A great feature within Hindsight is the flexibility of grids that enable you to slice and dice your data your way.  Gone are the days of static data tables and welcome to modern data grids.

 

There is an abundance of features and functionality stashed away in each grid.  Please take a few moments to run through the notes below to become accustomed to the new grid functionality.  (Grids will replace the standard tables throughout Hindsight.  Please stick with us while we make these changes).

Rows

Group

You can group rows from your grid by dragging them to the row grouping area above the grid.  You can group by multiple columns should you wish.  Below we have grouped rows by bookkeeping type and the client year end.  The columns are grouped into rows depending on the order they have been placed in the row grouping area.  If you wish to change the order click on the cross to remove it and then add it back in the correct order.

We have five clients in total, the practice is responsible for the bookkeeping for three of them and two do not have a status set.

If we wish to drill into the data we can click into the row to open the data but it would probably be more sensible to hover over the group column header where a burger menu icon will appear.  Clicking on this will open a menu of options.

Pin column will allow you to pin that column to the grid.  If you have a lot of data to scroll across this can be a good option to make it easy to understand what data you are looking at.  This acts in the same way as Freeze Panes in Excel.  You can choose whether to pin the data to the left or right of the grid.  You can pin multiple columns to the grid.

Autosize This Column will adapt the size of the column to optimise the size of the column to the grid.

Autosize All Columns will adapt the size of every column in your grid to optimise the space you have to view your data.

Reset Columns will allow you to do exactly that.  It will return your columns to their original state as if you had not grouped, pinned or autosized any columns.

Expand All will expand all of the rows that have been grouped together by your selection.  This avoids you having to click on the arrows to open out the groups one by one.

Collapse All will collapse all of the rows that have been expanded.  This avoids you having to click on the arrows to close the groups one by one.

Columns

Drag

You can drag and drop columns as you need for you analysis purposes.  The current position of the columns is the default starting position.  Once you have finished analysis you can return the columns back to their original state by hovering over any column header and clicking on the hamburger menu icon.  Then choose Reset Columns.

Pinned 

Pinned columns will allow you to pin that column to the grid.  You can pin any column in the grid by clicking on the hamburger menu icon whilst hovering on the column name and then choosing whether you would like to pin the column to the left or right.  In the Client Portfolio grid the client name column is pinned to the left by default so you can remember which client you are looking at as you scroll across the page.  If you have a lot of data to scroll across this can be a good option to make it easy to understand what data you are looking at.  This acts in the same way as Freeze Panes in Excel.  You can choose whether to pin the data to the left or right of the grid.  You can pin multiple columns to the grid.

Sort

You can sort by any column in the grid ascending, descending or none in that order.  Clicking on the column header will sort in that order.  You can sort by multiple columns at the same time by holding shift and clicking on the column header.  Each column that is sorted will display an arrow indicating whether it is sorted by ascending or descending.  If multiple columns are being sorted they are numbered in the order they are being sorted.

Filter

You can filter by any column in your grid.  The type of filter you can apply will be determined by the type of data in that column.  There are several ways to filter:

• Hovering over the column header will reveal the burger menu.  When you click on the burger menu select the filter icon.
• Click on the filter icon under the column header
• Use the Filters tool panel on the right hand side of the page (see below)

All options will present you with the following options:

Once you have adjusted your filter accordingly click Apply to apply those changes to your grid.  Clear will remove any  changes you have made but yet to apply to the grid.  Reset will change the column back to its original state.

Once you have applied a filter to a column the filter icon will appear in the column header so you can easily identify filtered columns.  The filter value that has been applied will show in the filter box so you can understand the filter applied without drilling into it.

Chart Range

Range charts provide you with a quick and easy way to create charts from inside the grid.  Once you have selected a range of cells in the grid, a chart can be created from the context menu, as shown below.  These provide useful visual feedback by highlighting the charted category and series data in the grid.

By simply changing the chart type or data category you can analyse data and see patterns and trends easily.

Tools Panel

The tools panel is closed by default.  Clicking on either Columns or Filters will open that panel for you.  Once you have completed your changes click on the tool panel again for it to be hidden.

The options available within the tools panel are similar to those available if you were to work with individual columns.  If you are going to make lots of changes to your grid then it makes sense to use the tools panel as it offers easier navigation and quicker changes to your grid data.  As an example using the Columns tool panel we can quickly and easily decide which columns to display and change the order they display.

Using the Row Groups option we can drag a column to set it as a row in the grid.

The values section is showing us which columns have values for aggregation purposes.  If we group rows together then the sum of the sales and profit rows will be aggregated and the total shown in the group row.

 

Export

There are a couple of options for exporting data from a grid:

1. Export the grid (download as CSV)
2. Export range selection (download as CSV or Excel)

Export the grid

When exporting the grid use the Download CSV button in the header of the grid the CSV export will contain all items in the grid that are visible i.e. any filters applied will remain on the grid.  If you wish to download the entire grid then make sure you Reset All Filters before doing so.

Export range selection

If you wish to download just a portion of the grid it works you can select it using the mouse.  It works exactly the same way as you would highlight a range in Excel.  Simply click and drag to highlight the range you wish to download.  Then right click and export.  Choose whether you would like to download as CSV or Excel.

As you can see above there are a few other options to consider.  You can Ctrl+C to copy the data to your clipboard and then Ctrl+V to paste into an open document.

Copy with Headers will also include the column headers for any range that you have selected.

If you are using the export option rather than the copy option the column headers and group headers will be exported.