In This Article: Support channels, self-serve help center resources, FAQs for every Compass tab, real-world finance workflow guidance, the Marketplace, and what's coming to Compass as the platform grows.
How to Get Help
Compass has two distinct support pathways. The Support widget handles platform questions, technical issues, bug reports, and product feedback. The Requests tab is for commissioning work from your Compass team — reports, dashboards, and other deliverables. Using the right channel gets you a faster resolution.
Located in the bottom-right corner of every Compass screen. The widget is AI-powered — it searches help documentation to answer your question immediately before escalating to the team. Use it to:
- Ask any question about how Compass works
- Submit a support ticket
- Request a live support chat
- Report a bug
- Submit a feature request
- Send general product feedback
Ticket form: compasssupport.ebmsoftware.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Located in the top navigation bar. Use it to commission work from your Compass team. Common request types include:
- Building or updating a dashboard or report
- Updating data fields, filters, or chart configurations
- Scheduling a one-time or recurring review meeting with your analyst
- Requesting a new data connection or source
- Adding a new KPI, metric, or calculated field to an existing dashboard
- Onboarding a new team member or adjusting access
Not for platform bugs or technical issues — those go to the Support widget.
Self-Serve Resources
The articles below cover every Compass tab in depth. Find the section that matches where you're working — most common questions are answered there before you need to contact support.
General FAQs
Common questions about navigating Compass, understanding how tabs work, and platform-level behavior.
Tasks are internal work items — to-dos you create and assign to yourself or a team member to track reporting work and deadlines. Requests are outbound commissions sent to your Compass team asking them to build or deliver something, like a new report or custom dashboard. Both are visible in the right-hand panel on every Compass screen.
Use the Search Compass… bar in the top navigation to search across dashboards, reports, tasks, and requests. Smith conversations and Lakehouse files are not surfaced through global search — use the file tree search within the Lakehouse tab to find files directly.
Compass is a web-based platform accessible through any modern browser. The interface is optimized for desktop. Mobile browser access is possible, though some features work better on larger screens. A dedicated mobile app and enhanced mobile responsiveness are on the Compass roadmap — see the What's Coming section below.
Dashboard visibility is controlled by your role and the sharing settings applied by the dashboard owner or your administrator. If you're missing a dashboard you expect to see, submit a Request to your Compass team asking them to verify your access level or share it directly.
Business Spotlight is the pinned dashboard shown at the top of your My Compass homepage, giving you at-a-glance KPI visibility without navigating to the Dashboards tab. Your Compass team configures which dashboard is set as the Spotlight — submit a Request if you'd like it updated.
Most Compass logins are managed through your organization's Single Sign-On (SSO) system, which means password resets and login changes are typically handled by your IT team rather than within Compass itself. If you access Compass with a direct email login, use the password reset option on the login screen. See Account Settings and Security for a full walkthrough of what you can manage within the platform.
Your data is private and isolated to your organization's Compass environment. Compass and Smith do not use your uploaded files or conversation data to train AI models. Lakehouse files and Smith conversations are not accessible to other users unless you explicitly share them.
Dashboard FAQs
Each chart card shows a timestamp indicating when the underlying data was last refreshed. Dashboard data is updated by your Compass team on a scheduled cycle. If the data appears stale beyond an expected refresh window, submit a ticket via the Support widget including the dashboard name and affected chart.
Available chart types include Bar, Bar Vertical, Grouped, Stacked, Combo, Line, Multiline, Pie, Waterfall, Waterfall Bridge, Gauge, Card, Treemap, Sunburst, and Channel. If you need something not listed, use the Request a chart type option in the Dashboards interface, or submit a feature request through the Support widget.
Contact the Support widget as soon as possible after a deletion — recovery may be possible depending on timing. For charts on shared or team dashboards, your Compass team may have access to restore them directly.
Use the Save button in the canvas toolbar. There is no separate publish step — Save commits your changes immediately. Use Preview before saving to verify chart layout and data display. To experiment without affecting the live version, use Make a Copy first.
