Why a Dashboard Matters

Your dashboard provides an at-a-glance view of your organization’s financial health. Instead of digging through reports, you can quickly see what needs attention and take action.

New Organizations: The Trial Onboarding Dashboard

Brand-new organizations that are still within their trial and haven’t recorded a single transaction yet see a different onboarding dashboard instead of the one described below. It shows:

• Your trial countdown: how many days remain, a progress bar, the day you’re on, and the date your trial ends, plus a Subscribe now button and a link to compare plans.
• A “Get set up” checklist: Create your organization (checked off automatically), Import from MyPTEZ, Connect a bank account, and Invite a team member — each with a short description of what it does and a progress count (e.g., “2 of 4 done”). Completed steps show a checkmark; click any unfinished step to jump straight to it.
• A preview of your real dashboard: a grayed-out sample of what your profit and loss, expenses, and bank balances will look like once you have real data, with an overlay inviting you to connect a bank account or start a MyPTEZ import to unlock it.

If you’re switching from MyPTEZ, the checklist’s import step links straight to the migration tool — see [Data Import & Export](import-export) for the full walkthrough. As soon as your organization has its first journal entry (whether from that import, a manual entry, or a bank transaction), you’ll see the full dashboard covered in the rest of this article.

The Dashboard

BeeKeeper’s dashboard is the main home page for your organization, showing a complete overview of your financial position and operational status. It surfaces the most important information so you can stay informed without navigating through multiple pages.

Net Income Snapshot

At the top of the dashboard, a highlighted band shows your net income for the last 30 days, with your income and expense totals side by side and a badge noting whether income or expenses came out ahead. Next to it, a six-month bar chart compares income against expenses month by month, so you can spot whether your group is trending up or down at a glance.

Needs Attention

Below the net income snapshot, BeeKeeper highlights a to-do list of items needing your attention, with a badge showing the total count. Items only appear when they’re relevant to your organization:

Click any item to go directly to that section.

Dismissible items can be cleared once you’ve handled them, but the dismissal only covers the exact situation you dismissed. For Vendor documents, that means dismissing hides that specific set of expiring documents — if one gets renewed or removed, or another document enters the 30-day window, the reminder comes back automatically. Only documents you’ve given an expiration date are included, so paperwork that doesn’t lapse (like a W-9) never appears here. The same expiring/expired document count also appears in your Monday Weekly To-Do email; see Vendors for details.

Expenses, Budget vs. Actual, and Bank Accounts

Below Needs Attention, three cards round out your financial picture:

• Expenses: Your top expense categories for the last 30 days as a donut chart, with any remaining expenses grouped as “Other.” Click a category to open that account.
• Budget vs. Actual: If you have an approved budget covering today, this shows your top expense categories against what you’ve budgeted, with a progress bar for each. A category flags as “over” in red once you’ve spent past its budget, or with a yellow warning once you’ve reached 90% of it. If you don’t have an approved budget yet, you’ll see a link to your Budgets page instead.
• Bank Accounts: Your combined balance across all asset accounts, plus the current balance of each one, as of today.

These cards show aggregated figures rather than individual transactions. To see individual transactions (date, description, amount), open an account and view its Transactions tab.

MyPTEZ Import Card

If your organization hasn’t recorded any data yet, Admins will also see a “Switching from MyPTEZ?” card on the dashboard offering to migrate your chart of accounts and transaction history automatically instead of entering it by hand. See [Data Import & Export](import-export) for how the migration works. Once your organization has any transaction recorded, this card no longer appears.

Main Navigation

Primary Sidebar

Access all features from the sidebar navigation:

For budget totals and your approved budget, use the Budgets item in the sidebar. For who has access to your books and any pending invitations, use Settings > Team (admin only).

Bookkeeping Secondary Navigation

When you click Bookkeeping, you’ll see a secondary navigation bar with these tabs:

Account Detail Navigation

When viewing a specific account, additional tabs appear. These tabs only show for balance-sheet accounts (asset, liability, and equity accounts) — income and expense accounts have no tabs:

The Needs Review and Reconcile tabs appear on asset and liability accounts whether or not they’re connected to a bank — a manually managed cash account also gets these tabs.

Each account also has an Actions menu with more tools: receiving funds, transfers between accounts, transaction imports and exports, and — when enabled for the account — writing and printing checks (see Writing & Printing Checks).

Settings Navigation

The Settings page has its own tabs:

Page Header Links

Every page in BeeKeeper includes a header bar above the main content, with links that stay available no matter where you are:

Organization Switcher

If you manage multiple organizations (e.g., PTA and Booster Club), use the organization switcher in the navigation to move between them.

Tips for Using the Dashboard

• Check daily: A quick dashboard review keeps you informed
• Address red items first: Any highlighted warnings need prompt attention
• Use it for board meetings: The dashboard provides a great summary for reports
• Bookmark it: Make the dashboard your default BeeKeeper page

Limitations

• Dashboard data refreshes when you load the page (not real-time)
• The net income and expenses figures cover only the most recent 30 days; the bar chart covers the last six months
• Budget vs. Actual only appears when you have an approved budget covering today
• Figures reflect posted transactions only (not pending bank transactions)

Troubleshooting

Dashboard shows $0 balances

• Ensure you’ve recorded transactions or connected your bank
• Check that transactions have the correct dates

Bank connection shows “disconnected”

• A connected account shows a red “Disconnected” status and a reconnect alert on its account detail page
• Your bank login may have expired
• Re-authenticate through Settings > Linked Accounts

Team members missing

• Invitations may have expired (15-day limit)
• Resend invitations from Settings > Team