Dashboard tour

The dashboard is your home screen: the first item in the sidebar (house icon), at https://app.areacacao.com/dashboard. It shows you where your work stands at a glance. It's organized into two pillars: Formulation and Sensory analysis.

The greeting

At the top, a greeting based on the time of day and, below it, "Here's a summary of your activity on AreaCacao". It anchors the screen: everything below it is summaries and shortcuts.

Get started

While you're getting started, the Get started list appears below the greeting, with a counter ("n of 5") and a progress bar. Each step has a button that takes you straight to it:

1. Create your account (already done when you sign in).
2. Formulate your first recipe — opens the What do you want to formulate? picker.
3. Review its validation.
4. Price your first order.
5. Launch your first sensory evaluation (if your plan doesn't include the module, the step is Unlock sensory analysis).

When you've completed them all, you'll see "You're all set!". You can collapse the list or remove it with the Dismiss onboarding checklist button; once it's completed or dismissed, it doesn't come back.

The status cards

A row of four cards sums up your account. Each one is clickable, but they don't all go to the same screen:

• Recipes — how many recipes you have and how many you've worked on in the last seven days (or "Create your first recipe" if you don't have any yet). Opens the My recipes list.
• Credits — the credits you have left, of [n] this month, with a bar that changes color as you approach the limit. Opens the Usage tab in Settings, with your balance and usage history.
• Current plan — your plan (Starter, Pro, or Studio; Free on older free accounts created before sign-up required choosing a plan) and the business type you set up. Opens the Subscription tab in Settings. If you haven't set your business type yet, you'll see Set up your business, and the card takes you to the Regional tab. If there's a billing problem, the card changes to Payment issue ("Review your payment method").
• Ingredients — the number of ingredient sheets available in the global catalog. Opens the Ingredients catalog.

Pillar 1 · Formulation

The first block brings together everything you need to design, import, and cost recipes. It has three entry cards:

• Filling formulator — "Ganaches, caramels, and pâte de fruit, AI-balanced." (the formulator also covers pralinés and truffles).
• Chocolate formulator — design your couverture by setting the cocoa percentage and the fluidity you're after.
• Import recipes — upload a photo or a PDF and we turn it into an editable recipe.

Below them, a row of three shortcuts: My recipes (your full recipe book), Ingredients (catalog and technical sheets), and Costs (cost breakdown and margins).

This is also where your Recent recipes appear (up to seven), with a View all → link to the full list. If you don't have any yet, you'll see "You don't have any recipes yet" and the Create your first recipe button, which opens the What do you want to formulate? picker.

Pillar 2 · Sensory analysis

The second block depends on your plan:

• If your plan includes the module (Pro or Studio), you see the real module: a row of metrics (Evaluations this month, Active batches, Shelf-life alerts, Dossiers) and three entry cards (Evaluations, Descriptive tasting, and More in sensory).
• If not (Starter and older Free accounts), a block appears to help you discover the module, with a button to upgrade to Pro and another to View public demo.

Settings

At the bottom of the dashboard, a "Settings and preferences" link opens your account settings.