Yes. The Download option in the canvas toolbar exports the dashboard as an image or PDF. For data-level exports from individual charts, submit a Request to your Compass team if you need recurring exports in a specific format.
Smith FAQs
There are two distinct processes after an upload. The file appears in Smith's file tree panel shortly after upload — near-immediate, queue-based. Full indexing, which makes the file queryable by Smith, runs on a separate 24-hour cycle. A clock icon tooltip on the file row indicates sync is still in progress. If the file is visible in the panel but Smith can't reference its contents, the indexing cycle hasn't completed yet.
Smith includes Gemini 2.5 Pro, GPT-5.1, and Claude Haiku 4.5 in the base package, with premium add-on models also available. For most financial analysis and document-grounded questions, any base model performs well. Use multi-model comparison when the decision is high-stakes and you want cross-checked reasoning. If you're unsure, let Smith auto-select.
Always verify critical outputs against your source data — Smith is a decision-support tool, not a source of truth. Ask Smith to cite its sources ("What files did you use for this?"). If outputs are inconsistent with your data, lower the Temperature setting for more grounded responses, and rephrase your prompt with more specific constraints. If the behavior seems like a product issue rather than a prompt issue, report it via the Support widget.
Temperature controls how exploratory Smith's responses are. Low (0.0) produces focused, consistent, closely grounded answers — best for financial analysis and compliance-sensitive work. Medium (0.5) balances precision with some variability. High (1.0) produces more creative or exploratory responses, useful for brainstorming or narrative drafting. For most finance work, Low or Medium is appropriate.
Supported formats include PDF, DOCX, DOC, CSV, XLS/XLSX, TXT, JSON, Markdown, SQL, images, HTML, Python, and PowerPoint. Maximum file size is 25MB per file. If you need to upload a file larger than 25MB, submit a Request to your Compass team — they can upload files to your Lakehouse directly on your behalf. Additional formats are being added over time.
Smith conversations are private to your account. You can export a conversation to Word or PDF using the export option within the thread, then share that document. Direct conversation sharing between Compass users is not yet available.
Lakehouse, Tasks & Requests FAQs
Files without a designated folder land in the root of the Lakehouse rather than inside a specific folder. Use the Recent tab at the top of the Lakehouse to find files by upload time. If a file is still missing after a few minutes, check the upload panel for any error state and try uploading again.
Open the Requests tab from the top navigation — all submitted requests are listed with their current status. You can also view open requests in the right-hand panel visible on every tab. If a request is overdue or you need to add information, use the request thread to communicate with your Compass team directly.
Check the Task Detail field in the task for a description of expected deliverables. If the detail is insufficient, contact the task assignor directly, or use the Requests tab to raise a clarification with your Compass team.
Yes. Right-click a file in the Lakehouse or use the three-dot menu on the file row and select Delete. Deletion is permanent — there is no recycle bin. If you need to recover a deleted file, contact the Support widget as soon as possible.
Compass in Your Day-to-Day
Finance teams use Compass across a wide range of recurring workflows. The scenarios below show how your work maps into the platform — click any card to expand the guidance.
