How to Track Trends with the Trends Widget

Introduction

This guide shows you how to use the Trends widget in Easy8 to monitor key metrics. The Trends widget is a space-saving alternative to traditional lists. It helps you track totals, compare time periods, and even perform calculations between data sets — all with a clear visual format.

Target Audience

• User
• Administrator

Prerequisites

• Access to a dashboard
• Permission to customize the dashboard and add widgets

How to Track Trends with the Trends Widget

Step 1: Add the Trends Widget

• Open your dashboard
• Click Customise
• Add the Trends widget from the widget list

Step 2: Configure Basic Settings

1. Select Entity Type – Choose what type of items you want to monitor (e.g., tasks, milestones, tickets)
2. Name and Description – Give your widget a clear, meaningful title. Description is optional, keep it short if used
3. Show – Specify which "total" you want to monitor
4. Filters - Define which items will be counted

Example: Show the number of high-priority tasks with status "open"

Step 3: Enable Comparison to Previous Period

1. Add a time-based filter (e.g., tasks created in the last 30 days)
2. Tick the Compare to previous period box

The widget will now show a percentage change compared to the same length of time before the current period.

Step 4: Add a Secondary Data Series (Optional)

1. Set trend to count the sum of estimated time
2. Define which items (based on their attributes) will be counted
3. Add data series
4. Select operator
1. Basic math: +, –, ×, ÷
2. Special: < operator to display the primary value and % difference from the second series
5. Set to count number of items (in our example)
6. Define which items (based on their attributes) will be counted

Example: Compare total estimated time vs. number of tasks to get average time per task

Step 5: View and Interact

• The widget displays the current trend and comparison (if enabled)
• Click the widget to open a pop-up list of the items it represents
• Columns shown in the pop-up follow your default filter settings

Conclusion

The Trends widget in Easy8 is a powerful and compact tool to track performance. With support for filters, time-based comparisons, and mathematical operations, it helps you monitor key metrics in real-time and understand how they change over time.

Related Topics and Further Reading

• How to Manage Widgets on a Dashboard (How-To)
• How to Customize a Dashboard (How-To)
• How to Use Dashboard Templates (How-To)