Summary
Displays current snapshot or data over time? Current snapshot
Source data: Field (or metric)
Description: A specific type of live data table (grid view): choose two properties to define the rows and columns, and the relevant numerical values show in middle where they intersect (and in the row/column headers)
Use case example: Count of Companies, split by Owner and Phase
Who is this article for?
Planhat Users who are designing Dashboard and Presentation Pages (e.g. CS Ops)
What are Metric Tables?
Metric Tables are a type of "Table Widget" that you can use in Dashboard and Presentation Pages. They are very similar to Matrix Charts in that they show live numerical data in the middle of the table (e.g. count of Companies in the screenshot below), based on two properties you select to define the columns and the rows (e.g. Phase and Owner in the screenshot below).
Metric Tables are generally more simple - with less functionality - than Matrix Charts, although they do have the additional feature of showing numerical values (counts/averages etc., depending on how you have configured the Metric Table, like the numbers in the center of the grid) on the row and column headers too.
Like the other Table Widgets, Metric Tables show a snapshot of the current data.
Why use Metric Tables?
Metric Tables are great if you want to look at how your choice of numerical data (e.g. count of Companies, or sum of ARR, or average CSM Score, etc.) is distributed based on your choice of two properties (qualitative categories, e.g. Owner and Phase, or Phase and Tier, or Tier and Region, and so on).
For example:
Average Company Health Score, across Pricing Plans and CSMs
Number of Products sold, by Product and Company Tier
Total ARR, by Region and Salesperson
The screenshot above shows an example of a Matrix Chart visualizing the count of Companies (the numbers in the middle of the table, and on the row and column headers), split by Phase and Owner (the rows and columns).
With Metric Tables, you can easily see both:
the relationship between the properties ...
e.g. if a particular CSM is assigned to a very high number of Companies in Onboarding, their workload is likely high, so don't assign them more Companies to manage
or if a specific CSM has a lot of their Companies marked as Churn Risk, then this may need to be investigated, and perhaps they need some extra support/training
... and also the totals/averages (etc., depending on the operation you have configured) for each of the properties separately, within the same chart
e.g. which CSM is managing the highest number of Companies regardless of Phase
and which Phase has the highest number of Companies in it regardless of Owner
A Metric Table is suitable if cell values are not mean to be ranked or bucketed.
If you want heat-map (or custom "bucket") coloring, and/or custom sorting options, then the Matrix Chart would be a better chart type for you.
How to set up a Metric Table
The main steps are:
Choose a data model (object) - e.g. Company
Choose a "Value" - this will be the numbers in the middle of the table:
either "count" of records - e.g. number of Companies
or "sum", "average", "max" or "min" plus a "Property" - e.g. average of CSM Score
Choose properties to "Split by" (the rows) and "Group by" (the columns)
Optionally, choose how to sort/limit the rows and columns
Within a Dashboard or Presentation Page, click on "Table Widgets" and then "Metric Table"
You'll see a form that looks like this:
In the "Setup" tab
Choose an "Object" (i.e. data model), e.g. Company
In "Value", you specify what the numbers in the middle of the table will represent. Choose between:
"count" - this will count the number of records of that model, e.g. the number of Companies
"sum", "average", "max" or "min" - plus your choice of "Property" - e.g. sum of ARR
In "Limit results (max no. of items)", specify the maximum number of columns/rows
In "Split by category", specify the property to define the columns (such as Phase, Owner, Industry or Region)
In "Group by", specify the property to define the rows (such as Phase, Owner, Industry or Region)
In "Name", you can optionally enter a title for your Widget, which will display within the Widget
An alternative, particularly relevant for Presentation Pages, is to use a separate simple Text Widget if you would like different formatting options
In "Description", you can optionally add a description for your Widget
This will show in the Widget as a tooltip on an "i" icon
An alternative could be to use a simple Text Widget alongside your Metric Table
In the "Customization" tab
You'll see checkboxes that you can select or deselect:
"Hide 'other'" - this excludes the "other" column or row if applicable
"Hide null / undefined" - this excludes the "null / undefined" column or row if applicable
Click "Add filters" in the top right of the chart preview if you'd like to add a filter
Here you can select a filter so that the Metric Table shows specific data (e.g. only Companies in the Enterprise Tier rather than all Companies)
You can either select from an existing "Company Filter" ...
... or build an "Advanced Filter" from scratch
When you've finished configuring your Metric Table, click the orange "Add widget" button in the bottom right
If you want to go back and edit your Metric Table later on, it's easy to do so. While viewing the Page in Edit mode, mouse over the Widget (Chart), and click on the pencil icon to open up the Widget setup form again.
Comparison with other Widgets
Metric Tables have a lot of similarities with Matrix Charts: both are live data tables showing category properties as the columns/rows and numerical data in the middle.
Here are the key differences:
| Matrix Chart | Metric Table |
Heat map coloring | Yes | No |
Custom "bucket" coloring | Yes | No |
Custom sorting of columns and rows | Yes | No |
Ability to click on cells (values) to see further details and jump to Company Profiles | Yes | No |
Totals on column and row headers | No | Yes |
The Metric Table may be useful if you don't want to organize the data in that way. The Matrix Chart is better if you have data that you'd like to be sorted, ranked and categorized.
Here's the same information displayed in a Matrix Chart (top) v. a Metric Table (bottom) - a count of Companies split by Owner and Phase.
Click on the images to view them enlarged
