Environmental Compliance dashboard
The Environmental Compliance dashboard answers one question for the sensors you choose: did temperature and humidity stay inside their limits, and for how much of the time? You pick the sensors and set the limits; the dashboard does the rest. There are no widgets to place.
This dashboard is in beta. It is being tested with early users and may change. Please tell your provider what you find.
Do you have this? Dashboard templates are a plan feature. If the New dashboard dialog does not offer an Environmental Compliance type, your provider hasn't enabled it for your workspace. Creating the dashboard and changing its settings needs Workspace Admin access (or an Operator who has been allowed to manage dashboards). Everyone who can open the dashboard can read it.
Creating the dashboard
- Go to Dashboards in the sidebar and click + New Dashboard.
- Choose the Environmental Compliance type and give the dashboard a name.
- Choose the temperature unit (°C or °F), the timezone and the clock format (12 or 24 hour).
- Click Create, then Select sensors.
Two of these choices deserve a moment of thought:
- The unit is fixed once sensors have been monitored. The dashboard never converts between units. To report in a different unit, create a second dashboard.
- The timezone belongs to the dashboard, not to the person reading it. Every time on the dashboard is shown in that zone, so two people in different places see the same times. If your device is set to a different zone, the dashboard says so.
Under Settings, then General, you can also upload a PDF report logo: a PNG or JPEG (up to 500 KB and 2000 px; about 600 x 200 px works best) that prints top left on the first page of every compliance report this dashboard generates. Excel and CSV exports never carry it; without a logo the report prints your provider's logo, as before.
Who can do what
| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| Open the dashboard and read every tab | Everyone the dashboard is shared with: Viewers, Operators and Workspace Admins |
| Generate and download reports, export CSV | Everyone who can open the dashboard |
| Acknowledge excursions and add notes | Operators and Workspace Admins |
| Create the dashboard, choose sensors, set limits, change settings, delete it | Workspace Admins, and Operators who have been allowed to manage dashboards |
A teammate who is limited to a site sees this dashboard only when everything it includes is inside their site. It is all or nothing: the dashboard never shows them a partial picture that could be mistaken for the whole.
Who the dashboard is shared with is set from its ⋯ menu, the same as any other dashboard. A template dashboard cannot be shared by public link.
Choosing sensors
Open Settings, then Sensors, then Edit selection. You can tick:
- individual sensors;
- a network, to include every eligible sensor in it;
- a site, to include every eligible sensor in it and in the sites beneath it.
To take something out again, use the remove button on its row under Settings, then Sensors, or untick it in Edit selection. Removing a followed site or network stops including every sensor in it. What was evaluated while a sensor was included stays on the record, and any excursion or monitoring gap that was still open ends at the moment of removal: for periods that cover that time, the Devices tab still lists it, marked Removed from dashboard, and it drops off once the period no longer covers it.
Ticking a site or a network follows the group: a sensor added to it later is included automatically from its first reading there, and a sensor moved out stops being included from its first reading elsewhere. If you swap a sensor for a replacement, for example during recalibration, you do not need to edit the dashboard. See Sites and Networks for how to organize sensors into groups. If your workspace uses neither, you simply pick from a list of sensors.
Which sensors are eligible
A sensor is eligible when its device profile has a temperature field tagged in the dashboard's unit. Humidity is evaluated too when the profile has a humidity field; a sensor without one shows as Temperature only.
A sensor that reports in the other unit, or whose profile has no tagged temperature field, cannot be ticked and shows the reason. If such a sensor later appears inside a group the dashboard follows, it is listed under Needs attention on the Overview and under Not included on the Devices tab, so a hole in your monitoring cannot go unnoticed.
Looking back
A sensor is evaluated from the moment it is included. When you add sensors you can choose to look back and evaluate earlier readings too, as far back as your plan keeps raw readings. When a period starts before a sensor was included, the line above the tabs reads Evaluated from ... through ...; that earlier time is never counted as in range or out of range.
