A guide for real people who run real businesses
No tech background needed. This explains what the tool is, what every screen does, and how to use it to understand your own business better.
You run a business. Your information — your trucks, your jobs, your money, your paperwork — is scattered everywhere. Some's in a notebook, some in a spreadsheet, some in your head.
This tool is a website where you pick the screens ("dashboards") you wish you had, watch them work on pretend numbers, and then hand the list to a real person who builds the real thing — using your numbers.
Picture the pegboard on your shop wall. When it's set up right, every tool has its spot. You walk in, glance at the wall, and instantly know what's there, what's missing, and what's out of place. You don't have to dig.
Now picture your business information the same way. Right now it's like tools tossed in a drawer, the truck, and the junk pile. You have the information — but you can't see it all at once, so things slip: a service gets missed, a renewal sneaks up, a slow month surprises you.
A dashboard is a pegboard for your information. One clean screen where the numbers that matter each have a spot, and a glance tells you what's fine, what needs attention today, and what's about to bite you.
This website lets you try on different pegboards before you commit. You pick the ones that fit your shop, see what they'd look like, and order the ones you want. A person builds them and wires them to your real numbers.
Go to the site and click "Start building." No account, no password.
A list of solutions grouped by industry. Click one to add it, click again to remove. Not sure? Click "Help me choose" and it suggests the ones that fit your kind of business.
Each one you add has a "Show me" button that opens the live dashboard on its own page (running on sample numbers), plus three plain facts: how long it takes to build, a ballpark price range (a typical range, not a quote), and roughly how many hours a week it saves. Time saved is an estimate that varies with your data, connections and setup — and every dashboard is customized, which is why the price varies.
A panel at the top adds it all up: typical investment, hours reclaimed per week, and what those hours are worth in a year. Type in your own hourly rate so the number fits your shop. These are honest estimates to help you plan — not a bill.
Copy a share link to send your build to a partner (it remembers your picks), save a one-page Scope PDF, or download your blueprint and a data template.
Click "Send to TNDS," answer a few quick questions, and optionally get a copy emailed to yourself. Or click "Book a call" for a 15-minute time. Either way, Jacob — a real person — replies, usually within one business day.
Prefer to look around first? The Catalog puts all 22 solutions on one page. Search by a plain word like "fuel," "leads," or "compliance," tap your industry to narrow the list, open any one's live demo, and add the ones you like straight to your build with one click. It's the same set of tools — just laid out for browsing instead of building.
Besides picking ready-made dashboards, there's a KPI Builder (linked at the top of the Build Studio). Tick the cards you want from the left — plain number tiles (revenue, open jobs, fuel spend, compliance) and chart cards: trend lines, bar charts, donuts, a gauge, a waterfall, a month-over-month scorecard, a heatmap, and more.
Date | Value) and how they feed the chart.When it looks right, copy the build ticket or save it as a PDF and send it over. Same idea as everything else: you design the screen, a real person builds it.
Every screen on the site has a small "Theme" button in the top bar. Click it and you can recolor the whole thing — the accent, the background, the top bar, the sidebar, the cards, even the chart colors — and switch the font, all from one little panel. Pick colors that match your brand and the screens follow along. It only changes your view (nobody else's), and your choices ride along in the page link, so you can share a screen looking exactly the way you set it up.
Each one answers a simple question about your business.
"Where do all my trucks and drivers stand?"
Every truck on one screen — which are working, which are in the shop, which need service soon, what you're spending on fuel, and whether each driver's medical card and CDL are current.
Why it matters: a missed brake service or an expired medical card can pull a truck off the road or fail a DOT inspection. This catches it before it costs you a truck, a fine, or a bad audit.
Runs on: a list of your trucks — status, next service date, fuel spend, driver, and when their cards expire.
"Which bays are making money and what's about to break?"
Every wash bay (open and earning, or down), which equipment is due for service, and which chemicals or parts are running low so you reorder before you run dry.
Why it matters: a down bay is lost revenue every hour, and running out of soap kills a busy Saturday. This shows the trouble early.
Runs on: your sites and equipment — what it is, when it was last serviced, when it's due, and which bay it's in.
"Is the business doing well this month, yes or no?"
The handful of big numbers an owner cares about — money in this month, profit margin, how well you're serving customers, and the one risk worth watching — each with a green/yellow/red light.
Why it matters: you shouldn't have to dig through spreadsheets to know if the month is good or bad. One screen, one glance.
Runs on: your top business numbers — the value now, the target, and whether it's trending up or down.
"Who's doing what, and what's stuck?"
A board of who owns which job, what's overdue, and what's blocked — waiting on something before it can move.
Why it matters: jobs stop falling through the cracks. You see at a glance who's buried and who needs a hand today, not at the end of the week.
Runs on: a list of tasks — who owns it, when it's due, and whether it's done, in progress, or blocked.
"Are sales going up or down?"
Your revenue day by day, week by week, and month by month against your target — plus your win rate and average deal size.
Why it matters: you catch a slump while you can still do something about it, instead of finding out when the month closes.
Runs on: your sales by period — what came in, what the target was, and how far off you are.
"Are we ready if an inspector shows up tomorrow?"
A risk board for the things regulators check — inspections, ELD, drug/alcohol testing, driver files — with an overall readiness score and a clear list of what's overdue or expiring soon.
Why it matters: a surprise audit is a lot less scary when everything's green and your paperwork packet is one click from ready.
Runs on: your compliance areas — a score, what's overdue, what's expiring, and who owns fixing it.
The previews use pretend numbers. To make a dashboard show your business, somebody has to put your numbers in. That's what the Excel data template is for.
Think of it like a time card or a log sheet. It's a workbook with one tab (one page) for each dashboard, and each tab has a row of column titles across the top — like "Truck," "Next Service Date," "Fuel Spend." You fill in the rows underneath with your real numbers, the same way you'd fill in a log.
A few simple rules so it works:
2026-07-15. Money is just the number — 1240, not $1,240. Percents are just the number — 91, not 91%.When Jacob builds your real dashboard, he connects it to this sheet. From then on, you keep the sheet up to date and the dashboard updates itself. Fill the log, the board lights up.
Want to see that right now? Two of the dashboards — the Command Center and the Sales Trend board — have a "Use my data" button on the demo itself. Download the template, fill in that dashboard's tab, and upload it, and the screen redraws with your numbers on the spot. Your file is read in your browser only — nothing is uploaded or saved anywhere. It's a live taste of exactly what "fill the log, the board lights up" feels like.
No account to manage. No automatic charges. The prices on the site are a ballpark to help you plan, not a bill — the real number comes from that conversation.
Talk to a person
You don't need to figure this out alone — the whole point is that a human builds it for you.
Jacob Johnston — True North Data Strategies
📞 719-204-6365 · ✉️ jacob@truenorthstrategyops.com
Click "Book a call" on the site for a 15-minute time, or just call. If something here didn't make sense, that's a fine reason to call too.
True North Data Strategies — turning scattered information into a clear view of your business. Built for the people who actually run the work.