---
title: "Reading Your Dashboard"
status: draft
version: 1.0
last_updated: 2026-03-20
description: "Guide to understanding your CartSnitch dashboard — purchases, price trends, and alerts at a glance."
---

# Reading Your Dashboard

Your dashboard is your home base. It gives you a quick read on what's happening with your grocery spending without digging through menus.

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## What You'll See

### Triggered Alerts Banner

If any of your price alerts have fired, a green banner appears at the top of the dashboard. It tells you how many alerts triggered and links directly to the Alerts page. This is your "time to buy" signal.

### Price Trend Sparklines

Small charts that show recent price movement for key items. These aren't detailed analyses — they're quick visual checks. Is the line going up or down? That's what they're for.

Each sparkline shows:
- **The product name** (e.g., "Large Eggs — Meijer")
- **The current price**
- **A trend line** over recent data points

`[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Dashboard sparkline cards showing egg and milk price trends with current prices]`

### Recent Purchases

The last three shopping trips from your connected stores. Each card shows:
- **Store name and icon**
- **Date** of the purchase
- **Total spent**
- **Number of items**

Tap any purchase to see the full receipt breakdown with individual item prices.

### Quick Actions

Links to the features you'll use most:
- **Products** — search and browse tracked products
- **Alerts** — manage your price watches
- **Coupons** — see available deals from your stores

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## When You First Sign Up

The dashboard starts empty. That's normal — it fills in as soon as you connect a store account. Within minutes of connecting, you'll see your purchase history and price data start flowing in.

If you've connected a store but the dashboard is still empty after 15 minutes, try pulling down to refresh, or check **Settings > Connect a Store** to verify the connection status.

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## Dashboard vs. Other Pages

The dashboard is the summary. For deep dives:
- **Purchases** gives you your full purchase history with search and filters
- **Products** lets you explore individual product prices and history
- **Alerts** shows all your price watches in detail
- **Coupons** lists available deals from your connected stores

Think of the dashboard as the headlines. The other pages are the full articles.