When sensors move or are swapped
The dashboard evaluates sensors, not places. Sites and networks are how you group and name them.
- Every reading remembers where it was taken. A sensor moved from one network to another keeps its earlier readings under the old location and reports its new ones under the new location. The Devices tab marks it Moved and the report lists where it was and when.
- Swapping a sensor needs no change on the dashboard, as long as you follow the group rather than the individual sensor: take the old sensor out of the network, put the replacement in, and the replacement is included from its first reading there.
- An excursion belongs to one sensor in one location. If a sensor changes location while out of range, that excursion ends and a new one opens under the new location if it is still out of range there.
- Limits follow the reading's location. A reading is judged against the limits of the place it was taken in, so a spare sensor that sat on a shelf before going into a fridge is not judged against fridge limits for its time on the shelf.
One thing to keep in mind: the location recorded is the one the platform knew at the time of the reading. If someone carries a sensor out of a fridge and updates its network ten minutes later, those ten minutes are recorded against the fridge. Add a note to the excursion to explain it.
Setting limits
Open Settings, then Limits.
- Defaults apply to every sensor: a low and a high limit for temperature and for humidity. Leave a limit empty for "no limit on that side".
- Overrides replace the defaults for one site, one network or one sensor. The most specific one wins: the sensor's own, then its network's, then the nearest site's, then the defaults. A fridge inside a room-temperature site just needs an override on the fridge.
- Warning margin marks readings that are inside the limits but close to one.
Three controls decide how strictly a brief departure is treated. All three start at their strictest setting:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Excursion delay | An out-of-range period shorter than this is tolerated: counted as in range, and reported separately as tolerated time. |
| Delay applies up to | A reading further outside the limit than this opens an excursion at once, whatever the delay. |
| Recovery margin | An excursion ends only when the reading is back inside the limit by at least this much, so a sensor hovering at a limit does not produce a string of short excursions. |
Maximum hold is how long one reading may stand for the sensor. If a sensor stays silent for longer, the time after that is a monitoring gap, not in-range time. The default is one hour; raise it for sensors that report less often.
Changes apply from now on. Each save creates a new version of the limits. Past periods keep the limits that were in force at the time, so a report for last month does not change because someone edited a number today.
Choosing the period
The control at the top right sets the period every tab reports on: Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, This month, Last month, or Custom. The exact start and end are always shown beside it.
Periods run on whole hours, up to 92 days. A custom period is entered in the dashboard's timezone. Excursions still record the exact time of the last in-range reading and the first out-of-range reading, to the second.
The period, the tab you are on and any location filter are part of the page address, so a link you share opens the same view.
Evaluated through shows how far the evaluation has reached. It normally trails the current time by a couple of minutes.
Reading the tabs
If your workspace uses sites or networks, a By location / By sensor switch and a location filter appear above the tabs. A location's figures pool all of its sensors, and every location row expands to show them.
Overview
- Temperature in range and Humidity in range: the share of monitored time inside the limits, with coverage.
- Excursions: how many in the period, how many are ongoing, and their total time.
- Sensors: how many have a current reading.
- Trend: the mean as a line with the lowest-to-highest spread as a shaded envelope around it, over the in-range band. The envelope matters: one cold sensor cannot hide inside a healthy average.
- Sensors by status and a worst-first list.
- Needs attention: sensors out of range now, sensors with no current reading, excursions nobody has acknowledged (review them on the Excursions tab), and sensors that are not included.
Each card has View details, which lists the sensors behind the figure.
Conditions
What the readings were: mean, lowest and highest temperature and humidity (with the sensor and the time of each extreme), a chart for each, the latest reading of every sensor colored by where it sits against its limits, and a summary table.
When the sensors shown do not share one set of limits, the chart is split into one chart per set of limits, so every shaded band is true for every line drawn over it.
