This article is solely around how to install and begin using the supplemental dashboard. To understand what this dashboard does, please see The Missing Supplemental Dashboard article.
Here’s a link to get the dashboard for yourself [Google Sheet].
I am working on detailed instructions, in the meantime, this video walks you through how to create a copy of the above sheet for yourself and how to go about uploading your data.
I’ve put a lot of effort into making this as plug and play and simple to use as possible. Once a month it now takes us less than 5 minutes to update our dashboard with the latest Patreon data.
Video Walkthrough and Instructions
The tutorial starts at about 30 seconds into this video and I show you how to create a copy of the dashboard that is all yours, how to download your data from Patreon, and then how to upload and quickly configure the dashboard for your data.
How to Install and Use the Patreon Supplemental Dashboard from Sean Howard on Vimeo.
Growth by Tier Chart Not Working Properly?
For anyone who runs into an issue with the Growth by Tier chart, please see this supplemental video and be sure you are using v1-2 of the Dashboard: Fixing the Growth by Tier Instructions.
Written Instructions
The video above will explain each step, but the notes below are for those doing this for a second time or who are very familiar with Google Sheets.
Create Your Own Copy of the Google Sheet
Open the Dashboard. You will see that it is read-only.
Go to File | Make a Copy
You will need to have a Google Apps or Gmail account. This is free to set up.
Download Your Data from Patreon
Log in to Patreon.com
Click on Patrons in the left nav and then choose Relationship manager.
Make sure no filters are set in the search or dropdowns.
Click on the Download CSV button shown in the above screenshot.
It will put a CSV file in the downloads folder on your machine.
Upload the File to the Google Sheets Dashboard
Go back to the Google Sheets Dashboard in your browser.
Choose the Data Upload tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
Go to File | Import
Choose the Upload tab.
Drag the Patreon .CSV file we downloaded into the upload window.
Google will now ask you to answer three questions.
Change Import Location to Replace current sheet.
Leave the other values as-is: Detect automatically and Convert text to numbers, dates and formulas.
Remove Personally Identifiable Information
Remove all the columns that contain PII data: this is information that is sensitive as it identifies your patron’s names, email addresses, phone numbers and more. You don’t need any of these columns.
Note: The most secure thing to do is remove these columns prior to uploading. But you can also delete them inside Google Sheets.
Select a column, right click and choose Delete Column.
There are five columns we require:
- Patron Status
- Lifetime $
- Pledge $
- Patronage Since
- Last Charge Date
Set the Variables on the Start Here Tab
Go to the Start Here tab and you will see six variables that we need to set for the Dashboard to know how to read our data.
Every column in a spreadsheet has a letter associated with it.
Look at the header in line 1 of the Data Upload tab and find the letter associated with each.
Return to the Start Here tab and change the Column Identifier as needed.
Flip to the Dashboard tab. If you set the Column Identifiers correctly, you should see data in your chart.
Now just set the last few variables and your dashboard should be good to go!
Featured Tiers: These simply specify which three tiers you want to highlight for retention numbers on the dashboard. It does not impact the Pledge Growth by Tier chart. Enter these without a $ sign. Just put 5 for the $5 tier.
Last Full Month of Data: Generally this should be the first of the month that has a full 30 days of data in the CSV file you downloaded. If you downloaded the file on December 15, 2019, then you will set this to: 11/1/2019.
Estimated Patreon Fee: This is a shorthand for estimating your net take home on the Dashboard. You can review some past data on Patreon to determine a more appropriate %.
That’s it!
Enjoy your new dashboard!
