Q: How often is the analytics data updated?
A: The backend pre-computes analytics data from your raw appointment records. You can see when it was last updated in the toolbar (e.g., "Updated 2h ago"). If you've made recent changes and need the latest numbers, use the Recalculate button to re-compute data for specific dates.

Q: Why do some tabs load instantly while deep dives take time?
A: The main tabs (Overview, Appointments, Customers, Team, Services, Financial) display pre-computed summary data that loads instantly. Deep dives (Appointments Deep Dive, Pet Demographics, Revenue Forecast, Map) fetch raw records and compute analytics in real-time when you trigger them. This takes longer but provides much richer, cross-dimensional analysis.

Q: What happens when I tap Recalculate?
A: It re-computes the pre-computed analytics from raw appointment data for the date range you specify (up to 7 days at a time). This is useful when you've recently completed appointments, processed payments, or issued refunds and want the numbers to reflect those changes. The recalculation range is independent of your viewing range. After recalculating, there is an 8-hour cooldown before you can recalculate again.

Q: Can I view data for more than one year?
A: The maximum date range is 365 days. If you have comparison or forecast periods active, the combined span (your selected range plus all comparison and forecast periods) also cannot exceed 365 days.

Q: Why are there only 7 tabs? I was expecting 8.
A: The 7 tabs are Overview, Appointments, Customers, Team, Services, Financial, and Map. The deep dives (Appointments, Pet Demographics, Revenue Forecast) are embedded within their parent tabs rather than being separate tabs.

Q: Where is the deep dive content? I can't find it.
A: Deep dives appear as gradient-coloured cards near the bottom of their parent tab. Scroll down on the Appointments tab (for Appointments Deep Dive), the Customers tab (for Pet Demographics Deep Dive), or the Financial tab (for Revenue Forecast Deep Dive). The Map tab itself is entirely an on-demand deep dive.

Q: Do deep dive results disappear when I switch tabs?
A: No. Once you run a deep dive, the results persist even if you switch to another tab and come back. You only need to re-run if you change the date range or want to refresh the data.

Q: Why are some insight cards not appearing?
A: Insight cards only appear when the data meets certain thresholds. For example, team insights require at least 2 team members with appointment data. Revenue concentration only triggers when there's a measurable imbalance. If a tab shows no insight cards, it means nothing notable was detected for the selected date range.

Q: What do the insight card colours mean?
A: Green = positive (something is going well), Red = negative (needs attention), Grey = neutral (an observation), Amber = warning (a developing risk), Blue = tip (a suggestion or opportunity).

Q: What is the help icon on some insight cards?
A: Some insight cards display a small help icon (question mark) in the top-right corner. This is the calculation explainer. Tap it to open a dialog that shows exactly how the insight was calculated, step by step, using your real data. It includes the evidence used, each calculation step, and a plain-language takeaway explaining what it means for your business. See Understanding Insight Cards for full details.

Q: What are the bars at the bottom of some insight cards?
A: When you have comparison or forecast periods active, some insight cards display period comparison bars: horizontal segments showing the value for each comparison period, the current period, and any forecast periods. This lets you see at a glance how the metric has changed across time.

Q: What does "Create Special Service" do on the demand imbalance insight?
A: When the system identifies consistently underbooked working days, it offers a guided 6-step plan to create a promotional service to fill those gaps. The dialog shows personalised steps based on your data: your quietest days, your top service to clone, a suggested capacity limit, and an example calculation for adjusting main service capacity to prevent overbooking.

Q: Can I dismiss or hide insight cards?
A: Insight cards cannot be individually dismissed. They are generated automatically based on the current data. If the underlying data changes (e.g., you adjust staffing or fill quiet days), the insights will update accordingly.

Q: What are the mail icons next to items in insight card lists?
A: Some insight cards open entity list dialogs (e.g., "View Senior Pets", "View Top Clients"). Within these lists, items with a mail icon have a ready-to-use email template available. Tapping the mail icon opens your email client with a pre-written, personalised draft for you to review, edit, and send. Petboost does not send these emails automatically. There are 11 email templates covering scenarios like cancellation recovery, VIP thank-you, senior pet care, puppy welcome, rebook reminders, and more. See Understanding Insight Cards for the full list.

