Cards

A card is a single headline number — the kind of figure you put at the top of a report. Net revenue this quarter. Active customers. Win rate. It’s the right visual when the answer is one number, and it’s the backbone of most dashboards, where a row of cards gives you the state of the business at a glance.

A number is more useful with a comparison

A number on its own rarely tells you enough. “Revenue: $4.2M” — is that good? The value of a card comes from the comparison beside it: the same number against a meaningful baseline, so you can see direction and magnitude at once.

So when you ask for a card, say what to compare against:

Net revenue this quarter, with the percentage change versus last quarter.

Active customers, versus the same month last year.

Bookings this month against target.

Common baselines: the previous period, the same period a year ago, a target or budget, or a fixed reference point. If you don’t name one, the agent picks a sensible comparison — but on a dashboard it’s worth being explicit, so the card always means what you intend.

What you can specify

A precise card request settles four things:

• The metric — which KPI, by its name in your model.
• The time frame — this quarter, last 30 days, fiscal year to date.
• The comparison — versus what, as above.
• The formatting — currency, percentage, or a whole number; “show it in thousands”, “no decimals”.

New customers, fiscal year to date, versus the same period last year, as a whole number.

Refining a card

As with every visual, you adjust by asking:

• “Compare against last year instead of last quarter.”
• “Show the change in dollars, not percent.”
• “Format as currency, no decimals.”
• “Add this quarter’s target underneath.”

When a card isn’t the right visual

• If you want to see the number move over time, that’s a chart, not a card.
• If you need several numbers you read row by row, that’s a table.

A card answers “what is it, and how does it compare?” — one number, one glance.