Use Refresh
Select Refresh to reload the reporting files from the saved Microsoft connection. The dashboard then rebuilds its charts from the latest files available in the shared folder.
Client dashboard help
Open your Datplan dashboard, refresh it and understand every view
Your accountant or consultant has already prepared the reporting data. To use the dashboard, open the link they supplied, enter your connection key and sign in to Microsoft with an account that has permission to the shared reporting folder.
Start here
Three steps to open your dashboard
- Open the dashboardUse the Datplan dashboard link supplied by your accountant or consultant.
- Use your connection keySelect Use a Connection Key, paste the complete key beginning
DPMS1.and choose Use key. - Sign in to MicrosoftUse the Microsoft account that has been given access to the reporting folder. If your organisation manages Microsoft 365, use your work account unless your organisation has told you otherwise.
The key is not your password
The connection key tells Datplan which reporting folder to open. Microsoft separately checks whether the account you signed in with is allowed to read that folder. A key on its own does not give someone access to the dashboard data.
Day-to-day use
Getting the latest published information
Know what Refresh does
Refresh does not run a new Xero sync. Your accountant or consultant controls the DataPull schedule that prepares and publishes newer reporting files.
Check Last data refresh
The top of the dashboard shows Last data refresh after Datplan has loaded published reporting files. It uses the latest file-update time available from the connected DataPull CSV files, shown in your browser's local time. Before a real reporting folder has loaded, the dashboard shows that no refresh date is available rather than inventing one. The timestamp is an indication of data freshness; it is not the time that you clicked Refresh and it is not a live Xero-query timestamp.
Return later
Your connection can be reused. You may be asked to sign in to Microsoft again after closing the browser session because Microsoft authentication is kept to the active browser session rather than stored as a permanent dashboard password.
Dashboard guide
What each Xero dashboard view is for
The dashboard selector contains 24 views grouped into eight business areas. Choose the view that matches the question you want to answer rather than trying to read every page at once.
Financial Performance
Use these views for management conversations about revenue, profit, margins, liquidity and working capital.
Executive Financial Performance
Start here for a management-level view of revenue, profitability and cost trends. Closed months are shown by default so partial current-month activity does not distort the main comparison.
Liquidity & Working Capital
Use this when the question is whether the business has enough short-term financial headroom. It brings together liquidity, working capital, cash and related balance-sheet indicators.
Profitability & Margins
Use this to review gross and net margin trends and understand whether profitability is improving or weakening. Current month-to-date is excluded by default for cleaner period comparisons.
Cash & Payments
Use these views to understand cash context, customer receipts, supplier payments and settlement behaviour.
Cash Flow & Commitments
Shows current cash context together with actual invoice settlements and unpaid customer and supplier amounts due. Overdue items remain visible rather than disappearing from the picture.
Customer & Supplier Payments
Separates customer receipts from supplier payments and highlights the counterparties driving each flow. Use it when you want to understand who is generating the largest cash movements.
Settlement Accounts & Types
Shows the accounts and settlement types used for invoice, bill, credit and overpayment records. It is useful when checking where settlements are being recorded.
Customer Ageing
Use these pages for credit control and collection decisions.
Overdue Receivables Review
Focuses only on overdue customer balances and the customers carrying the greatest exposure. Use it when the immediate question is who owes overdue money.
Receivables Overview
Gives the wider debtor picture, including current and overdue receivables by ageing bucket and customer.
Collection Priorities
Prioritises overdue customer balances for action and separates older debt so the most urgent collection work is easier to identify.
Supplier Ageing
Use these pages to understand amounts owed to suppliers and plan payment activity.
Overdue Payables Review
Focuses on overdue supplier balances and highlights the suppliers carrying the greatest outstanding exposure.
Payables Overview
Shows current and overdue payables by ageing bucket and supplier, giving a broader picture of obligations still to be paid.
Payment Priorities
Brings older and overdue obligations to the front so upcoming payment decisions can be planned more deliberately.
Sales & Purchases
Use these views for operational invoicing, open customer invoices, product detail and tracking analysis.
Sales & Purchase Overview
Compares customer-invoice and supplier-bill activity while keeping receivables and payables separate. Use it for a broad operational view of invoicing.
Product & Tracking Detail
Analyses invoice lines by item and tracking dimension. It defaults to sales invoices and can be switched to supplier bills when purchase detail is required.
