
- Any content they created in the Group folder is retained.
- Any schedules they created are deleted.
Note
This content is deleted permanently and cannot be recovered, even if their user account is reactivated. Similarly, their analytics seat won't be reassigned to them automatically; an administrator must reassign it to them manually.
In v6 user management, deactivating a user's account doesn't automatically free up their analytics seat. Instead, you must manually change the the Access to Analytics setting in their user account to No Access:
To learn how, see Assign analytics seats.
What happens if I remove creator access to Analytics?
If you remove someone's creator access (i.e. change their access level from Creator to any of the other options), any content in their personal folder and any schedules they created are deleted automatically and cannot be restored. For this reason, we recommend taking extra care when changing a creator's access level.
Sharing looks & dashboards
Why can't I test my dashboard delivery schedule?
If you click Test now while setting up a schedule, an error occurs. This is a known issue that will be fixed in a future release. As a workaround, you can save the schedule and then click Send now:
Editing looks & dashboards
Which looks and dashboards can I edit?
If you are a creator, you can edit any looks and dashboards that you created.
Although you can't edit the ready-made looks and dashboards we provide (located in the Shared folder), you can use existing looks to create new ones. To learn how, see Create a new look or Create a new dashboard.