Getting Started with SG-Dashboard
Day-one orientation for SG-Dashboard — what you land on, what to do first, what to read next.
SG-Dashboard is the account-tier control surface for SGEN — the place where you create sites, manage billing, configure account-wide settings, and operate across multiple sites. This guide is your first 30 minutes inside SG-Dashboard. It covers what you see after login, what the platform is recommending you do next, which areas matter most on day one, and the operating rules every new account should know before clicking around.
The recommended sequence is structured: Create a site → Connect integrations → Add locations → Generate your first report. Following the sequence means the platform builds the right context for you in the right order. Wandering through the interface guessing what comes next is allowed, but the sequence is the path of least friction.
What is this for?
Read this page on your first session inside SG-Dashboard. Use it to recognize the landing surface, follow the recommended onboarding sequence, identify the small set of areas you need on day one, and internalize the operating rules that will save you time later. It is the fastest path from "first login" to "operating with intent."
The page is a guide. It walks the day-one experience and links to per-area Reference and per-task Guides at each step.
Good use cases
- You created an SGEN account and want to know where to start.
- You are returning to SG-Dashboard after time away and need a fast re-entry.
- You are setting up a new client account and want a single share-link for the team.
- You are reviewing the onboarding experience and want to confirm the recommended sequence is current.
- You hit a "what does this card mean" moment on the landing and want the structural answer.
What NOT to use this for
- Step-by-step site creation — open How to Create a New Site in SGEN.
- Billing operations — open Billing and Site Capacity in SGEN.
- Specific integration setup — open How to Connect Google Integrations in SGEN.
- Per-area Reference — open the SG-Dashboard Overview.
How this connects to other features
- How to Create a New Site — the next step after orientation.
- How to Complete Site Setup — what happens after the site exists.
- Billing and Site Capacity — the billing model behind site provisioning.
- How to Add Users to a Site — adding teammates per site.
- SG-Dashboard Overview — full account-tier Reference.
- Environments and Site States — staging-vs-live model.
- Roles and Access — account-tier vs site-tier authority.
What you land on after login
After a successful login, you arrive at the Dashboard at dashboard.sgen.com/dashboard. The landing page is structured around three cards designed to guide your first session.
Quick Actions
Direct entry points to the most common day-one tasks: Create New Site, View Sites, View Analytics, Generate Report, Manage Locations. Use these when you know what you want to do and need to get there fast.
Getting Started
The recommended onboarding sequence the platform suggests for new accounts. The order is intentional — each step assumes the previous one has been completed. Following the sequence is the path of least friction; deviating is allowed but means you may have to backtrack later.
Resources & Help
Links into documentation, knowledge base material, and support. Use this card when you hit a question that needs a deeper read than the in-app text provides.
The recommended Getting Started sequence
The Dashboard's Getting Started card is the platform's recommended onboarding sequence. For a new account, the order is:
- Create your first site. Provisions a SGEN site against your subscription.
- Connect Google integrations. Hooks up Google services that downstream features (Locations, reporting, integrations) depend on.
- Add your locations. Configures the locations the site references.
- Generate your first report. Validates that the integrations and data flow work end-to-end.
Follow the sequence in this order unless your team has a different rollout requirement. The order is what the platform's onboarding flows expect; deviating means later steps may surface "you have not done X yet" prompts.
Core areas you will use first
A new account usually needs only a small set of SG-Dashboard areas on day one. Recognize them in the navigation and you will get oriented faster.
Dashboard
The control view with the three landing cards (Quick Actions, Getting Started, Resources & Help). Your default re-entry point every session.
Site Manager
Per-site cards showing each site's status, environment access (staging / live URLs), site settings, and user invites. The first place to go when your task is "inside one specific site."
Billing
Subscriptions, site-capacity management, payment methods, invoices. The tier where account-life operations live.
Locations
Google-connected or manually-added location records that sites reference. Per-account and reusable across sites.