Open Customer Invoices
Provides invoice-level receivables detail including unpaid invoices, due status, ageing and collection information.
Projects
Use these pages where Xero Projects data is available and sufficiently populated.
Project Billing
Shows the billing position by project, including invoiced amounts and amounts still outstanding to invoice.
Project Commercial Overview
Shows the commercial position of active projects using billed and unbilled values without assuming project fields that are not present in the source data.
Project Time & Billable Value
Shows tracked project hours and estimated billable value where Xero Projects time entries contain enough information for the analysis.
Accounting Activity
These are accounting-control views. They are useful for understanding posting activity, balance-sheet position and tracking coverage rather than replacing the financial performance pages.
Balance Sheet Position & Trend
Shows closing assets, liabilities, equity and working-capital position over time using financial-summary snapshots.
P&L Posting Review
Reviews P&L posting volumes and larger entries for accounting-control work. Use Financial Performance for the reported profit and margin story.
Source & Tracking Coverage
Shows transaction-source volumes and how consistently tracking dimensions are populated. It can help identify gaps in the information available for management analysis.
Audit Analytics
These views highlight patterns that may warrant investigation. They do not determine intent or prove fraud, error or wrongdoing.
Benford & Counterparty Review
Combines Benford first-digit population testing with rare high-value supplier screening. Use the evidence views to inspect the records behind an indicator.
Duplicate & Reversing Entry Review
Reviews possible same-supplier/date/amount invoice groups and signed period-end reversing entries that may deserve follow-up.
Audit Screening Overview
Provides a broader screening view for high-value, period-end and round-amount activity, with linked evidence for closer review.
Useful controls
Filter, inspect and export the information you are looking at
Change the dashboard view
Use the dashboard-view selector at the top to move between financial performance, cash, ageing, sales and purchases, projects, accounting activity and Audit Analytics. Each page is designed for a different question, so changing view is usually more useful than trying to force one chart to answer everything.
Use the page filters
Where a view provides period, status, financial-year or other filters, use them to narrow the dashboard before interpreting the result. Clear or widen a filter if a chart appears unexpectedly empty.
Inspect linked detail
On supported bar charts, select a bar to filter the related detail table. The selected category is shown above the table and can be cleared when you want to return to the full result.
Show legends when useful
The Legends control can show or hide comparison-chart legends. This is useful when two measures are displayed together and you want to confirm which series you are reading.
Change chart colours
The colour-theme selector changes the chart palette only. It does not change the values, reporting period or filters, so choose whichever palette is easiest for you to read.
Export a chart or table
Where an export control is shown on a dashboard card, you can download the data behind that card as CSV or Excel. The export reflects the current dashboard context, including relevant filters and supported linked-detail selections.
Troubleshooting
If the dashboard does not open or looks out of date
Microsoft says you do not have permission
Check that you signed in with the Microsoft account your organisation intended to use. If access is still denied, ask the person who shared the dashboard folder to confirm that this account has view permission.
The connection key is rejected
Paste the complete key, including the DPMS1. prefix. If the key is incomplete or the referenced Microsoft folder has been replaced, ask the consultant for the current key.
The numbers have not changed
Select Refresh and check Last data refresh at the top of the dashboard. If the timestamp has not advanced, newer DataPull files may not yet have been published into the shared folder. Your accountant or consultant controls the reporting schedule and can confirm when the next publication is expected.
You are asked to sign in again
This can be normal after the browser session has ended. Sign in again with the Microsoft account that has permission to the reporting folder.
Who can help?
Go to the right place first
Microsoft sign-in or work account
Contact your organisation's Microsoft 365 or IT administrator if you cannot sign in to your Microsoft account or the account has been disabled.
Access or accounting questions
Contact your accountant or consultant if you need access to the shared reporting folder, a new connection key, an explanation of the figures or confirmation of the latest reporting refresh.
Datplan product problem
If Microsoft access is working but the Datplan dashboard itself fails to load, display or respond correctly, use Datplan support and describe the product behaviour without sending passwords or Microsoft tokens.
Contact Datplan support →Setting dashboards up for clients?
If you are the accountant or consultant rather than the dashboard client, use the separate setup guide for the simple publish, schedule, share and connection-key workflow.
Client dashboard setup for accountants →Ready to view the latest published dashboard?
Open the Xero dashboard, use the connection key supplied by your accountant or consultant and sign in to Microsoft.