Overview

The analytics dashboard in Slash gives you a detailed breakdown of your business spending. Unlike the homepage, which shows your overall account balances and recent transactions, the analytics dashboard is designed for deeper analysis. You can use it to understand where your money is going, compare spending across time periods, and spot cash flow trends that can help you better manage your budget.

Getting to the Analytics Dashboard

From your Slash dashboard, navigate to the Analytics section in the left-hand menu. You'll land on a view that breaks down your card spending with interactive charts and filters.

What You'll See

The analytics dashboard displays your spending data in several ways:

Spending Over Time: A bar chart showing your total card spend broken down by day, week, or month depending on the time range you select.
Category Breakdown: A pie or donut chart showing where your money is going by merchant category (e.g., software, travel, advertising, office supplies).
Top Merchants: A ranked list of your most-used merchants by total spend, so you can quickly see which vendors account for the biggest portion of your expenses.
Card-Level Spend: A breakdown of spending by individual card, useful for tracking employee expenses or comparing department budgets.

You can hover over any bar or chart segment to see the exact dollar amount and date range for that data point.

Filtering and Adjusting Your View

The analytics dashboard includes a toggle to display transactions either by settlement time or by authorization time. This controls how transactions are placed on the timeline in your charts and totals:

Show by Authorization Time: Organizes transactions based on when each transaction was initially authorized. This is the date you'd typically associate with "when the purchase happened." Use this view when you want to understand spending behavior as it occurs in real time.
Show by Settlement Time: Organizes transactions based on when each transaction was settled. Settlement typically happens 1–3 business days after authorization. Use this view when you want to reconcile your analytics with your bank statements or accounting records, since settlement dates align with when funds are actually debited from your account.

Depending on which view you choose, a transaction could appear in different weeks or even different months if it falls near a month boundary. For most day-to-day analysis, authorization time gives you the most intuitive view. For accounting reconciliation and cash flow tracking, settlement time is more accurate.

There are some additional filters at the top of the dashboard use can use to further narrow down the data:

Time Period: Choose from preset ranges like 1 Week, 1 Month, 3 Months, or 1 Year. You can also select This Week, This Month, This Quarter, or This Year to view activity since the start of the current period.
Card Filter: Select a specific card to isolate that card's spending, or view all cards together.
Category Filter: Focus on a specific merchant category to see only that type of expense.

Spend vs Income View

The analytics dashboard has two primary views: Spend and Income. You can switch between them using the toggle at the top of the dashboard.

Spend: Shows all outgoing financial activity. This includes card transactions, bill payments, outgoing transfers, and any other debits from your accounts. Use this view to track where your money is going, identify your largest expense categories, and monitor team or card-level spending patterns over time.
Income: Incoming financial activity. This includes deposits, incoming ACH and wire transfers, refunds, and any other credits to your accounts. Use this view to understand your revenue and inflow patterns, track when customer payments arrive, and reconcile expected income against what's actually landed in your accounts.

Both views share the same filtering and charting tools. Switching between Spend and Income lets you compare outflows and inflows side by side for any given time period, which is especially useful for cash flow planning and making sure your income consistently covers your expenses.

Practical Tips for Getting the Most from Analytics

Review spending frequently. Set a recurring reminder to check the analytics dashboard at the end of each week. Use the "This Week" filter to compare against prior weeks so you can catch unexpected expenses early.
Use card-level views for team budgets. If each team member or department has their own virtual card, filter by card to see exactly how each team is spending. This is a quick alternative to pulling a full expense report.
Spot subscription creep with category breakdowns. Filter by the software or subscription category and compare month over month. If the total keeps climbing, it may be time to audit which services you're actually using.
Check top merchants before renewing contracts. Before renegotiating a vendor contract, pull up the analytics dashboard to see your exact total spend with that merchant over the past year. Knowing your numbers gives you leverage.
Compare time periods to track growth. Toggle between "This Quarter" and "1 Year" to see if spending patterns are seasonal or trending up. This is especially useful for planning cash reserves.
Pair analytics with spend limits. If the analytics dashboard reveals that a particular card or category is consistently over budget, set a spend limit on that card to enforce the cap automatically. See our guide on configuring spend limits for details.

Need More Help?

If data isn't loading or looks incorrect, try refreshing the page or switching to a different time period and back. For questions about specific transactions or discrepancies, contact support through the app or email support@joinslash.com.

Understanding the Analytics Dashboard