A dashboard that shows everything to everyone regardless of role or need is not actually useful. It is just busy. The value of a dashboard lies in its ability to surface the right information for the right person at the right time, and that requires the ability to configure what appears and what does not. Horilla HRMS recognizes this through a customizable main dashboard that allows administrators and HR managers to control exactly which components are visible, while also providing flexible date filtering that lets users adjust the time context of every metric on screen.
Here is a complete guide to both features and how to use them effectively.
The Main Dashboard Overview
Accessing the main Dashboard is as simple as clicking Dashboard in the left sidebar navigation. The dashboard loads with the current date displayed in the header and immediately presents a set of summary metric cards followed by charts and panels covering the most critical workforce dimensions.
The four summary cards visible by default give an immediate read on the organization’s current state. Total Employees shows the complete headcount with a note on recent joiners. Present Today shows how many employees are currently clocked in along with the attendance rate percentage. On Leave shows the number of employees currently on approved leave alongside the count of pending leave requests. Open Recruitments shows how many active hiring processes are underway with a note on active hiring status.
Below these cards, the dashboard displays the Department Headcount chart as a donut showing workforce distribution across departments, the Leave Trends chart as a line graph showing daily leave volume for the current week, and the Announcements panel on the right showing active company communications with their titles, expiry dates, etc.
Date Filtering on the Dashboard
One of the most practical aspects of the main dashboard is that every metric and chart responds to the date range selected at the top of the page. The date range controls sit prominently in the top right area of the dashboard content and offer four options.
- This Month is the default view and displays all metrics and charts for the current calendar month. This is the most commonly used setting for routine daily monitoring.
- Last Month switches all components to reflect the previous calendar month, making it easy to review how the organization performed in the prior period without navigating to separate reports.
- Quarter expands the view to cover the current quarter, giving a broader trend perspective that smooths out week-to-week fluctuations and reveals patterns that monthly views might obscure.
- Custom Date Range is available through the start and end date pickers displayed alongside the quick-select buttons. Entering specific dates here allows precise filtering for any period, whether that is a specific two-week window, a particular event period, or a custom reporting cycle that does not align with standard calendar months or quarters.
The date range selection updates all visible dashboard components simultaneously. Every chart, every metric card, and every count reflects the selected period rather than requiring separate configuration for each component. This makes period-over-period comparison fast and consistent, since switching from This Month to Last Month updates everything at once rather than requiring individual adjustments across multiple components.
A last updated timestamp appears just below the dashboard title, showing how recently the data was refreshed. A refresh icon next to the timestamp allows manual refresh when real-time accuracy is important, such as during high-activity periods where attendance and leave figures are changing frequently.
The Customize Dashboard Feature
The Customize button sits in the top right corner of the dashboard, clearly labeled with a settings icon. Clicking it opens a slide-in panel on the right side of the screen titled Customize Dashboard, which lists all available dashboard components organized by category, each with a toggle switch and a drag handle.
This customization panel is the central control for deciding what the dashboard shows. Each component can be independently enabled or disabled using its toggle switch. Components that are toggled on appear on the dashboard. Components toggled off are hidden from view without being deleted or losing their data. The change is purely presentational and can be reversed at any time.
The drag handle icon to the left of each component name allows reordering. Components can be dragged up or down within their category to adjust the sequence in which they appear on the dashboard, giving further control over information hierarchy and visual flow.
Dashboard Component Categories
The Customize Dashboard panel organizes available components into four named categories, each covering a distinct dimension of workforce management.
- Overview contains the components that give the broadest picture of workforce composition and behavior. The available components in this category are Department Headcount, Leave Trends, Employee Status, Gender Distribution, and Leave Breakdown. Department Headcount shows how the total workforce is distributed across departments as a donut chart. Leave Trends shows daily leave volume as a line chart for the selected period. Employee Status shows the active and inactive split across the workforce. Gender Distribution provides a demographic breakdown. Leave Breakdown shows the composition of leave by type.