Compliance
How the readings stood against the limits: time in range, time out of range, coverage, excursions, gaps and mean kinetic temperature, with a breakdown by location or sensor.
How this period was evaluated states the period, how far evaluation has reached, which versions of the limits were in force, how much time was tolerated under the excursion delay, and the status bands.
Generating a compliance report
Generate report sits beside the period control at the top of the dashboard, on every tab. It produces a PDF for the period shown there. Set the period first, then choose what to include:
- Detail for each sensor: a temperature and a humidity chart, the excursions with their last in-range and first out-of-range times, and the monitoring gaps;
- Excursion notes: every note, under its excursion;
- Warnings as well as excursions;
- Certificates.
The report always contains the header (period, timezone, who generated it and when, how far evaluation had reached), the summary, the limits in force with each version and its start time, the summary table by location and sensor, and a method section that states how every figure is calculated, including the mean kinetic temperature formula and constants.
A report is prepared in the background and usually takes under a minute. You can keep working: a message tells you when it is ready, and you also get an email, with a link to the dashboard, when it is ready or if it could not be generated. It appears in the Reports list at the bottom of the Compliance tab, where you download it. One report can cover up to 92 days and 100 sensors, and one report at a time can be prepared per dashboard.
Things to know:
- A report is a snapshot. It does not change if readings arrive later, an excursion is acknowledged afterwards, or limits are edited. Generate a new one to capture the current state. Each report has its own number, and numbers are never reused.
- Reports are kept for one year, then permanently removed. The list shows the date each one is kept until. Download and file any report you need for longer.
- Reports always cover every location, whatever location filter is applied on screen.
- Everyone who can open the dashboard can generate and download reports. If your access is limited to certain sites, your reports cover what you have access to and say so on the first page, and you can only download reports that stay within your sites.
Excursions
The ledger of everything that happened in the period, one row per event:
- an excursion: a sensor was outside a limit;
- a warning: a sensor was inside its limits but within the warning margin;
- a monitoring gap: a sensor had no current reading.
The strip above the list counts the events, how many are ongoing, how many excursions nobody has acknowledged, the total excursion time and the longest excursion. Filter by kind, measure and state, search by sensor, and use Export CSV to download the filtered list with every time in both the dashboard's timezone and UTC.
Click a row to open the event. You see the individual readings from 30 minutes before the event to 30 minutes after, drawn over the in-range band, and the facts an auditor asks for: the last in-range reading, the first out-of-range reading, when the sensor was back in range, the highest or lowest reading, and the limits and tolerance settings that were in force.
Individual readings are kept for as long as your plan keeps raw data. After that an event still shows all of its facts, without the reading-by-reading list.
Acknowledging and adding notes
- Acknowledge records that you have reviewed an excursion, with your name and the time. It cannot be undone, and the first acknowledgement stands.
- Acknowledge many at once. Tick excursions in the list and click Acknowledge selected, or filter the list (for example to one sensor) and click Acknowledge all to acknowledge every excursion that matches and is not yet acknowledged. The dialog shows the count and takes one optional note that is added to each excursion, so a faulty sensor's hundreds of excursions can be closed with one explanation. Each one is still recorded individually, with your name and the time.
- Notes record what happened and what was done about it. Any event can carry notes. A note is permanent: it cannot be edited or deleted, only followed by another note.
Everyone who can open the dashboard can read acknowledgements and notes. Adding them needs more than Viewer access.
When late readings change an event
Sensors that buffer readings, or a gateway that was offline, can deliver readings hours later. The dashboard re-evaluates that time when they arrive. An excursion may get longer, two may join into one (their notes are kept together), or a monitoring gap may close. If late readings show that an event you already reviewed did not happen as first recorded, it stays in the ledger marked Withdrawn, with its notes, so nothing you wrote is lost.
Devices
One row per sensor: whether it is reporting, its latest readings, time in range, excursion time, mean kinetic temperature and when it was last heard. Expand a row to see that sensor's own chart. Not included lists sensors in a followed group that cannot be evaluated, with the reason.
