# Read the dashboard

URL: https://useembers.com/help/leads/dashboard/
Category: Leads and scoring
Updated: 2026-11-04
Last verified: 2026-11-04

> Who the Embers dashboard puts first and why, what each number counts, new leads by the week, the trial card, and your first scan.

The dashboard (**Dashboard** in the sidebar, `/dashboard`) opens on who to message first. It greets you by name, says in one line what changed this week, and puts one person in the dark card with what they said and a **Write reply** button. The numbers sit beside it, each a link to the leads it counts. Every count leaves out you, your teammates, employees of the profiles you watch, and anyone at a [blocked company](/help/leads/company-blocklist/).

The top bar holds the page title and the notifications bell, and no blue button: the dashboard's one is in **Start here**. While you have nothing to watch, **Start here** offers **Add monitor** itself; otherwise **Add monitor** is the blue button in the top bar on Leads, the Watchlist, and Comments, and in **More** on a phone. **Open leads** and **All leads** on the cards take you to Leads.

## Where the cards sit

On a tablet or computer the cards run in two columns. The left column holds **Start here**, **Up next**, and **New leads**. The right column holds **This week**, **Free trial**, and **Where leads come from**.

On a phone it is one column, in the same order as the two columns read: **Start here**, **Up next**, **New leads**, then **This week**, **Free trial** and **Where leads come from**.

Until the workspace has its first lead, the page is shorter: **Start here** on the left and **What happens next** beside it, which lists "Leads land on this page", "Hot leads get a flame" and "You hear about them by email". **This week** appears once there is a first signal, **New leads** once there is a first lead, and **Where leads come from** once there is a first monitor.

**Up next** shows only when someone follows the dark card, and **Free trial** only for the owner while a trial runs or after one ends, so a card that has nothing to say leaves no gap.

## The line under the greeting

The greeting follows your clock ("Good morning", "Good afternoon", or "Good evening") and your first name. Until the first lead there is no line under it, since **Start here** says where things stand. After that the line reads, for example, "6 new leads this week, and 3 Hot leads right now. None marked as contacted yet." When every agent is paused the line also says "All your agents are paused", which opens **Agents**. Contacted counts leads whose status says so, so a message you sent outside Embers only counts once you mark the lead contacted on its [lead sheet or page](/help/leads/lead-detail/).

## Suggestions

A paid workspace gets [suggestions for what to watch next](/help/signals/suggestions/) every 7 days, and one on the free trial every 3 days. Free gets none. When a batch has something in it, a banner under the greeting says how many and of what kinds, for example "4 suggestions this week" over "Two profiles to watch, one profile to stop watching and one ICP fix. Picked from what your agents found." The count includes the ones queued behind those on show, the same total **Agents** gives. **Review** opens the **Suggestions** sheet to approve or skip each one. The cross hides the banner from the Dashboard until the next batch, with a toast that reads "Hidden from the Dashboard until the next suggestions. They stay on Agents." and **Undo**. Once every one is answered, the banner reads "All answered" with when the next ones arrive, and **See what you chose** opens the sheet again.

## Start here

The dark card shows one lead. Embers picks from your highest-ranked leads:

1. Only confirmed ICP matches who engaged in the last 14 days, and never anyone you marked contacted, dismissed, or snoozed.
2. **Hot** leads first: an ICP fit above 70% and engaged in the last 7 days. The card reads "Start here · Hot, your best fit this week".
3. Then the best fit of the rest, reading "Start here · Your best fit from the last 14 days". A tie goes to whoever engaged last.

When Embers confirmed a [company change](/help/leads/company-changes/) for the lead in the last 30 days, such as a new role, the card shows it first. Then it quotes their latest comment when they wrote one, else (with no change) the reason they match your ICP, then where and when they engaged, for example "Commented on traxy's post · 2d ago". Their ICP fit sits at the right.

- **Write reply** opens their [lead page](/help/leads/lead-detail/) at the opener, ready to draft a message.
- **Open lead** opens their lead sheet on the leads list.
- **Not now** shows the next lead instead. The lead you passed on stays in your list and comes back to the card tomorrow; it is remembered in this browser only.

