# Indicator apps overview (/docs/indicator-apps/overview) An **indicator app** is a place to collect and track **metrics** over time. A metric, which Ovidens calls an **indicator**, is something you measure again and again, such as fuel use, electricity, or revenue. Where an analytic app reshapes data you already have, an indicator app is built to gather a measurement period by period and watch how it moves. ## The building blocks [#the-building-blocks] An indicator app is made of three building blocks, each with its own page. * **[Indicators](./indicators/input.mdx)** are the metrics themselves, the things you track. * **[Dimensions](./dimensions/time.mdx)** are the ways a metric is broken down, such as by region, by site, or over time. * **[Groups](./groups.mdx)** are optional labels that tidy a long list of indicators into sections. ## Collected and formula indicators [#collected-and-formula-indicators] Indicators get their values in one of two ways. * **Collected** indicators are the ones you (or a teammate) enter by hand, value by value, period by period. These are the [input indicators](./indicators/input.mdx), in five types (numeric, text, boolean, select, file). * **Formula** indicators are calculated for you. A **formula** indicator works out its value from other indicators automatically, for every period. For example, margin can be computed from revenue and costs without anyone typing it in. See [Formula](./indicators/formula.mdx). ## Where things live [#where-things-live] An indicator app has two sides, and one button moves you between them. **The app itself** is where the collecting happens, and it is what everyone opens. It has four tabs: * **[Overview](./collection-overview.mdx)** - how collection is going: how complete your data is, who is contributing, and where the gaps are. It is generated for you from the data you collect, so there is nothing to set up. A **reporting period** picker in the header scopes it. * **[Data](./data.mdx)** - one datapoint's record: what it is, and its figures over time. This is where you read and correct a number without opening a form, and it is where an app that runs no round collects. * **[Collection](./collection-rounds.mdx)** - the collection rounds. Open a round to see its units, and open a unit to answer or review its [questionnaire](./questionnaire.mdx). * **Contributors** - who has been entering data, and how much. The header's reporting-period picker scopes this one too. **The editor** is where the app is defined. Click **Open editor** in the top right, or press E. The editor is offered to everyone whose role reads the app's configuration; a **Viewer** reads the app as it was last published and is offered neither. It has five tabs: * **Indicators** - the metrics, sorted into their [groups](./groups.mdx). * **Dimensions** - the breakdowns. * **[Checks](./checks.mdx)** - the consistency rules that guard how your figures fit together. * **Reporting periods** - the windows you collect for, and where a finished period is approved and locked. * **[Pipeline](./pipeline.mdx)** - the SQL pipeline Ovidens generates from this app's configuration, readable and downloadable step by step, alongside any collected values that no longer fit the structure they were collected against. Changes you make in the editor stay in a private draft until you **Publish** them, exactly as in an analytic app. See [Draft and publish](../overview/apps.mdx#draft-and-publish). ## Build with Vera first [#build-with-vera-first] The easiest way to set up an indicator app is to ask **Vera**, the AI assistant. Describe the metrics you want to track in plain language, for example "track our monthly electricity use per site, and compute the year-on-year change", and Vera sets up the indicators, dimensions, groups, and calculations for you. No technical knowledge required. See [Build with Vera](./build-with-vera.mdx). The rest of this section explains each building block so you can review what Vera builds, or build and adjust the pieces yourself.