Bricks

What is Bricks?

Bricks is an AI reporting and dashboard tool that helps people turn spreadsheet data (CSV and Excel) into dashboards and reports. Its core purpose is to reduce the time and effort required to build and update multi-chart dashboards by combining layout control with AI-based editing and regeneration.

The product is positioned as an alternative to manual chart building in spreadsheets and to more complex BI tools, focusing on creating “beautiful, editable dashboards” that can be customized after import and refreshed when the underlying data changes.

Key Features

• Import data from CSV and Excel: Use spreadsheet files as the starting point for dashboard creation.
• Full control over dashboard elements (drag-and-customize): Manually adjust and customize charts and layout instead of relying only on auto-generated visuals.
• Natural-language editing with AI: Edit dashboard contents by describing changes in plain language.
• One-click dashboard refresh with new data: Update the data source and regenerate charts while preserving the existing dashboard layout.
• Interactive filtering: Click data points in the dashboard to filter the rest of the dashboard and explore patterns.
• Templates for reusable dashboard layouts: Save a dashboard structure and reuse it with fresh data.
• Professional themes with zero design work: Apply polished visual themes without requiring design skills.
• Bring data from other sources: Import data from Google Sheets and databases (in addition to spreadsheets).

How to Use Bricks

1. Get started with data by uploading CSV/Excel files or importing data from Google Sheets or a database.
2. Create a dashboard using the AI assistance to generate initial charts and report elements.
3. Refine the layout by dragging and customizing dashboard components, applying a theme if desired.
4. Adjust with AI edits using natural language to make specific changes.
5. Use the dashboard interactively by clicking charts for filtering.
6. Refresh with new data when the data updates; regenerate charts while keeping the same layout.

Use Cases

• Monthly performance and staff reporting: Upload CRM or other operational data to produce a dashboard that can be shared with teams, avoiding manual rebuilding each reporting cycle.
• Budget and cash flow reporting: Consolidate multiple reporting views into a single dashboard that can be updated as new figures are available.
• Operational and issue tracking dashboards: Build dashboards for domains like facilities issue management and interactively filter to drill into subsets of data.
• Surveys and analysis reporting: Create dashboards from survey results or analysis datasets to summarize key metrics in a digestible, presentation-ready format.
• Forecasting and business presentations: Generate report dashboards for scenarios such as sales forecasting, including narrative-style presentation supported by AI.

FAQ

• Do I need to manually build every chart? Bricks supports both AI-generated dashboards and manual customization (drag-and-drop and editing dashboard elements). It’s designed to reduce hours of manual chart building and formatting.

• Can dashboards be updated when data changes? Yes. The product includes one-click dashboard refresh so charts can regenerate with new data while preserving the dashboard layout.

• Can I interact with the dashboard to explore details? Yes. You can use interactive filtering by clicking data points to filter the rest of the dashboard.

• Is it limited to spreadsheet files? No. In addition to CSV and Excel uploads, Bricks states that you can import data from Google Sheets and databases.

• Can I reuse a dashboard structure? Yes. Templates let you save a dashboard layout and reuse it with fresh data.

Alternatives

• Canva (for visual reports): Useful for creating polished visuals, but it can become manual for producing many charts from frequently changing data.
• Tableau: A BI platform that may be more complex to set up and use compared with a simpler dashboard workflow focused on editable dashboards and AI-assisted editing.
• Power BI: Another BI option geared toward dashboarding and analytics, typically requiring more setup and learning than a streamlined tool for CSV/Excel-to-dashboard workflows.
• Looker-style BI / data exploration tools: Categories of tools for exploring and reporting from datasets, often better suited when you need a full analytics environment rather than fast dashboard editing from spreadsheets.