When nobody qualifies, the card reads "No one new to message right now." with **Open leads**.

## Up next

The two leads after the one in the dark card, picked the same way. The card shows only when there is someone to list; with nobody after the dark card, it is not there. Each row has their name, the Hot flame when they are Hot, their role, fit, words, and source. Click a row to open the lead, or **Write reply** to go straight to the opener. **All leads** opens the [leads list](/help/leads/leads-list/).

## This week

| Row | What it counts | Opens |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hot | ICP matches above 70% fit who engaged in the last 7 days | The leads list with the **Hot** filter on |
| Contacted | Leads you have marked contacted | The **Contacted** tab |
| Verified contacts | Leads with a stored work email or phone | |

Verified contacts reads "Unlocks on a paid plan" during the free trial and on Free: contact details are not part of the trial. See [reveal a lead's email and phone](/help/outreach/lead-enrichment-and-contact-info/).

Under the rows, a line counts the signals Embers read this week across your monitors, every reaction, comment, repost, and keyword post, and says how that compares with the week before: "up from last week", "down from last week", or "same as last week". Signals count actions, including from people who never became leads, so the number is always larger than your lead count.

When this week has no signals after a week that had some, a line at the bottom of the dashboard reads "No new warm signals this week", with a **Check agents** button that opens **Agents**. See [find out why your agents stopped scanning](/help/troubleshooting/agents-not-scanning/).

## Free trial

During the [free trial](/help/account-and-billing/free-trial/), the workspace owner sees a **Free trial** card: engagements used of the cap and the days left, for example "1,240 of 2,000 engagements used · 9 days left", a bar, what a plan keeps (agents keep reading past 2,000 engagements, work emails and phone numbers unlock, every lead stays in your list), and **Pick a plan**, which opens `/choose-plan`. In the last three days, or within the last tenth of the cap, the button turns solid blue.

The line at the top of the page that other pages show near the end of the trial stays off the dashboard, where this card says it, so the offer shows once.

When the trial ends unpaid, the card reads "Your free trial has ended", says that agents are paused and Leads shows a preview, mentions a return offer when you have one, and keeps **Pick a plan**, which opens `/choose-plan` and applies the offer at checkout. For the first 14 days after the trial ends, the workspace owner also sees **Help improve Embers** under the card: one question about the trial, behind **Share feedback**. Answering or dismissing it does not change the offer.

## Where leads come from

Leads found per monitor, most first: each watched profile by name and photo, then your posts, your comments, keywords (every keyword agent in one row), and qualified posts. Each bar takes its source's colour, the same colour as the source mark on the leads list. **Watchlist**, at the top right of the card, opens the [Watchlist](/help/signals/watchlist/), where **Add monitor** adds another. The card appears once the workspace has its first monitor.

## New leads

The **New leads** card counts ICP matches first seen in the last seven days, with your total under the title, such as "29 leads in all", and **All new leads** to open them on the leads list.

- **Against your usual week.** A line compares this week with your typical one, the middle of your weeks since your first: "Up from your usual 13 a week", "Down from your usual 6 a week", or "About your usual week (3 a week)". Until you have two full weeks after your first, it says what your first week found instead, such as "Your first week found 27 leads". With no lead in any of the twelve weeks it says nothing, rather than calling the week quiet.
- **Who arrived.** Up to three new leads show as rows with their photo, the Hot flame when they are Hot, their role, and when they arrived ("Today", "Yesterday", "3d ago", then the date; the exact date on hover); click one to open them. With more, the card shows six photos and "and 13 more".
- **Twelve weeks.** Under them, a bar for each of the last 12 weeks, this week in solid blue. If your workspace began in that time, its first week is striped and labelled with its count: it holds your first scan, which reads months of public history at once, so its bar stops at the top and the other weeks stay readable.