- Use Tasks to track each close step with due dates and assignees
- Upload trial balance and GL extracts to the Lakehouse so Smith can assist with variance explanations
- Use a Financial Analyst persona in Smith to draft line-item commentary quickly
- Monitor Report Updates on My Compass daily to see which dashboards have been refreshed
- Submit a Request to your Compass team to update dashboards with final actuals
- Upload final P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow to the Lakehouse for the new period
- Use Smith to generate a budget vs. actuals summary, then export to Word for review
- Archive completed Tasks and close resolved Requests to keep your workspace clean
- Upload approved budget templates and prior-year actuals to the Lakehouse so Smith can reference them across multiple sessions
- Use Smith to run sensitivity analyses — model the impact of a 5% revenue shortfall against your fixed cost structure, for example
- Submit a Request for a Budget vs. Actuals dashboard that gives live visibility throughout the year without manual reporting
- Use Tasks to assign departmental budget submissions with hard deadlines and track completion centrally
- The Marketplace includes a Rolling 12-Month Cash Flow Forecast service for teams that need structured modeling support
- Set a consolidated KPI dashboard as Business Spotlight so executives see key numbers immediately on login
- Use the Dark/Light toggle in the canvas toolbar when presenting — Light mode renders more cleanly in projection environments
- Download dashboards as PDFs using the Download button in the toolbar for board pack inclusion
- Use Smith to draft written executive summaries grounded in your Lakehouse financial documents — provide context on what the board needs to focus on within the prompt
- Request an Executive Financial Performance Dashboard through the Marketplace for a custom board-ready consolidated view
- Upload current actuals alongside the approved budget to the Lakehouse, then ask Smith to identify and explain the top five variance drivers by department
- Use Smith prompts like "Show me the top 3 cost drivers against budget" or "Analyze Q3 margin variance by region" to accelerate first-pass analysis
- Request a Budget vs. Actuals dashboard from your Compass team to automate this comparison on a monthly cadence
- Export Smith's analysis to Word, then add department head commentary before distributing — Smith handles the data narrative, you validate it
- For profitability analysis at the product or customer segment level, the Marketplace includes a dedicated Product & Customer Profitability Report service
- Create a dedicated Lakehouse folder structure for each audit period — organize by area (e.g., Revenue, Payroll, AP/AR) so audit evidence is easy to locate and share
- Use Smith to quickly surface relevant documents when auditors ask questions — ask it to find and summarize content from specific files rather than manually searching through folders
- Use Tasks to track each auditor request as a work item with a due date and assignee, ensuring nothing falls through
- After the audit, upload the final management letter and any remediation documentation to the Lakehouse for reference in future periods
- Smith does not replace legal or compliance counsel — use it for document retrieval and drafting support only, and verify all outputs with your team
- Submit a Request to your Compass team to provision access for a new team member and configure their dashboard visibility
- At fiscal year start, upload the new-year budget file, updated org chart, and any revised reporting templates to the Lakehouse
- Create a persona in Smith for new staff — a "Finance Onboarding" persona that includes relevant context about your reporting structure and terminology can significantly accelerate ramp-up
- Use Tasks to build out a recurring close calendar for the full year with pre-assigned owners and due dates — set it up once, reference it every month
- Request a recurring review meeting cadence with your Compass analyst via the Requests tab to stay aligned on dashboard updates and deliverable priorities throughout the year
The Marketplace
The Marketplace tab provides access to specialized analytics and financial modeling services delivered by the Compass expert team. These are professional engagements — scoped, delivered, and reviewed collaboratively — for when you need something more tailored than a standard dashboard build.
Marketplace content is periodically updated. Browse the Marketplace tab in Compass for the current full catalogue.
What's Coming to Compass
Compass launched May 1, 2026 and will expand throughout the year. The features below are on the active roadmap — not yet live in the product.
Share Lakehouse folders with team members for cross-team file collaboration and folder sync.
For teams already using Power BI, Compass will support embedding and managing Power BI dashboards and reports directly within the platform — centralizing your full reporting landscape in one place.
AI-driven agents that execute multi-step analytical workflows, predictive actions, and automated ROI tracking — H2 2026 roadmap.
Build and share custom prompts with your team from within Smith. Currently, the prompt library contains pre-built prompts only.
A dedicated mobile application and improved responsive layout for smaller screens are on the roadmap as Compass expands beyond desktop.
Segment and target dashboard and report distribution by defined audience groups for more precise sharing workflows.
If a question isn't covered here or in the linked articles, the Support widget in the bottom-right corner of Compass is your fastest path to an answer. Type your question and the AI assistant searches help documentation immediately — if it can't resolve your issue, it connects you to the support team directly without leaving Compass.
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