Site Settings
Per-site configuration including Google integrations, reporting settings, and the locations attached to a site. Reachable from Site Manager.
Operating rules every new account should know
Internalize these rules before starting work. They are operational, not optional.
- One active subscription provisions one site. A subscription tier maps to a site count. Adding more sites requires adjusting the subscription.
- A site is created with both staging and live environments. Both exist from provisioning onward — staging is internal-review, live is customer-facing.
- Staging is where you can begin work immediately. No DNS or certificate gating; staging URL is internal.
- Live readiness depends on DNS propagation and certificate provisioning. Live is not "ready" the moment the site is created — it is ready when DNS resolves and the certificate is issued.
- A site is not assumed live merely because it exists in Site Manager. Site Manager shows the record; live readiness is a separate state visible in Site Settings.
The four rules above run in order — the moment one is missing, the next is gated.
- If billing is not settled, SGEN may restrict dashboard access and live availability. Billing health is upstream of operational access.
Definition
SG-Dashboard is the account-tier control surface for SGEN. It is where account-life operations happen — billing, per-site provisioning, account-wide configuration, multi-site reporting, account user roster.
The defining property is account-tier. SG-Dashboard does not own per-site content (that is SG-Admin) or per-page composition (that is SG-Builder). It owns the account itself and the relationships across sites under the account.
Purpose
The purpose of this guide is to make the first session in SG-Dashboard productive rather than exploratory. A new operator who follows this guide arrives at "I know what to do next" within 30 minutes; an operator who clicks around without orientation can spend an hour and not be sure if they did the right things.
Scope
This page covers SG-Dashboard orientation at the day-one guide level — the recommended path rather than per-area depth.
The page covers:
- The landing experience and the three cards.
- The recommended Getting Started sequence.
- The five core areas to know on day one.
- The operating rules every new account should internalize.
- Pointers to the next-step Guides.
The page does not cover:
- Per-area procedural depth — open the relevant per-area Guide.
- Per-area Reference — open the SG-Dashboard Overview.
- The shared operating model — open the Shared Concepts pillar.
- Per-release behavior change — open What's New or Changelog.
Constraints and boundaries
- Day-one guide. This page is the orientation read; deeper procedures live in sibling Guides.
- Account-tier scope. SG-Dashboard authority does not auto-grant per-site authority; site-tier role assignment is separate. See Roles and Access.
- Billing-gated. Account access depends on billing health; resolve billing first if access is restricted.
- Sequence-recommended, not enforced. The Getting Started sequence is the recommended path; the platform does not block deviation but expects the sequence at later steps.
- Single-account focus. This guide assumes one account; multi-account workflows are separate.
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| "Why is the site not live yet?" | DNS propagation + certificate state · Site Settings |
| "Why can I not access this site?" | Site-tier role not assigned · How to Add Users |
| "Why are some areas restricted?" | Billing health · Billing area |
| "Where do I edit pages?" | SG-Admin · per-site administrative surface |
| "How do I add another site?" | Increase subscription · How to Add a Subscription or Site Capacity |
Examples
Example 1 — A new account's first 30 minutes
A new account holder logs in for the first time. They land on the Dashboard, recognize the three cards, and follow the Getting Started sequence: create site (5 min), connect Google integrations (10 min), add locations (5 min), generate first report (5 min). Total elapsed: 25 minutes. They have a working site context, integrations active, locations added, and a report demonstrating end-to-end data flow. Day one done.
Example 2 — An operator returning after a quarter away
An operator who set up the account three months ago returns. They land on the Dashboard, scan the Quick Actions for what they need, click View Sites, find the site they were working on, and continue. The day-one guide is not needed; the dashboard's structure carries them.
Example 3 — A "why can't I edit pages here?" question
A new operator opens SG-Dashboard expecting to edit Pages. They cannot find a Page editor. Reading this guide, they realize SG-Dashboard is account-tier and Page editing is site-tier — they need to open the admin. They cross to the admin via the per-site card in Site Manager and continue.
