---
schema_version: "1"
id: 26182ad16589cf3ec19be60f1eba90b27aea258a42ccb6b69ef33376bb3b9baf
title: Create a CRM Analytics dashboard with a Template
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/analytics/264-0-0/bi_dashboard_create_flex.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.bi_dashboard_create_flex.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 79797698311b34bc2107886b83ff9f3eb26a6a6ccc88f95e0313a1bdb94c18c6
description: Dashboard templates speed your analytics development by automatically creating dashboards. Some provide blank layouts that you populate with data, while other “smart” templates create dashboards that require little to no additional configuration.
products:
  - CRM Analytics
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Create a CRM Analytics dashboard with a Template

Dashboard templates speed your analytics development by automatically creating dashboards. Some provide blank layouts that you populate with data, while other “smart” templates create dashboards that require little to no additional configuration.

### Required Editions

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            <th scope="colgroup" class="slds-cell-wrap" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" id="d18974e36">User Permissions
              Needed</th>
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            <td data-label="User Permissions Needed" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d18974e36 ">To create a dashboard:</td>

            <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d18974e36 ">Create and Edit Analytics Dashboards</td>

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Watch a Demo: [![Watch Video Demo](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/resources-global/_corporate/images/play_btn.png) Quickly Create Wave Dashboards with Templates (English Only)](https://salesforce.vidyard.com/watch/6aA4EKE9jbuhqC2fLoHt85)

Each dashboard template provides a prebuilt layout with empty widgets, sections, and a color scheme. Use the widget wizards to populate the widgets with your data. Choose the blank template if you prefer to create your own layout.

Choose smart templates to create complete dashboards already populated with your data. They also include a configuration wizard to guide you through the creation process. You don’t have to create queries or do any manual configuration—just answer a few questions about the data you’d like to include.

1. From the home page, select **Create** | **Dashboard**.
    
    ![You can select a layout template or a blank dashboard canvas.](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/bi/images/bi/bi_dashboard_template_list.png)
2. Choose **Blank Dashboard** or **Dashboard from Template**, and click **Create**.
3. Choose the template to use from the template picker. The **SMART** icon in the upper-right corner of a template thumbnail designates a smart template.
    
    ![The dashboard template picker highlighting smart templates](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/bi/images/bi/bi_dashboard_template_picker.png)
4. If you use a smart template, follow the instructions in the wizard. They prompt you to choose datasets and the specific data to display in the dashboard.
    
    ![Important](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/images/icon_important.png)
    
    Important Creating dashboards from smart templates requires the ‘Use Any API Client’ permission. Without that permission, you may not see all available datasets in the wizard.. To assign that permission, request API Access Control from Salesforce Customer Support. See [Restrict Access to APIs Connected Apps](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.security_api_access_control_all_users.htm&type=5&language=en_US).
5. If you use a traditional template, add a query to each widget by clicking the icon inside the empty widget. A wizard guides you through adding the query. When you complete the wizard, CRM Analytics populates the widget based on the results of the query. CRM Analytics also adds the query to the query panel. If you use a smart template, you’re asked a set of questions about your data before CRM Analytics creates the dashboard. Dashboards created from smart templates usually don’t require any more configuration work, but you can customize them as you would any other dashboard.
6. To set the dashboard properties, click ![More button](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/bi/images/bi/bi_dashboards_more_icon.png) and then click **Dashboard Properties**.
    
    The dashboard properties include the default widget properties, which you can use to ensure that the background and borders of all widgets are consistent. When you create a widget, you can specify whether the widget uses these default properties.
    
    ![Dashboard properties](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/bi/images/bi/bi_dashboard_properties.png)
7. To save the dashboard, click ![Save icon](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/bi/images/bi/bi_explorer_new_save_icon.png), enter a title and description. Also enter a brief description in the **Version History** field to help you remember what’s unique about it in case you ever want to revert to it. For example, since it’s the first version, enter Original. Select the app in which you want to save the dashboard, then click **Save**.
    
    The permissions on the app determine each user’s access to the dashboard. To ensure that the right users have the right access to the dashboard, review the app permissions.

- **[Dashboard Properties](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.bi_dashboard_properties_flex.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    These properties apply to a dashboard designer dashboard. Some of them are the default widget properties that you can apply to each widget to ensure a consistent appearance.
- **[Smart Dashboards](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.bi_dashboard_smart_templates.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use a smart dashboard template to create a ready-made dashboard that’s prepopulated with your Salesforce data.