Certificates
The calibration certificate of every sensor on the dashboard, in one place: certificate number, issuer, valid from, valid to, and a status.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Valid | More than 30 days until the certificate expires. |
| Expiring | 30 days or fewer left. |
| Expired | The last day of validity has passed. |
| None on record | Tracking is on for the sensor, but no certificate has been recorded. |
| Not tracked | Certificate tracking is switched off for the sensor. |
Readings in this period compares each sensor's first and last reading in the period with its whole certificate history. If any of that time falls outside every certificate, the row says Taken without a valid certificate and gives the dates. This is how a lapse between an old certificate and its replacement shows up, even after the new one is in place. A row with more than one certificate expands to show the earlier ones.
A certificate counts from the start of its first day to the end of its last day, in the dashboard's timezone. Export CSV downloads the table.
This tab is read-only. Certificates are recorded on each sensor's own page, where tracking is also switched on; that needs Workspace Admin access. Expired and missing certificates also appear under Needs attention on the Overview.
Do you have this? The Certificates tab needs device certification tracking, a separate plan feature. Without it the tab shows a short notice and the rest of the dashboard works as normal.
What the terms mean
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Time in range | In-range time divided by monitored time. With no monitored time it reads "No data", never 100%. |
| Coverage | Monitored time divided by the time the sensor was included in the period. Low coverage means the in-range figure rests on little data. |
| Excursion | A period a sensor was outside a limit, from its first out-of-range reading until it recovered. |
| Monitoring gap | Time with no current reading: the sensor was silent for longer than the maximum hold. |
| Tolerated time | Out-of-range time shorter than the excursion delay, counted as in range and reported separately. |
| Mean kinetic temperature (MKT) | One temperature that carries the same thermal stress as the varying temperatures actually recorded. It weights warm periods more heavily than a plain mean. Time-weighted, with an activation energy of 83.14472 kJ/mol. A location's MKT pools its sensors' readings. |
| Not evaluated | Time before a sensor was included in the dashboard. |
| Not included | A sensor in a followed group that is not eligible, with the reason. |
Status
Each sensor gets a status per measure from its time in range, and its overall status is the worse of the two. A location takes the status of its worst sensor.
| Status | When |
|---|---|
| Compliant | Time in range is at or above the compliant threshold (99% by default) and no excursion is ongoing. |
| At risk | Time in range is between the two thresholds (95% and 99% by default), or it is above the compliant threshold while an excursion is still ongoing. |
| Non-compliant | Time in range is below the at-risk threshold. |
| No data | Nothing was monitored in the period. |
Both thresholds can be changed under Settings, then Limits.
Limits and things to know
- Up to 500 sensors on one dashboard.
- Periods of up to 92 days on screen and in a report; a report covers up to 100 sensors.
- The record is kept for the life of the dashboard. Time in range, excursions, notes and mean kinetic temperature stay available for past periods even after the individual readings behind them are no longer kept. Report files are kept for one year.
- Removing every sensor keeps the dashboard and its record: the tabs stay available for past periods, with a notice to select sensors again.
- Deleting the dashboard removes its stored reports. If your plan stops including dashboard templates, the dashboard stays and opens read-only with a notice; evaluation pauses and catches up if the feature returns.
- A sensor removed from your workspace keeps its place in past periods, marked Removed from account. Its certificates are removed with it, so the Certificates tab no longer lists them; reports generated earlier still do.
- Moving a site under a different parent site changes which site group its sensors' earlier readings are counted in when a period is evaluated again (for example after a look-back or late readings). Time already evaluated is not recalculated because a site moved.
- Unit conversion is never applied. A sensor reporting in the other unit is listed as not included.
Alerts
This dashboard reports; it does not send alerts. To be notified when a sensor goes out of range, create a workflow for it.