Overview
Analytics reads from a copy of your gaiia data that is refreshed on a schedule, and results are cached for a short time so pages load quickly. Together, these explain most "I just changed something and the report didn't move" moments.
In this article, we'll be covering how current the data is, how to force a refresh, and which time zone dates and times are shown in.
Understand how current the data is
Two clocks are involved:
- Data sync. Changes made in gaiia are copied to the Analytics data store every 2 hours. Each copy takes from a few minutes to considerably longer depending on the data involved, so a new account, payment, or work order can take two hours or more to appear in any dashboard or report.
- Result cache. When a report or dashboard tile runs, its results are kept for 2 hours. Anyone opening the same report with the same filters during that window sees the cached results instead of a fresh run.
In practice, a change in gaiia is visible in Analytics within two to four hours. The note Data is updated every 2 hours next to the Analytics page title refers to the data sync.
Analytics is not a live view of gaiia. To confirm a single record right now, look it up in the relevant gaiia module instead.
Force a refresh
Bypassing the cache is possible only in a custom report. Open the report, then open the View menu and select Refresh w/o cache.
Built-in dashboards and reports don't offer this option: they show the cached results until the cache expires, at most 2 hours later. If you need up-to-the-sync data from a built-in report, open it with View in workbook and save your own copy, which you can refresh at will.
Refreshing re-runs the queries against the latest synced data. It does not trigger a new data sync, so a change made in gaiia since the last sync will still be absent.
Read dates and times
Dates and times in Analytics are shown in your organization's time zone, which gaiia sets when your organization is onboarded. Every dashboard, report, download, and scheduled delivery uses it.
Two things still matter for anything grouped by day or month:
- Other systems you compare against may use a different time zone. A system working in UTC places an event at 8:54 pm Eastern on the 31st at 00:54 on the 1st, so per-day and per-month counts shift by a few records while grand totals match.
- A date filter ending "today" runs to the start of today, so today's events are excluded. To include the current day, end the range on tomorrow's date.
If your organization operates across several time zones or the dates look shifted, contact support@gaiia.com to review the time zone set for your organization. It applies to everyone in the organization.
Troubleshoot a number that didn't change
- Check when you made the change in gaiia. If it was less than two hours ago, wait for the next sync.
- In a custom report, force a refresh (see above) to bypass the 2‑hour cache. In a built-in report, wait for the cache to expire.
- Check the report's filters: a date filter ending "today" or a status filter can exclude the record you expect.
- If the record is still missing after four hours, contact support@gaiia.com with the report name, the record (for example the account number), and the time you made the change.