- Attendance and Overtime contains components focused on how employees are present and how working hours are distributed. The components in this category are Attendance Overview, Department Overtime, and Attendance Trend. Attendance Overview shows punctuality patterns across departments. Department Overtime shows overtime hours broken down by team. Attendance Trend shows whether overall attendance is moving up or down over the selected period.
- Recruitment contains components that surface hiring activity on the main dashboard without requiring navigation to the Recruitment module. The components here are Recruitment Pipeline and Hiring Timeline. Recruitment Pipeline shows where candidates currently stand across hiring stages. Hiring Timeline shows how long active recruitment processes have been running.
- Leave Analytics contains deeper leave analysis components that go beyond the overview-level Leave Trends chart. These components provide additional dimensions to leave data for HR teams that actively monitor leave patterns as part of workforce planning.
Enabling and Disabling Components
Toggling a component on or off is a single action.
Clicking the toggle switch next to any component name and clicking on the save button changes its state immediately in the panel.
A component with its toggle switched to the active position is shown on the dashboard. A component with its toggle switched off is hidden.
The dashboard behind the panel updates in real time as toggles are changed, so you can see immediately how the dashboard layout adjusts when a component is added or removed. This live preview makes it easy to assess whether the resulting layout feels balanced and contains the right information density for your typical use.
Once all toggle adjustments are complete, clicking the Save button at the bottom right of the customization panel applies the configuration and closes the panel. The dashboard retains this configuration across sessions, so the next time the dashboard is opened, it shows the same components in the same arrangement without requiring reconfiguration.
Resetting to Default
The Reset to Default button at the bottom left of the customization panel restores the dashboard to its original component set and arrangement. This is useful if a customization has resulted in a layout that feels incomplete or if an administrator wants to return to the standard configuration after experimenting with different arrangements.
Resetting to default does not affect any HR data. It only resets the visual configuration of the dashboard itself.
Why Dashboard Customization Matters
Different roles within an HR team have different information priorities. A recruitment manager checking the dashboard first thing in the morning cares most about pipeline status and hiring timelines. A payroll manager is more concerned with attendance trends and overtime by department. An HR director wants the broadest overview covering headcount, leave, and recruitment simultaneously. A team manager with limited HR access might only need to see attendance and leave trends for capacity planning.
A single fixed dashboard layout cannot serve all of these priorities well simultaneously. Too many components create noise for users who only need a subset of the information. Too few components force some users to navigate elsewhere for data they need regularly.
The toggle customization in Horilla HRMS solves this by allowing each user or administrator to configure the dashboard for their specific role and priorities. The result is a dashboard that feels purposeful and relevant rather than generic and cluttered, which in turn means users actually engage with it as part of their daily workflow rather than bypassing it in favor of direct module navigation.
Combining Customization with Date Filtering
The real power of the dashboard emerges when component customization and date filtering are used together. An HR manager can configure the dashboard to show exactly the components relevant to their current focus, set the date range to the period they are reviewing, and have a purpose-built analytics view that serves their specific current need without any report generation required.
Switching from the current month view to the previous quarter view with a single click updates every component simultaneously, turning the dashboard from a real-time monitoring tool into a historical review tool and back again without any reconfiguration of the component layout.
The customizable dashboard in Horilla HRMS is built around the recognition that dashboard utility comes from relevance, not comprehensiveness. By giving users control over which components appear and in what order, and by providing flexible date filtering that updates the entire dashboard simultaneously, Horilla ensures that the main dashboard can serve as a genuinely useful daily tool for HR professionals across different roles and priorities rather than a static display that gets ignored after the first week. Taking a few minutes to configure the dashboard for your specific role and workflow is one of the simplest and most impactful ways to get more value from the system every day.
Download Horilla HRMS from the App Store or Play Store and explore the free HR Experience In Your Hands.
