The Holistics handbook for business users

1. Open Ask AI.
2. Type your question in plain language.
3. Review the suggested chart or dashboard.
4. Open the related report to explore further.

1. Open the conversation.
2. Copy the share link.
3. Send it to teammates inside your company.

Conversations are retained for a limited time, so save important charts to a dashboard.

1. Open the chart or AI result.
2. Open the AI side panel.
3. Ask your follow-up question.
4. Read the explanation.

1. Open a dashboard.
2. Select the widgets you care about.
3. Ask AI to summarize them.
4. Review the summary.

1. Open a dashboard and select the widgets you want to analyze together.
2. Ask AI a question that spans those widgets.
3. AI answers using your organization's custom context, terminology, and response preferences.
4. Review the insight and ask follow-ups to go deeper.

Your data team curates the organization context — business background, terminology, and how answers should be phrased — so AI responds in your company's language and conventions. Enriching this context is the most effective way to get more accurate answers.

1. Review the AI-generated chart.
2. Hover or click to inspect values.
3. Open the report.
4. Filter or drill into the data.

1. Identify the internal AI interface you want answers in.
2. Ask your data or IT team whether Holistics can be connected.
3. Define what types of questions to support.
4. Test responses with governed data access.

1. Open a dashboard or report.
2. Add or edit a filter.
3. Pick the field and value.
4. Apply and review the result.

1. Open a dashboard or report and add or edit a date filter.
2. Choose a relative option such as last N days, this month, or year to date.
3. Set the unit and range for the window.
4. Apply and review the result, which updates automatically as time moves on.

1. Open a dashboard with cross-filtering enabled.
2. Click a value or segment in any chart.
3. Watch the other charts filter to match.
4. Click again to clear the cross-filter.

Cross-filtering is turned on by your data team when building the dashboard.

1. Open a report in exploration mode.
2. Add a top/bottom N filter on the metric.
3. Set N and the ranking direction.
4. Apply and review the ranked result.

1. Click the metric, row, or record.
2. Pick the drill-through destination.
3. Continue analysis in the destination dashboard.

This usually requires your data team to set up the workflow first.

1. Click Refresh to see when the results were last cached.
2. To refresh everything, choose Refresh Now next to the dashboard title.
3. To refresh just one chart, open the widget's more-options menu and refresh it.
4. Wait for the query to rerun and the latest numbers to load.

Holistics caches query results for speed, so a dashboard may show data from its last run rather than this moment. Refreshing reruns the query against the warehouse. To limit load on the database, refresh is usually available to admins and dashboard owners.

1. Open a dashboard with a metric sheet, or add one from the chart selector.
2. Pick the KPIs you want to track in a single view.
3. Choose the time aggregations to compare across, such as month, quarter, and year.
4. Read the latest numbers, which refresh automatically as new data lands.

A metric sheet is ideal for executive scorecards. It gives one consistent set of KPIs, reviewed across time periods without rebuilding the view.

1. Open a dashboard and hover the info icon on any widget to read its definition.
2. Review the metric's meaning and context, written by the BI team.
3. Open a dataset to build your own report and see the same definitions inline.
4. Rely on these centralized definitions to interpret every number consistently.

Definitions are authored once by the BI team in the backend and exposed live wherever you consume data, on dashboard widgets and in datasets. That keeps everyone on the same source of truth.

1. Click a metric or chart segment.
2. Choose a drill-down dimension.
3. Review the breakdown.
4. Keep drilling as needed.

Drill as deep as the question needs, across every dimension in the dataset.

1. Click the metric or chart element.
2. Choose "view underlying data".
3. Inspect the record-level table.
4. Export only if permitted.

Works on any metric, because the semantic layer already maps each number back to its rows.

1. Open the report.
2. Enter exploration mode.
3. Add or remove fields.
4. Save to your personal workspace if useful.

1. Open a report and enter exploration mode.
2. Add, edit, or remove fields and filters. The URL updates as you go.
3. Copy the URL straight from your browser.
4. Send it to a teammate so they open the same view.

No save required. The link respects permissions, so teammates only see it if they already have access to the underlying data. Handy for collaboration, getting a second opinion, or troubleshooting a number together.

1. Open a dataset you have access to.
2. Create a new dashboard from it.
3. Add the fields and charts you want to show.
4. Save the dashboard to your workspace.