Example 4 — A "the site is created but not loading at the live URL" question
A new account holder created a site. They open the live URL and see a connection error. They check Site Settings and see DNS propagation in progress. They wait the recommended window, retry, and the live URL resolves. The operating rule "live readiness depends on DNS + certificates" was the explanation.
Example 5 — Setting up a multi-site agency account
An agency principal opens SG-Dashboard for a new account that will host three client sites. They create the first site, complete the Getting Started sequence, then return to Site Manager and create the second and third. Each site has its own staging and live; each site has its own Getting Started cycle. The principal's day one covers one full sequence and starts the same path for each subsequent site.
Example 6 — Sharing the orientation with a teammate
The principal sends this guide as a single share-link to a teammate joining the account. The teammate reads the guide, follows the orientation, and arrives ready to operate without the principal having to walk them through the dashboard manually.
Documentation guidance
This page is your day-one entry into SG-Dashboard. Use it for orientation; use the linked Guides for per-task depth and the SG-Dashboard Overview for per-area Reference.
For the operating model that SG-Dashboard sits on top of, open the Shared Concepts pillar. For the architectural framing, open Platform Architecture Overview. For per-release shipped change, open What's New or Changelog.
Reading order
If you are new to SGEN, read this guide after the Start Here pillar (especially Environments and Site States and Roles and Access). Those give you the operating model; this guide gives you the day-one path through SG-Dashboard.
| Card | Use this card when | Next-step Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Actions | You know what task you want | Per-task Guide for the action |
| Getting Started | First session · need orientation | How to Create a New Site |
| Resources & Help | You hit a documentation question | SGEN Documentation root |
Related reading
- How to Create a New Site — next step after orientation.
- How to Complete Site Setup — what happens after the site exists.
- Billing and Site Capacity — billing model.
- How to Add Users to a Site — adding teammates.
- SG-Dashboard Overview — full account-tier Reference.
- Environments and Site States — staging-vs-live model.
- Roles and Access — account-tier vs site-tier.
Vocabulary cross-reference
- SG-Dashboard — the account-tier control surface; this guide's subject.
- Dashboard landing — the page you arrive at after login; carries the three orientation cards.
- Quick Actions — the card on the landing offering direct entry points to common tasks.
- Getting Started sequence — the recommended four-step onboarding sequence the platform proposes for new accounts.
- Site Manager — the per-site card surface where each site's status and access live.
- Site Settings — the per-site configuration surface reachable from Site Manager.
- Subscription — the billing tier that provisions site capacity; one active subscription = one site by default.
- Site capacity — the count of sites a subscription provisions; expandable through subscription adjustment.
- DNS propagation — the time it takes for a domain change to reach DNS resolvers worldwide; live readiness depends on it.
- Certificate provisioning — the platform's issuance of an SSL certificate for the live domain; live readiness depends on it.
- Live readiness — the state that indicates the live URL is reachable; visible in Site Settings.
- Account-tier authority — the permission scope SG-Dashboard operations require; distinct from site-tier authority.
- Billing-gated — the property of dashboard access that depends on billing health.
- Recommended sequence — the platform's suggested onboarding order; not enforced but reduces friction.
- Day-one orientation — the role this guide plays for a first-time SG-Dashboard user.
- Re-entry point — the role the dashboard landing plays for returning operators.
- Multi-site account — an account that holds more than one site; each site has its own Getting Started cycle.
- Single-account focus — this guide's scope assumption; multi-account workflows are separate.
- Day-one path — the recommended sequence + first-five-areas combination; the operational shape of a productive first session.
- Re-orientation read — the act of re-reading this guide after time away; faster than walking the dashboard cold.
Where to find it
Open your SG-Admin and navigate via the sidebar group that owns this surface. For platform-level reference (this page), the entry point is the SGEN documentation index at docs.sgen.com. For the operator-facing configuration screen, the entry point is the corresponding SG-Admin module page linked in Related features above.