Dashboard tour
What the AreaCacao home screen shows you and what each card does.
The Dashboard is your home screen: the first item in the sidebar (home icon), at https://app.areacacao.com/dashboard. It's the first thing you see when you sign in, and it gives you the pulse of your activity at a glance. It's organized around 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's the anchor of the screen: from there on, everything is a summary or a shortcut.
If you left onboarding half-finished, the dashboard shows a Finish setting up your workspace notice at the top, with a Continue button that reopens onboarding.
The status cards
A row of four cards summarizes your account. Each one is clickable, but they don't all lead to the same tool:
- Recipes — how many recipes you have and how many you touched in the last seven days. Opens the My recipes listing.
- AI credits — the credits you have left this month and a usage bar. It changes color as you approach the limit. It takes you to the plans and pricing page to review or upgrade your plan.
- Current plan — your plan (Free, Starter, Pro, or Studio) and the business type you set up. It also takes you to plans and pricing.
- Ingredients — the number of sheets available in the global catalog. Opens the Ingredients catalog.
Pillar 1 · Formulation
The first block gathers everything you need to design, import, and cost out recipes. It has three entry cards:
- Filling formulator — the flagship tool (it carries a Featured badge): ganaches, caramels, and pâte de fruit, AI-balanced.
- Chocolate formulator — design your couverture by setting the cocoa % and the fluidity you want.
- Import recipes — upload a photo or a PDF and we'll turn it into an editable recipe.
Below, a row of three quick links: My recipes (your complete recipe book), Ingredients (catalog and technical sheets), and Costs (costing and margins).
Your Recent recipes also appear here, with a "View all" link to the full listing. If you don't have any yet, you'll see "You don't have any recipes yet" and a button to create your first one.
Pillar 2 · Sensory analysis
The second block depends on your plan:
- On Pro and Studio you see the full 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).
- On Free and Starter you see a block to discover the module, with a call to upgrade your plan.
Settings
At the bottom of the dashboard, a Settings and preferences link opens your account settings.
The dashboard is evolving: its layout may change in future versions. What we describe here is the current home screen; the essential shortcuts —the two formulators, recipes, importing, and credits— will stay one click away.