A good business dashboard fits on one screen and shows 6 to 10 numbers you would actually act on, each pulled from the app that owns it. Below are four example one-screen setups by business type: a creator, an online store, a service business or agency, and a coach or consultant. For each one you get the numbers, the source each number comes from, and how to arrange them.
These are example layouts, written to show what a sensible one-screen setup looks like. They are not screenshots of customer boards and they contain no customer data. Each metric links to the official definition from the company that reports it, so you know exactly what the number means.
What every good one-screen dashboard has in common
- Six to ten numbers, not forty. If a number moving wouldn’t change what you do this week, it belongs in a monthly review, not on the screen.
- One source per number. Revenue comes from the payment processor or the store, traffic from your analytics, pipeline from your CRM. If you’re not sure which app should own a number, start with how to pick a single source of truth for each business number. When two tools report different figures for the same thing, here’s why dashboards show different numbers.
- Rows in the order you make decisions. All four examples use the same order: money on top, demand (traffic, audience or pipeline) in the middle, and the things waiting on you (orders to ship, tasks, messages) at the bottom.
- A date range on every number. “Revenue” means little without “today”, “last 7 days” or “last 30 days” next to it.
Example 1: Creator (YouTube-first)
For a creator who grows mainly on YouTube, sells their own products, memberships or coaching through Stripe, and has a website and an Instagram account on the side.
| Row | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Money | Revenue, last 7 and 30 days | Stripe (Dashboard basics) |
| Money | Available balance | Stripe (balance types) |
| Audience | Views and watch time, with a daily trend | YouTube Analytics (metric definitions) |
| Audience | Net subscribers (gained minus lost) | YouTube Analytics |
| Audience | Average view duration | YouTube Analytics |
| Audience | Recent uploads | YouTube channel data |
| Demand | Website sessions and top pages | Google Analytics 4 (metric definitions) |
| Audience | Instagram reach and followers |
How to arrange it: Stripe revenue and balance across the top. The YouTube numbers in the middle row, with the Google Analytics card right next to them, so you can see whether a new video sent people to your site. Instagram and recent uploads along the bottom.
What’s deliberately missing: YouTube ad revenue. It lives in YouTube Studio; this layout tracks the money you collect directly.
Links checked September 28, 2026.
Example 2: Online store
For a Shopify store that sells through its own site, gets traffic from search and social, and answers customer questions on WhatsApp.
| Row | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Money | Revenue today, last 7 and 30 days | Shopify |
| Money | Average order value | Shopify (AOV = revenue ÷ number of orders) |
| Money | Top products | Shopify |
| Demand | Sessions and users | Google Analytics 4 (metric definitions) |
| Demand | Bounce rate (share of sessions that were not engaged) | Google Analytics 4 |
| Demand | Top pages | Google Analytics 4 |
| Demand | Instagram reach and engagement | |
| Waiting on you | Unfulfilled orders | Shopify (fulfilling orders) |
| Waiting on you | Customer messages waiting for a reply |
How to arrange it: revenue and average order value on top. Traffic in the middle, directly under revenue, so a dip in sales can be checked against a dip in visits in one look. Unfulfilled orders and unanswered WhatsApp messages at the bottom: that row is your to-do list for the day.
Links checked September 28, 2026.
Example 3: Service business or agency
For a studio, agency or freelancer who invoices through Stripe, tracks leads in HubSpot, runs delivery in ClickUp or Trello, and lives in Outlook and Google Calendar.
| Row | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Money | Revenue, last 30 days, and recent payments | Stripe (Dashboard basics) |
| Money | Available balance | Stripe (balance types) |
| Demand | Open deals by stage and pipeline total | HubSpot (deal pipelines) |
| Demand | Deals going cold | HubSpot |
| Waiting on you | Overdue and due-today tasks | ClickUp or Trello (how Trello marks overdue cards) |
| Waiting on you | Today’s meetings and the next event | Google Calendar |
| Waiting on you | Emails needing attention and unread count | Outlook |
How to arrange it: money on top. The HubSpot pipeline in the middle, because it is next month’s revenue. Delivery, calendar and inbox along the bottom. HubSpot’s default deal pipeline has seven stages; if yours has more, the stage breakdown still fits on one card.
