Understanding the dashboard

2.1 Purpose of the Dashboard 

The Dashboard is your starting point in Qhub. 

It gives you a high-level overview of: 

• How much you are currently spending on Microsoft 365 licenses 
• How much of that spend is used 
• How much you can save if you apply the optimization recommendations 
• And where the main optimization drivers are (inactive users, unassigned licenses, etc.) 

Use the Dashboard when you want to answer questions like: 

• What is our current prepaid Microsoft 365 spending? 
• How big is our overall savings opportunity right now? 
• Are our issues mainly inactive users, unassigned licenses, or something else? 
• Is our cost and savings opportunity trending up or down over time? 

From the Dashboard you can drill down into more detailed pages such as Spend analysis, Optimized BOM, Usage Analysis, and Recommendations. 

2.2 Page layout and navigation 

The Dashboard is split into two main areas: 

1. Left navigation bar 
   1. At the top you see the Microsoft 365 Hub. 
   2. The icons under that take you to more detailed views (Dashboard, Optimized BOM, Spend analysis, Usage analysis, License plan usage, Power BI, Security, Devices, Connected apps, Raw data, Recommendations). 
   3. The currently selected section is highlighted. 
2. Main content area 
   1. The top row shows the four key KPIs (tiles). 
   2. Below that you see charts that explain how cost evolves over time and how inactive/unassigned licenses contribute to the savings opportunity. 
   3. Where applicable, the show details links let you jump to the more detailed pages with underlying data. 

If you are new to Qhub, the easiest way to start is: 

1. Look at the KPI tiles at the top. 
2. Review the charts on inactive and unassigned licenses. 
3. Use the show details links or the menu on the left to explore the underlying data. 

2.3 Top KPI tiles 

There are four tiles at the top of the Dashboard: 

1. Prepaid cost
2. Consumed cost
3. Cost after optimization
4. Savings opportunity

Each tile is expressed in your selected currency and typically represents a monthly view of your current licensing position. 

Costs are shown as annualized amounts; savings can be shown monthly and annualized depending on view. 

Prepaid cost

Prepaid cost is your current annualized cost for all Microsoft 365 licenses in scope. Charts may show monthly points.
It reflects what you are paying based on the license quantities and SKUs you have purchased (for example under EA, CSP/NCE, or other agreements). 

This tile answers: What is our current Microsoft 365 license bill? 

Consumed cost

Consumed cost estimates the annualized cost of licenses that are in use. Also here, charts may show monthly points.
In other words: if you only paid for licenses that are assigned and active, this is what your cost would look like. 

This tile answers: How much of our prepaid capacity is really used? 

If your consumed cost is significantly lower than your prepaid cost, it indicates over-licensing and unused capacity. 

Cost after optimization

Cost after optimization shows what your annualized cost could be if you implement the optimization recommendations from Qhub (for example removing unused licenses and downgrading identified users). 

This is a modeled number, based on the optimization scenarios that Qhub has calculated from your data. 

This tile answers: If we follow the recommendations, what would our new cost level be? 

Savings opportunity

Savings opportunity is the difference between Prepaid cost and Cost after optimization.
It represents your potential annual savings if all recommended optimizations are implemented (within the constraints of your contracts). 

This tile answers: How much could we save per year if we act on the identified opportunities? 

2.4 Cost over time 

Below the four tiles, there is a line chart, typically labelled Cost over time. 

This chart: 

• Plots your Prepaid cost and Consumed cost over time. 
• Helps you see whether your overall Microsoft 365 spend and usage are increasing, stable, or decreasing. 
• Makes it easy to spot events such as major onboarding/offboarding waves, acquisitions, or big license changes. 

Typical questions this chart helps answer: 

• Did our prepaid cost jump recently, and does that match our expectations? 
• Is the gap between prepaid and consumed closing (we are optimizing) or widening (waste is growing)? 
• How does our cost trend compare to our headcount or business growth? 

2.5 Inactive licenses 

Further down the Dashboard you can see donut charts labelled Inactive licenses by count and Inactive licenses by cost. 

Inactive licenses by count 

• Shows how many licenses are assigned to users who have not been active for a defined period (e.g. 90 days, customer-configurable, see 4.6).
• The donut segments show which license SKUs these inactive users are on (e.g., M365 E3, M365 E5, Defender, etc.).

Inactive licenses by cost 

• Shows the annualized cost associated with these inactive assignments. 
• This helps you see whether your inactive users are mostly on cheaper SKUs or on expensive plans with high savings potential. 

For each donut chart you can: 

• Hover over a segment to see the exact number or cost per SKU. 
• Use show details to drill down into the detailed list (who these users are, which license they have, and since when they are inactive). 

Typical use: 

• Quickly estimate the impact of cleaning up inactive users. 
• Identify high-value targets (e.g., inactive users on E5) before your next renewal or True-up. 

2.6 Unassigned licenses 

The Dashboard also shows donut charts for Unassigned licenses by count and Unassigned licenses by cost. 

• Unassigned licenses by count shows how many licenses you have purchased but not assigned to any user. 
• Unassigned licenses by cost shows the annualized cost of those unassigned licenses. 

These charts help you answer questions like: 

• Are we paying for a large buffer of licenses that nobody uses? 
• Which SKUs have the most unassigned capacity and therefore the quickest savings wins? 

Again, use show details to jump to the underlying data and see exactly which SKUs are affected. 

2.7 Savings opportunity breakdown (if present) 

At the bottom of the Dashboard, you may see an additional chart that breaks down the Savings opportunity into components, for example: 

• Savings from removing inactive users 
• Savings from removing unassigned licenses 
• Savings from downgrading over-licensed users 
• Savings from other optimization drivers 

Use this to: 

• Understand what drives most of your savings’ potential 
• Decide which type of action to prioritize first (cleanup vs. downgrade vs. other measures) 
• Communicate clearly to stakeholders: “Most of our opportunity comes from X, followed by Y.”