Adding a report to a NetSuite dashboard

Any widget that a report layout can show can also sit on a NetSuite home dashboard as a portlet: a table, a chart, a stat tile, a statement or a note, over one report. The portlet shows the same stored result as the report and updates when the report refreshes. Your team sees the figure the moment they log in, without opening the app.

Adding a portlet takes two steps. An author defines the widget in Advanced Reports, then each user places it on their own NetSuite dashboard.

#1. Define the portlet widget (authors)

1. In the sidebar, open Manage, Portlets, then choose New Portlet.
2. Enter a Name. It becomes the dashboard entry's name, so make it recognisable, for example Top 5 Customers by Invoiced.
3. Choose the report and the widget kind.
4. Configure the widget in the side panel, which is the same panel the layout editor uses. A live preview appears beside it. Top N, sorting, grouping and filters are the widget's own settings, so a top-5 chart needs nothing extra in the report.
5. Set Height in px for charts and stat tiles. The default is 360. A table sizes itself to its rows.
6. Add a Description if it helps, then choose Create Portlet.

Saving creates a NetSuite portlet deployment named Advanced Report - followed by the portlet's name. Renaming the definition renames the entry, and deleting the definition removes it.

If the report has no result yet, the preview says so. Run the report from its page, then come back.

#2. Place it on a NetSuite dashboard (every user)

1. On your NetSuite home dashboard, choose Personalize, then Custom Portlet.
2. On the new portlet, choose Set Up, then pick the entry named Advanced Report - followed by the widget's name.
3. The portlet loads straight away.

The portlet header has Open report, which opens the full report in the app, and the footer shows how old the data is. Opening the portlet counts as an open of its report in the catalogue.

A portlet added with no widget pinned lists every widget you may see, and it remembers your choice. A Change link lets you switch later. Each portlet on a dashboard keeps its own choice.

#Who sees it

A portlet deployment has exactly the same audience as its report. When the report is public, the deployment is open to all roles. Otherwise it uses the report's roles, employees, departments and subsidiaries, plus the report's owner. When the report's audience changes, the portlet's audience changes with it, so a dashboard can never show a report to someone the report itself would refuse.

The Set Up list only offers widgets over reports you can open.

A portlet reads its pinned widget from its deployment, which every role can read. It does not read the definition record, which most roles cannot. As a result, a portlet shows its widget to everyone in the report's audience, not only to the administrator who built it. Versions before 0.5.0 showed other users a chooser instead. If you still see that, ask HiScale to update the app.

#When the report changes

• Refresh: the portlet shows the new result the next time it loads.
• Audience change: the portlet deployment follows automatically.
• Archive: the app takes down the report's portlet deployments, so no dashboard keeps showing a report nobody can open. The portlet definitions stay. Restore puts the deployments back with the report's current audience.
• Delete: the app deletes the report's portlets with it.

#Moving portlets between accounts

Portlet definitions travel with their reports in Import / Export, under the Include NetSuite dashboard portlets option, which is on by default. The import creates their dashboard entries again. Each user still places the portlet on their own dashboard in the receiving account.

#Tips

• Keep portlets small and specific: one figure or a short top-N list. For a full page of widgets, build an in-app dashboard and link to it.
• Name portlets after what they show, not after the report, because the name is all a user sees in Set Up.
• For a portlet or audience change, test with a role that is not Administrator. That is the view your team gets.

Related: Charts on a report · Building a dashboard · Categories, audience and rights · Import and export