Dashboard
Your daily snapshot of what's overdue, what tasks need actioning, and which estimates are still sitting open.
Who this is for: Builders, estimators, and subcontractors who want a single screen that shows what needs attention today without clicking into each project to hunt for it.
What the Dashboard is for
The Dashboard is the first screen you see when you log in to Core Estimator. It pulls together the tasks and estimates across all your active jobs and shows you what's running hot, what's overdue, and what's coming up. Instead of opening each project and checking its task list, you get a single place to scan before your first coffee goes cold.
It's designed for the start of the day check-in: what slipped yesterday, what's urgent today, and what's sitting in your calendar this week.
Things worth knowing upfront
The Dashboard shows data from every project you can access, not just one job. If you've been invited into another builder's project, their tasks and estimates appear here too.
The donut charts break down open items by priority: Low, Medium, High, and Urgent. Priority is set on each task or estimate individually. If everything reads as "Medium", it's likely no-one has set priorities on the underlying records.
The Calendar tab shows tasks on their due dates. Tasks without a due date won't appear on the calendar, so if a task is missing from a day you expected it, check that a due date was set.
The Dashboard is a read-only view. You can't create a task or edit an estimate from here, you click through to the relevant module to make changes.
The page header greets you by your first name, so the Dashboard title reads Welcome [Your Name] rather than a generic heading.
How to get there
From the black header at the top of the screen, click Dashboard.
Dashboard (top header)
Note: The Dashboard is usually your landing page when you log in, so you often arrive here without clicking anywhere. Use the top header Dashboard tab if you're coming from another part of the platform.
What you'll see
You land on the Dashboard with two tabs across the top:
Overview — summary cards and two donut charts showing outstanding work by priority (default view)
Calendar — a monthly calendar view with your task due dates plotted on each day
The Overview tab has two main parts:
Header summary cards — a row of counts across the top showing overdue items, total outstanding tasks, and total outstanding estimates.
Two donut charts — Outstanding Tasks By Priority on one side and Outstanding Estimates By Priority on the other. Each donut is segmented by priority level: Low, Medium, High, and Urgent.
Step-by-step: using the Dashboard to plan your day
Click Dashboard in the top header.
The Overview tab loads by default. Read across the header cards first. That gives you the total count of overdue items, open tasks, and open estimates across every project you can see.
Check the Outstanding Tasks By Priority donut on the left. Anything showing in the Urgent segment is what needs actioning first.
Check the Outstanding Estimates By Priority donut on the right. These are estimates still sitting open. Urgent here usually means a tender deadline is close or a client is waiting on a price.
To see the actual list of what's making up those numbers, click across to the Tasks & Communication tab in the top header or open the project directly. The Dashboard doesn't let you drill into individual tasks from the donut itself.
When you want to see where your week is sitting, click the Calendar tab on the Dashboard.
Step-by-step: checking the Calendar
On the Dashboard, click the Calendar tab.
The monthly calendar loads for the current month. Today's date is highlighted, and the week starts on Monday.
Each task with a due date shows as an event on that day. Scan across the week to see what's due and when.
Use the year and month selectors in the top right of the calendar to look ahead or back. Useful when you want to check what's coming up next month before finalising the week's work.
Tip: The Calendar only shows tasks that have a due date set. If your week looks empty and you know you've got work on, it's worth checking that due dates have actually been entered on your tasks. Tasks without due dates are invisible here.
Worked example: Adam's Monday morning check-in
Adam runs a small renovation outfit and opens Core Estimator first thing each Monday. He has two live jobs: the Brennan Street kitchen and bathroom renovation, and a new Kingston Road bathroom refit that's still being priced.
He clicks Dashboard in the top header.
Across the header summary cards, he sees:
3 overdue — tasks that passed their due date without being completed
12 outstanding tasks — everything open across both jobs
5 outstanding estimates — estimates still sitting in Active or In Progress
The Outstanding Tasks By Priority donut shows:
Urgent: 2 (a waterproofing sign-off for Brennan Street and a tiler confirmation for Kingston Road)
High: 4
Medium: 5
Low: 1
The 2 Urgent tasks tell him what the day starts with. He makes a mental note, clicks through to Tasks & Communication in the top header, filters to Urgent, and actions them first.
Once he's dealt with the Urgent items, he comes back to the Dashboard, clicks the Calendar tab, and scans the week. He sees a site inspection on Wednesday and a supplier meeting on Friday, both from the Brennan Street job. That tells him Thursday is the day to push through the Kingston Road estimate review.
Total time on the Dashboard: about two minutes. He's now got a clear plan for Monday and a view of where the rest of the week is heading.
Tips
Start the day here. Use the Dashboard as your first screen each morning rather than opening a project. It's the fastest way to see what's slipped and what's urgent across every job.
Set priorities and due dates on tasks. The donut charts and calendar only work as a planning tool if tasks have priorities and due dates set. A task without them won't appear on the calendar and will default into the Medium bucket on the donut.
Treat Urgent as "today only". Keep the Urgent bucket small. If everything is Urgent, nothing is. Use it for things that genuinely need actioning in the current day.
Use the Calendar for weekly planning. Jump to the Calendar on a Friday afternoon to see what's due next week before you leave site. It's quicker than opening each project.
Troubleshooting
Symptom | Cause | Fix |
The donut chart shows everything as Medium even though I've got Urgent tasks | Priority hasn't been set on those tasks, so they've defaulted to Medium | Go to Tasks & Communication, open the task, set Priority to the correct level, and save. The Dashboard updates on next load. |
A task I know is due this week isn't showing on the Calendar | The task doesn't have a due date set | Open the task and add a due date. Tasks without a due date don't render on the Calendar. |
The outstanding task count seems too high | Completed tasks that weren't marked as Completed are still showing as open, or tasks from archived projects are still counted | Go to Tasks & Communication and mark completed tasks as Completed. Archive projects you've finished so their open tasks drop off the Dashboard. |
I can see tasks and estimates from another builder's jobs on my Dashboard | You've been invited into one of their projects, so their records appear in your view | This is expected behaviour. The Dashboard includes every project you have access to, including shared ones. Check the Company column on the Projects list if you want to tell your own jobs apart from shared ones. |
The Dashboard greeting shows the wrong name | Your profile name hasn't been updated in Setup | Go to Setup > Profile / Security and update your name. The Dashboard greeting follows your profile name. |
Related articles
Tasks & Communication — the module the Dashboard's task counts come from; this is where you create, prioritise, and complete the tasks that feed the donut chart and the calendar.
Estimates — the module the Dashboard's outstanding estimates come from; open an estimate from here to action it.
Projects — the container for every job; if you want to see everything happening on one job rather than across all jobs, go here.
Still stuck?
Reach out through the chat bubble in the bottom right of Core Estimator and we'll give you a hand.