Home → Arctic Reservations → The Dashboard & Activity Log → Using the Dashboard
10.1. Using the Dashboard
The dashboard is a useful resource for an “at a glance” overview of logistics information during your day. It contains helpful details and action items, organized into "widgets" which each focus on a different part of your business. It is also possible to customize it to show you only the information you find useful.
By default, upcoming trips appear in the “Trips” widgets on the left side of the dashboard. In the middle is a “Billing Snapshot” that will give you an overview of paid, to be paid, and past due invoices. "Inquiries & Tasks" are on the right side. Upcoming invoices and rentals are also included, as well as a direct link to the Arctic Reservations Twitter feed, where new feature releases and other important updates are announced. Further down is the “Activity Log” which we will dive into in a bit.
Using the defaults, and depending what features are enabled on your installation, the dashboard looks like this:
To get to the dashboard, once you are logged in, click anywhere on the header of any page within Arctic, and it will take you straight to the dashboard.
Widgets available on the dashboard
Trips Widget
In the trips column, upcoming trips are organized chronologically with the next launch at the top of the list. The trip at the top of the list will also list individual reservations by number and guest. This allows for easy access to guest information. Remember, all the links are clickable, so you can easily access more information by visiting the reservation or person details page.
Billing Snapshot Widget
The "Billing Snapshot" is a graphical illustration of the state of billing for upcoming activities. Green is good. Red is bad. Green represents invoices that have been paid. Yellow represents invoices with an unpaid balance, but a due date in the future. Red represents invoices that are past due. If you mouse over any colored section, a small bubble will pop up and tell you the total of that color.
Inquiries & Tasks Widget
Inquiries and tasks provide a list of action items (inquiries requiring follow-up and tasks that are due soon) that can help keep reservationists organized. If an inquiry or task is assigned to no specific user, then it is a global task and will appear on all users' dashboard. If a specific user has been assigned, then only that user's dashboard will show the inquiry or task.
Inquiries: When a potential guest calls inquiring about a trip, using the inquiry feature, reservationist can take all of their information, without making an actual reservation. If the guest decides to book the trip, the reservationist can at that point convert the inquiry into a reservation, saving the hassle of double entry of the guest’s information. Similarly, guests looking online can create an inquiry if there is not enough space to accommodate their group or if the date they are interested in is no longer available.
Tasks: Tasks are a wonderful tool to help remind your staff of things that need to be done. You can set a date, and the task will pop up in the dashboard with a reminder of what needs to happen.
Tasks have their own chapter devoted to them. For a closer look we encourage you to spend some time there!
Invoices Widget
The invoice section lists all of the open invoices in order of their due date for easy reference. Open invoices are those that have a non-zero balance and have not been marked as irreconcilable. Again, you click the invoice number to view the invoice and the person's name to view their person record.
Rentals Widget
The rentals section lists upcoming rentals, with clickable activity numbers and clickable items.
Twitter Widget
The @ArcticRes feed is just under the invoice column. This is where many of the latest feature releases are mentioned for the very first time, as well as any other important information that you may need to hear. Missed out on reading the past tweets? No worries! Click the blue text and you will go right to the @ArcticRes twitter page to catch up!
Activity Log Widget
The log, last, but far from the least. This is one of the most useful features of the dashboard. The log itself is fairly simple to explain, it tracks most everything that happens on your installation. However this simple explanation falls far short of being able to describe what a powerful tool this is for you and your reservationists. Thus we have focused section 3 of this chapter solely on the activity log.
In the next section, we will explain how to customize the dashboard.