Links checked September 28, 2026.
Example 4: Coach or consultant
For a coach or consultant who sells sessions or programs, takes bookings through Calendly, keeps client notes in Notion and talks to clients on WhatsApp.
| Row | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Money | Revenue, last 7 and 30 days, and recent payments | Stripe (Dashboard basics) |
| Demand | Upcoming bookings: who and when | Calendly |
| Demand | Visits to your site and your top pages (is the booking page being seen?) | Google Analytics 4 (metric definitions) |
| Waiting on you | Today and the week ahead | Google Calendar |
| Waiting on you | Client messages waiting for a reply | |
| Waiting on you | Client notes or program tracker | Notion |
How to arrange it: revenue on top. Bookings next to site visits in the middle, so you can see whether more visits turn into more bookings. Calendar, client messages and your Notion tracker at the bottom. If Calendly already shows every session, you can drop Google Calendar and keep the layout to five sources.
Links checked September 28, 2026.
How to build one of these in an afternoon
- Pick the example closest to your business and cross out every number you wouldn’t act on this week.
- Write the owning app next to each number that’s left. One app per number.
- Connect those apps to whatever tool will hold the screen (in Vexlynk, see how to connect a source).
- Arrange three rows: money, demand, waiting on you.
- Use it for two weeks, then remove any number you never looked at.
For the daily habit of reading the screen, see how to see your business numbers at a glance.
Building these layouts in Vexlynk
Every source in these four examples connects to Vexlynk as a live card: Stripe, Shopify, YouTube (channel data and analytics), Google Analytics 4, Instagram, HubSpot, ClickUp, Trello, Google Calendar, Calendly, Notion, WhatsApp and Outlook (full list of sources). You place the cards on a canvas in the three rows above, and they refresh on their own. The YouTube Analytics card shows views, watch time, net subscribers, average view duration and a daily trend; it does not show revenue. The assistant reads all the cards together and tells you which card each number came from.
Plan limits matter here: Free connects 5 sources, Plus 12 and Pro unlimited. Instagram analytics needs Plus; Facebook and TikTok need Pro (pricing). Most sources are read-only; a few (WhatsApp, Trello, ClickUp, Google Calendar) let you act from the card, only when you do it yourself — sending a message, or archiving, completing or deleting something, asks you to confirm first.
If you’d rather not build a dashboard at all, read why you might stop building dashboards altogether.
Links checked September 28, 2026.
Related guides
- How to see your business numbers at a glance, step by step
- A single source of truth: deciding which app owns each business number
- The best software to see your whole business, compared with prices
- The small-business tool stack: the apps most owners use, by job
Frequently asked questions
What should a small business dashboard include?
Revenue for a clear period, one or two demand numbers (traffic, audience or pipeline), and the things waiting on you (orders to ship, overdue tasks, unanswered messages). Six to ten numbers in total is enough for one screen.
Are these real customer dashboards?
No. They are example layouts that show which numbers to pick for each type of business and where each one comes from. Your own numbers and sources will differ.
How many sources do these examples need?
Four to six. The online store uses 4 (Shopify, Google Analytics 4, Instagram, WhatsApp), the service business 5, the creator 5 (YouTube counts as two sources: channel data and analytics) and the coach 6. On Vexlynk Free (5 sources) the service business layout fits as it is, and the coach layout fits if you drop one source. The store and creator layouts include Instagram, whose analytics needs Plus (which also raises the limit to 12 sources); without Instagram, the store layout fits on Free too.
Is my login safe?
Each source connects with your own credentials. Your connections are stored encrypted. On the desktop app, API keys stay in the app’s encrypted local store and, when you’re signed in, are also kept in an encrypted cloud vault (AES-256, a separate key for each account) so your sources can refresh in the web workspace. Google and Microsoft sign-ins are held only in that vault. Disconnecting a source deletes them (how Vexlynk handles your data).
Vexlynk
Vexlynk Team