## Your first session

The dark card also carries your first visit:

- **While the first scan runs**, it reads "Reading public history" and "Looking back over 12 months of public history." with a progress bar and what the scan has read so far, such as "41 public posts · 612 engagements · 388 people · 4 cleared your ICP". You can leave the page; leads land on the dashboard as they are found. See [how far back the first scan reads](/help/signals/history-lookback/).
- **When the first lead arrives**, the card reads "Your first lead" and "Someone who matches your ICP just showed up.", with the same Write reply, Open lead, and Not now.
- **If you skipped setup**, and the workspace still has no ICP or nothing watched, the card reads "Finish setup to get your first leads." and "Describe who you sell to, then pick what to watch. Setup picks up where you left it." with **Finish setup**, which returns you to onboarding at the step you left. The **Leads** page offers the same **Finish setup** while it is empty. Setup belongs to whoever runs it: the workspace owner, or an administrator from the agency on a client workspace.
- **If you [joined by invitation](/help/getting-started/join-a-workspace/#where-you-land-after-joining)** and setup is not finished, the card reads "The workspace owner is still setting this up." with **See your team**, which opens **Settings**, then **Team** (`/settings/team`), where the owner is listed first. The **Leads** page says the same while it is empty. You get no **Finish setup**, **View progress**, or **Review preview**, and no **Open setup** notice when the first scan hits a problem or finds nobody. You do still get **Your first leads are ready**, whose **View leads** opens the dashboard.
- **If the scan finds nobody**, it says why (no public posts, nobody engaged, or nobody matched your ICP) with **Review your ICP** or **View agents**. Before any monitor exists once setup is done, it reads "No leads yet." with **Add monitor**.

Cards can appear above the greeting: a client overview on agency workspaces, and on a phone, the **Finish setup** card that sits at the foot of the sidebar on a computer. See [the setup checklist](/help/getting-started/quickstart/#finish-the-setup-checklist). While the onboarding preview is ready and setup is not finished, whoever runs the setup sees that preview instead of the dashboard; someone who joined by invitation sees the ordinary dashboard.

## On Free and after the trial

Free shows three leads: the one in the dark card and the two under it. A panel after them says how many more are locked, with **Pick a plan** after an unpaid trial. See [plans and limits](/help/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits/).

## The old dashboard

The previous dashboard, with its six summary cards and recent leads table, retired on **1 October 2026**. There is no view to switch to. In October 2026 the dashboard also dropped its four stat tiles, the running-total chart, and the **Opportunity found** card for the layout above; **Audience fit** moved to the [ICP page](/help/getting-started/define-your-icp/) as **Who your leads are**.

## Troubleshooting

- **The first week's bar is striped.** That week holds your first scan, which reads months of public history at once. Its count is printed over it; the bar stops at the top so the weeks after it stay readable.
- **Only Start here and What happens next show.** No scan has qualified anyone yet; the cards that count arrive with the first signal, lead and monitor. Agents scan every 24 hours by default. See [No leads yet](/help/troubleshooting/no-leads-yet/).
- **The dark card shows someone I already messaged.** Mark them contacted from their lead sheet or page; contacted leads leave the card.
- **"No one new to message right now."** Nobody who matches your ICP engaged in the last 14 days without being contacted. Your leads are all still on the leads list.
- **"No new warm signals this week".** Nothing came in this week after a week that had signals. Choose **Check agents** and look for an agent that is paused or failing.
- **"Could not load dashboard data".** One of the requests failed. Reload the page.

## Related

- [Find and filter leads](/help/leads/leads-list/): Where All leads and the numbers go.

- [Open a lead](/help/leads/lead-detail/): Where Write reply and Open lead go.

- [The free trial](/help/account-and-billing/free-trial/): What the trial card counts.

- [No leads yet](/help/troubleshooting/no-leads-yet/): When the dashboard has no lead yet.

## Frequently asked questions

**Why is my highest-scored lead not in Start here?**

Start here puts Hot leads first, then the best ICP fit among leads who engaged in the last 14 days. A lead you have marked contacted, dismissed, or snoozed is skipped, and so is anyone you chose Not now for today.

**What does "this week" mean exactly?**

The last seven days in the workspace owner's timezone, today included. New leads counts people by the day they were first seen; signals count actions, compared with the seven days before.

**Where did Audience fit go?**

It moved to the ICP page as Who your leads are, beside the criteria it describes, in October 2026.

**Where did the old dashboard go?**

It retired on 1 October 2026, along with the switch between views. Every member now sees the same dashboard.