1. Open a canvas dashboard.
2. #
3. Drag components anywhere on the canvas.
4. Place filters anywhere on the canvas, not only at the top.

Unlike fixed dashboards, a canvas dashboard lets you position filters anywhere on the page, not only across the top.

1. Pick a chart type from the chart selector.
2. Open the Configure panel to set fields and options.
3. Use the toolbar for Analyze, Ask AI, filters, and sort.
4. Run to preview your result.

1. Open a dashboard in edit mode.
2. Open the editing preferences in the authoring panel.
3. Set defaults like widget overlap and content trimming.
4. Save so the editor opens the way you like next time.

1. Finish your exploration.
2. Click save.
3. Choose your personal workspace.
4. Name the report clearly.

1. Open the saved report.
2. Click share.
3. Choose users or groups.
4. Confirm the access settings.

Check with your data team if you are unsure whether a report should be shared broadly.

1. Open the report or dashboard you want to sync.
2. Set up a Google Sheets schedule and connect your Google account.
3. Pick the destination sheet and how often it should refresh.
4. Save, then check that the sheet updates on schedule.

Each run overwrites the sheet with the latest data, so downstream formulas and pivots stay live. Setting up the Google connection may need your data team's help the first time.

1. Open the report.
2. Click export.
3. Choose CSV or Excel.
4. Download the file.

Export permissions may be controlled by your data team.

1. Open a report in exploration mode.
2. Add a filter condition.
3. Group conditions together.
4. Combine AND and OR logic, then apply.

1. Open a report in exploration mode.
2. Click the metric you want to analyze.
3. Choose period-over-period comparison.
4. Select the comparison period.

1. Open a report in exploration mode.
2. Click the metric.
3. Choose running total.
4. Pick the dimension to accumulate across.

1. Open a report in exploration mode.
2. Click the metric.
3. Choose a moving calculation, such as a moving average.
4. Review the smoothed trend.

1. Open a report in exploration mode.
2. Click the metric.
3. Choose percent of total.
4. Review the updated calculation.

1. Open a chart in exploration mode.
2. Open the analytic functions menu.
3. Add a trend line.
4. Pick the trend line type if needed.

1. Open a chart in exploration mode.
2. Open the analytic functions menu.
3. Add a reference line.
4. Set the value or field it should mark.

1. Identify a repeated workflow or question.
2. Describe what the AI skill should help with.
3. Share examples with your data team to build and govern it.
4. Help test whether the skill produces useful results.

1. Open the report.
2. Choose conditional formatting.
3. Define the threshold.
4. Pick the style and save.

1. Open a table visualization's style settings.
2. Turn on text wrapping for headers or cells.
3. Set a custom label to rename a field.
4. Save the styling.

1. Select the chart or table.
2. Open its style settings.
3. Change colors, fonts, and borders.
4. Save your changes.

1. Open a report and add a custom chart.
2. Paste or adapt a visualization spec.
3. Map your fields into the chart.
4. Save it to your dashboard.

Adding a custom chart may need your data team's help. For inspiration, browse the Vega-Lite example gallery to see how flexible the presentation can be.

1. Browse the template gallery for a starting point.
2. Add a Visualization block and choose the Markdown type.
3. Map your data fields into the template.
4. Adjust the design to taste.

You can also ask AI to generate the block design for you. Browse the template gallery to get started.

1. Open the Theme Builder Sandbox.
2. Pick a pre-built theme, generate one with AI, or start from scratch.
3. Customize colors, spacing, and layout in the live GUI editor.
4. Copy the generated theme into Holistics, or send it to your data team to apply.

1. Pick the metric to monitor.
2. Define the alert condition or threshold.
3. Choose the channel (email, Slack, or webhook).
4. Ask your data team to set it up.

1. Pick the report or dashboard to send.
2. Choose the delivery schedule.
3. Pick the destination and recipients.
4. Ask your data team to set it up.

1. Pick the report or dashboard to share.
2. Define the external audience.
3. Set permission control and optional password protection.
4. Ask your data team to create the link.

You can configure permission control over who is allowed to open the link, plus optional password protection for quick ad-hoc access.

1. Pick the report or record where the action should appear.
2. Describe the action users should trigger.
3. Name the destination system or workflow.
4. Ask your data team to set it up.