Getting Started

Setting up Dashly

Everything you need to go from zero to a running project in under ten minutes.

1. Sign in

Go to the Dashly sign-in page and enter your email address. You will receive a 6-digit code by email - type it in to access your account. No password required. You can also use Continue with Google if you prefer.

NOTE

Your email address is your identity across all workspaces. Use your professional email if you plan to be invited into a company workspace by someone else.

2. Create or join a workspace

Dashly organises everything around workspaces (also called companies). A workspace is a shared environment for a team - all projects, tools, and data live inside it. There are two ways to get started:

Option A: Create a new workspace

After signing in for the first time, you will be prompted to set up a workspace. Provide your company name. You become the first DASHMASTER - the highest role level, with full administrative access.

Option B: Accept an invitation

If someone has invited you, click the link in the invitation email. You will be asked to sign in (or your account will be created automatically) and then join the workspace with the role the inviter assigned.

ACCESS CODE

Every workspace has an access code - a short alphanumeric string. This code can be shared with people who already have a Dashly account and want to request access. It is visible to DASHMASTERs in Settings.

3. Complete your profile

Navigate to your profile page via the sidebar. Add:

Full name - shown on project cards and team lists
Job title - shown on your team profile card
Avatar - uploaded photo that appears throughout the app

4. Configure your workspace

Go to Dashboard → Settings. As a DASHMASTER, you can set:

Company name - the name of your workspace
Country - affects default discount rates in financial tools
Currency - the default currency for all financial calculations
Industry - unlocks the relevant industry-specific tools in the Tools Hub

IMPORTANT - INDUSTRY SELECTION

Setting your industry determines which tools appear in the sidebar. The Core and Cross-Industry tools are always available. Industry-specific tools (e.g. OEE for manufacturing, RevPAR for hospitality) only surface for the relevant industry. You can change this at any time in Settings.

5. Invite your team

Go to the Team page

Click Team in the sidebar. You will see all current members and pending invitations.

Click Invite Member

Enter the person's email address, full name (optional but recommended - it personalises their invitation email), and assign their role.

They receive an email

Dashly sends an invitation email with a secure link. The link is valid for 7 days. If they don't act in time, you can resend it from the Team page.

They join the workspace

Once they accept, they appear as an active member. Their role determines what they can see and do - see the Team & Roles section for the full permissions matrix.

6. Create your first project

Click + New Project on the dashboard

The project creation form opens. Fill in the project name - all other fields are optional but completing them gives Dashly Sense more data to score with.

Set the key fields

Status - Draft, Planning, In Progress, Complete, Paused, or Cancelled
Priority - High, Medium, or Low
Scale - Short-term (<6 months), Medium-term (6–18 months), or Long-term (>18 months)
Budget - the approved or estimated total budget
Start date and duration - used in timeline and health calculations

Link financial tools (optional but recommended)

After creating the project, open it and use the Tools section to run an NPV calculation, a Risk Assessment, or a Wastage analysis - then link the result to the project. This feeds the Dashly Sense health score.

7. Understanding the Dashboard

The main dashboard shows all your workspace's projects as cards. Each card displays:

Health score - the Dashly Sense composite score from 0–100 (top right of card)
Status badge - current project status
Budget and NPV - key financial metrics at a glance
Milestone progress - shown when milestones have been added
Team avatars - members assigned to the project
Black Swan indicator - a lightning badge when a risk assessment with Black Swan events has been linked

Click any card to open the project detail page. Pin important projects to the top of the board using the pin icon (visible on hover).

Above the project board, two interactive sections summarise the whole portfolio at a glance:

Portfolio Scope - four live views of every project you switch between: Matrix (a bubble chart plotting timeline against NPV, sized by budget and coloured by health), Composition (a donut of where budget is committed by status), Pulse (the Dashly Sense health gauge across the portfolio), and Pace (budget spent against schedule elapsed). Each view animates as you switch, and every element links to its project.
Portfolio Lens - a leaderboard that re-ranks every project by Health, Budget burn, Runway, or Value (NPV). Flip the lens and the rows re-order and re-colour instantly.

A budget alert banner appears when any project reaches 80% of, or exceeds, its budget, and the project names link straight to their detail pages.

8. Keyboard shortcuts

Dashly has a set of keyboard shortcuts to speed up common actions on the main dashboard:

Key	Action
`N`	Open the New Project form
`?`	Show all available keyboard shortcuts
`Esc`	Close open modals or clear bulk selection

9. Onboarding tour

When you first create a workspace, Dashly automatically launches a 7-step onboarding tour that walks you through all the core features - the dashboard, projects, tools, Business Portfolio, calendar, team, and settings.

If you dismiss the tour and want to take it again, click Take a tour at the bottom of the sidebar. The tour is available to DASHMASTERs only.

NEXT STEPS

Once your workspace is configured and your first project is in, explore the Tools Hub to run financial calculations, or read the Dashly Sense guide to understand how your project health scores are calculated.