Quick start guide

Get started with workbooks, datasources, and dashboards in Equals

Jiayan Yu avatar
Written by Jiayan Yu
Updated over a week ago

With Equals you can connect, analyze, and report on live data from the comfort of your spreadsheet. This guide will walk you through some of Equals' core features - workbooks, datasources, and dashboards - to help you hit the ground running.

What are Workbooks?

Equals is a fully-featured spreadsheet, so if you’re coming from Excel or Sheets, you’ll feel right at home in your workbook. You can continue to use the functions, shortcuts and pivot tables you already know.

All your workbooks, including those you've created, those shared by your team, and those that are stored in folders that have been shared with you, can be accessed from the 'Workbooks' page. To find specific workbooks, you can use the workbooks search bar or simply apply filters by creator and last updated date.

Beyond the spreadsheet fundamentals, Equals enhances your experience with features designed to turbocharge your analysis. You can debug formulas in seconds with Explain Formulas, use Smartfill to suggest formulas that work in the context of your spreadsheet, and use AI Assist to edit queries, formulas and charts. At any point, you can hit CMD K to open the global search bar and search for any command.

Getting started with Workbooks

To create a workbook from scratch, just select 'New workbook' in the upper right hand side of your dashboard.

To jumpstart your workbook, you can dive into our ready-to-use templates.


Templates are pre-built workbooks complete with formulas, pivots, and charts. To get started, just connect the template to your datasource. Learn more about our templates, or try them for yourself.

What are Datasources?

Your Workbooks connect directly to your datasources - including databases, data warehouses, and frequently used apps - with no ETL-wrangling required. Once you have connected your workbook to a datasource, you’ll be able to query the datasource directly from your workbook to pull data into your analysis.

You can view all your available datasources from the 'Datasources' dashboard. To add a new datasource, click the 'New datasource' button on the top right hand side of the 'Datasources' dashboard and follow the provided instructions (or check out our configuration guides).


Note that datasources fall into two categories: Included (those part of your plan) and Paid (those supported by Fivetran and that require an additional $100/mo per connection).

Sharing Datasources

You can share datasources so that they can be easily reused by your teammates. Click the '...' icon next to a datasource in your dashboard and select 'share'. You can share a datasource with your entire workspace, enabling anyone to configure and use it, or restrict it to invite-only, limiting access to teammates who've been invited via email.

What are Dashboards?

Every Equals workbook includes a dashboard, which allows you to transform your analyses into dynamic, live reports. You can automate report distribution on a custom schedule — so you never have to make manual updates, and the team can always access the latest insights.

Getting Started with Dashboards

To create a dashboard, simply open any workbook and go to the Dashboard tab. You can add individual cells, tables, charts, or even AI-generated summaries to your dashboard. These objects refresh based on any scheduled queries in the workbook, ensuring your dashboard always reflects the most recent data.

You can share your dashboard without opening up access to the underlying model. To do this, hit Share in the top right corner, invite users to your workbook, and then set their access level to 'Dashboard only'. This will ensure that invited users can only view the Dashboard tab, and will not be able to view or edit your workbook.

To distribute your dashboard as a report, simply hit the Publish & Export button in the top right corner, and then add a destination (Slack, Google Slides, or email). You can then set a custom schedule (daily or weekly — hourly available only on the Best plan) for each added destination. Alternatively, you can export your dashboard to PDF as a one-time action.

Did this answer your question?