DMR Dashboard PRO — Getting Started

Welcome. This walks you from "I just got a copy link" to a working dashboard your team can actually use. Expect about 30–45 minutes for the first setup, most of it spent entering your roster.

Step 1 — Make your own copy

  • Open the copy link you were sent, then in Google Sheets: File → Make a copy.

  • This creates your own private, independent version. Nothing you do in your copy affects anyone else's, and nothing anyone else does affects yours.

Step 2 — Run First-Time Setup (You can skip this because tabs are already built)

  • In your new copy, look for the DMR Dashboard menu at the top (next to Help). If you don't see it immediately, refresh the page — Google Sheets sometimes needs a moment to load custom menus on a freshly copied file.

  • Click DMR Dashboard → 🏫 School Setup → ⚙️ Run First-Time Setup.

  • This builds out every tab you'll need: Metric Config, Test Results, Athlete Info, School Config, and the entry tools. It's safe to run more than once — it won't overwrite anything you've already entered.

    • If for some reason you need to rebuild these tabs, you can run First-Time Set-up, but I have built these out for you!

Step 3 — Set up School Config

Open the School Config tab. Fill in:

  • School Name and Abbreviation

  • Primary Color — this becomes the background of your web dashboard

  • Secondary Color — buttons and accents

  • Accent Color — chart lines

  • Display Font — pick from the dropdown; this is the bold, condensed font used for names and headers

  • Logo URL — a direct link to an image file (not a webpage). If you're not sure how to get one, upload your logo to Google Drive, right-click → Get link → make sure it's set to "Anyone with the link," then use that link here

Leave Web App URL blank for now — you'll come back to it in Step 5.

Step 4 — Set up Metric Config

Open the Metric Config tab. This is where you tell the system what you actually test and how to score it.

For each metric you track, fill in:

  • Metric Name — exactly how you want it to appear (e.g., "Front Squat")

  • Category — Strength, Speed, Power, or Performance

  • Higher Is Better? — checked for things like lifts and jumps, unchecked for timed metrics where a lower number is better

  • Elite / Floor (Male and Female separately) — the top and bottom of your scoring scale for that metric

  • Scored? — leave checked for anything you want factored into scores and the radar chart. Uncheck this for things like Bodyweight or Attendance, which you want tracked but not scored

  • MPH Distance (yds) — only fill this in for a timed sprint segment (a 10-yard fly, for example) if you want an automatic MPH conversion shown on Leaderboard. Leave blank for everything else

School Config also has a Dashboard Metrics section (rows 20–24) — pick up to 4 metrics per category here. These are the ones that show up as cards on the Athlete Dashboard, drive the radar charts, and appear in Compare Athletes. Choose your most important metric per category.

Step 5 — Deploy as a web app

This is the step most likely to trip you up if you rush it — take it slowly.

  1. In the Sheets menu bar: Extensions → Apps Script

  2. In the Apps Script editor, click Deploy → New deployment

  3. Click the gear icon next to "Select type," choose Web app

  4. Set Execute as: Me

  5. Set Who has access: Anyone — not "Anyone within [your school's domain]." This is the single most common mistake. If you pick the domain-restricted option, the dashboard will work fine for you but silently fail for every parent outside your school's Google account system

  6. Click Deploy

  7. Google will ask you to authorize the script — click through the prompts (you may see a "Google hasn't verified this app" warning; click Advanced → Go to [project name] (unsafe) — this is expected for a script you're deploying yourself, not a sign of anything wrong)

  8. Copy the Web app URL you're given

Go back to School Config and paste that URL into the Web App URL field.

Step 6 — Add your roster

  • Open Athlete Info. You have two options:

    • Manual entry: Add one row per athlete. Fill in Gender, Grad Year, Period, and Sport/Position Group/Position for each season they actually play. Add their Email if you plan to send them their own dashboard link later — this is optional and can be added anytime.

    • CSV import: If you already have a roster spreadsheet, use DMR Dashboard → 📝 Data Entry → 📥 Import from CSV (or 👥 Import Athlete Info from CSV specifically for roster/profile data). You'll be walked through matching your columns to the right fields.

Step 7 — Start logging data

You have two ways to get numbers in:

  • DMR Dashboard → 📝 Data Entry → 🛠️ Build / rebuild Team Entry tab (If it’s not there), or use the web app's Team Entry page for a coach entering a whole team's results at once

  • Log Your Lift (web app page) for athletes entering their own numbers on their own device

Either writes to the same underlying data — use whichever fits how your team actually works.

Step 8 — See it in action

  • Click 🚀 Launch Dashboard at the top of the DMR Dashboard menu. This opens your web app's home page, with a card for every tool: Athlete Dashboard, Team Report, Leaderboard, Roster Improvement, Compare Athletes, Log Your Lift, Team Entry, and Attendance.

  • Click into Athlete Dashboard and search for one of your athletes to see everything come together.

Optional, once you're comfortable

  • Within the Google Sheet “DMR Dashboard” Dropdown:

    • Send Dashboard Links (menu) — email parents and athletes a link locked to just their own dashboard

    • PR Digest Email (menu) — send yourself a summary of PRs hit that day, or turn on an automatic daily version

    • Stalled-Metric Email (menu) — a weekly summary of athletes with no net improvement over the last 30 days

  • Add to Home Screen — on a phone, open the Athlete Dashboard link and use your browser's "Add to Home Screen" option for a real app-like icon

If something doesn't work

Most first-time issues trace back to one of two things:

  1. the web app deployment permission (Step 5 — double check it says "Anyone," not domain-restricted).

  2. A School Config field left blank that a page depends on.

    Re-checking those two things resolves the large majority of "it's not working" situations.

If you’re having issues, reach out to me directly
Ross Garner
rgarner12@gmail.com
434-610-2036