> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.theharvest.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dashboard and insights

> What your ministry looks like at a glance, in plain words.

Your dashboard is the first thing you see. It answers the questions you would otherwise go looking for.

## The numbers

Across the top: members, contacts, published courses, community posts, events, form submissions and receipts.

<Note>
  Every figure is either an exact count or nothing at all. Harvest does not show an estimate and call it a number — if a figure cannot be counted honestly, the card says so instead.
</Note>

## The tabs

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Overview" icon="gauge">
    Your ministry at a glance.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Growth" icon="arrow-trend-up">
    How your congregation is changing over time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Giving" icon="hand-holding-heart">
    What has been [recorded](/giving/recording-a-gift), over the last eight weeks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Engagement" icon="users">
    Who is actually opening the app and working through your material.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Content" icon="pen-nib">
    How your articles and courses are doing.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Insights

Below the numbers, Harvest writes what changed in words — *"Nobody has given for four weeks running"* rather than a chart you have to interpret.

These are comparisons against your own previous weeks, not benchmarks against other churches.

<Tip>
  The insight worth acting on is usually the run-length one. A single quiet week is noise; four in a row is a pattern.
</Tip>

## The giving figure and what it means

<Warning>
  Your giving total counts **recorded** gifts. Money sitting in your PayPal that nobody has entered does not appear.

  If your dashboard says £0 and you know people gave, the gifts are waiting to be [recorded](/giving/recording-a-gift).
</Warning>

## What you will not find here

Harvest does not rank you against other churches, and does not tell you what a healthy number looks like. Those comparisons are almost always misleading — a rural congregation of forty and a city church of four hundred are not doing the same job.

The dashboard shows you your own church, over time.


## Related topics

- [What's new](/changelog.md)
- [Recording a gift](/giving/recording-a-gift.md)
- [People and contacts](/your-church/people-and-contacts.md)
- [How giving works in Harvest](/giving/how-giving-works.md)