A web dashboard that turns production spreadsheets into a single operational control panel — with automatic refresh and Directus-based configuration on top.
The dashboard acts as an operational center, pulling data automatically from Google Sheets — event and project calendars, budgets, rates, tasks, resource planning — through a Google Sheets → AWS S3 → API → interface pipeline that refreshes without any manual exports. It displays KPIs, charts, and filterable tables with drill-down into specific records. Validation, normalization, and protection against malformed rows are built in. It runs fast and reliably under day-to-day use, supports role-based access, and is designed to absorb new spreadsheets, new metrics, and new widgets over time.
Flipside Productions has been operating in the on-location recording and live broadcast market since 2001. The company covers a wide range of production work — from spoken-word recording in educational settings to red-carpet coverage, national television, and live broadcasts for major artists and media organizations. Their core value is delivering live content reliably, on time, within budget, and with full process control — while crews and equipment scale up or down to match the complexity of the job.
Fragmented operational data
Production work always involves a stack of spreadsheets — schedules, budgets, invoices, rate cards. The challenge was turning them into short, usable answers about current events, risk areas, and completed projects.
Risk visibility in live projects
The team needed clear "at-risk" indicators for deadlines, unconfirmed resources, staffing gaps, scheduling conflicts, and the other regulars of live-production risk.
Google Sheets as the source of truth
The team couldn't be forced into a new data-entry tool. They had to keep working in spreadsheets while the dashboard reflected their updates automatically.
Controlled data quality
Spreadsheets always carry rough edges: text in a numeric field, a renamed column, a broken date. The system had to catch those and keep them from breaking charts or KPIs downstream.
System scalability
Today the dashboard summarizes crew scheduling, tomorrow equipment readiness. The architecture had to absorb new domains without a redesign.
Roles and permissions
Not everyone should see financial KPIs or margin data. Dashboard visibility had to be split by role from the start.
We built a control layer on top of the client's existing spreadsheets. Google Sheets stayed the team's working surface, but the data is automatically versioned and pushed to AWS S3. A Node.js API turns it into stable aggregates for KPIs and charts, with validation, normalization, and a fallback to the last valid version if something goes wrong. Directus runs as the managed configuration layer for metrics, widgets, and access. The React dashboard delivers a fast overview and drill-down into the operational detail. The net effect: spreadsheet chaos out, an operational picture that updates itself and doesn't crack under the small everyday changes that used to break reporting.
Automatic Google Sheets → AWS S3 pipeline with versioning
Google Apps Script generates the export in an agreed format and uploads it to S3 as one complete release — no half-updated states between snapshots.
Node.js / Express API layer for normalization and production aggregates
The API returns ready-made data sets for widgets — crew utilization, project calendars, readiness statuses, budget views, invoice statuses, and drill-down to row level.
Data-quality layer with controlled fallback
Schema validation, type checks, and required-field rules sit alongside an incident log, visible warnings, and a fallback to the last valid version — the dashboard doesn't fail on a live event day.
Directus as a managed configuration layer for metrics, widgets, and access
Directus runs as the configuration system: Flipside can add or rearrange widgets and manage dictionaries without a code release, and visibility splits cleanly by role.
React interface as the operational control panel
First-screen KPIs, charts, filtering by date, project, and work type, and drill-down to the specific tasks and records behind every number.
AI as an assistant for anomaly explanation and data quality
AI is strictly an assistant — never a calculation layer. It explains why a metric moves up or down based on the already-calculated aggregates, and surfaces spreadsheet-format problems or fields that need a human eye.
We started with interviews — Richard, the producers, technical staff, field coordinators, finance. Together we defined the typical situations where multiple projects run in parallel and the team needs to see who's where, what's confirmed or at risk, where approvals or payments are stuck, and what's already ready to go live. We also listed the red flags that usually become problems on event day: staff conflicts, timing overlaps, unconfirmed locations, missing equipment, unpaid invoices. From that we decided what belongs on the first screen and what should live in drill-down — so the dashboard wouldn't end up as another spreadsheet with charts.
+1 Resource
After launch, Flipside has an operational dashboard that replaces manual spreadsheet consolidation with a single, automatically refreshed control layer.
taking time off the team
instead of 20–40 minutes of manual consolidation
instead of numbers that shift with the spreadsheet state
caught before they break the charts
no frontend rewrite needed
by pointing straight at the slices that matter
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