Q: What does "comparison" mean exactly?
A: Comparison overlays the average performance from prior periods of equal length onto your current view. If you're viewing the last 28 days and set 2 comparison periods, it averages the two 28-day periods immediately before your selected range (aligned by day index) and shows that as a dashed grey line on charts and "vs. prev. avg" on metric cards. See Compare and Forecast for full details.

Q: What does "forecast" mean exactly?
A: Forecast projects your metrics forward using a day-of-week weighted averaging method with trend detection. It extends trend charts with a dashed violet line and shows projected values on metric cards. On the Overview tab, you can tap the forecast badge on the Revenue Trend chart to see a full breakdown of how the forecast was calculated. See Compare and Forecast for full details.

Q: Is the page-level forecast the same as the Revenue Forecast Deep Dive?
A: No. The page-level forecast (via the Compare button) uses day-of-week averaging with trend detection from your current period. The Revenue Forecast Deep Dive (in the Financial tab) uses a different method: it analyses 3 prior periods of equal length, averages them day-by-day, and produces a forecast with a min-max confidence band. Both can be active at the same time without conflicting.

Q: Can I filter by both team member and service at the same time?
A: Yes. Both filters work together. You can, for example, view Sarah's Full Groom appointments specifically by selecting both the team member and service filters.

Q: What do filters affect?
A: Filters affect revenue totals, appointment volumes, trend charts, and rankings. However, status breakdowns, completion and cancellation rates, customer counts, and financial breakdowns always show full business data regardless of filters. An amber notice in the filter panel explains this when filters are active.

Q: Do filters affect deep dives?
A: The team member and service filters apply to the main tab views (which use pre-computed data). The on-demand deep dives fetch raw data independently and may not be affected by these filters.

Q: What is the Outstanding Payments dialog?
A: When the Financial tab's payment success insight detects declined payments, it offers a "Manage Payments" action. This opens the Outstanding Payments dialog, which lists all appointments with declined or outstanding payments, grouped into "Card on File" and "No Card on File" sections. You can charge individual appointments or use bulk charge mode to process multiple payments at once. See Financial Tab for details.

Q: Why does the Map tab require me to run an analysis?
A: Unlike other tabs that use pre-computed data, the Map needs to fetch full appointment records, extract customer addresses, and geocode suburbs via a mapping service. This is computationally intensive and done on-demand.

Q: Why are some customers missing from the map?
A: Geographic Intelligence requires the suburb field on customer profiles to be populated. Appointments for customers without address data are excluded. The more complete your customer profiles, the more comprehensive the map analysis.

Q: What are the 5 map modes?
A: Revenue (bubbles by suburb revenue), Customers (individual customer dots colour-coded by recency), Team (team members at business centroid), Weekday (day-of-week patterns by suburb), and Boundaries (suburb boundary polygons shaded by revenue with weekday filtering). See Geographic Intelligence for full details.

Q: What does the CSV export include?
A: It exports the analytics data for whichever tab is currently active. Each tab exports different columns: for example, the Overview tab exports Date, Revenue, Appointments, Active Customers, and New Customers, while the Services tab exports Service, Category, Revenue, Appointments, Avg Value, and Avg Duration. Export is available on 6 tabs (not the Map tab). See Filters and Controls for the full column breakdown per tab.

Q: What does the email summary include?
A: It generates a comprehensive plain-text email with sections covering Overview, Appointments, Customers, Team, Services, and Financial metrics, plus relevant insights and recommendations. If comparison or forecast periods are active, those sections are included too. The email opens in your email client for you to send. Deep dive cards also have individual email buttons that open a top-level summary plus the detailed deep dive analysis in your email client. See Filters and Controls for full details on what each email contains.

Q: I can't see Reporting and Intelligence in my sidebar. Why?
A: Reporting and Intelligence is available on eligible subscription plans. If it's not visible, check your plan details or contact support about upgrading.