Frequently Asked Questions

MERIT Lumina is a real-time performance intelligence platform built specifically for NDIS providers and care organisations. It gives your organisation a single source of truth across all key business dimensions — participant outcomes, operations, finance, staff performance, and compliance.

It consolidates data from multiple source systems into a unified analytics layer, surfaces actionable KPIs, tracks exceptions and alerts, and enables your team to monitor, diagnose, and respond to performance changes — all from one dashboard.

The platform is designed for:

• Executive and leadership teams who need a real-time, consolidated view of organisational performance
• Operations managers tracking service delivery, client engagement, and team productivity
• Finance and commercial leads monitoring revenue, costs, budgets, and pipeline
• Marketing teams tracking campaign performance, lead generation, and pipeline contribution
• Technology teams measuring DevOps delivery health and product quality
• Customer success managers monitoring account health, SLA compliance, and churn risk

The platform includes the following modules:

Dashboards: Executive Overview, Sales Dashboard, Finance Dashboard, Marketing Dashboard, Employee Performance

Modules: CRM & Commercial, Customer Success, Client Operations, Alerts & Exceptions, Unresolved Exceptions, Notifications & Workflow, Escalations & Approvals, Owner Assignments, Action Tracking, KPI Drilldown

DevOps: A unified DevOps & Delivery hub with tabs for DevOps metrics, Work Output, Milestones, Work Items, and Gantt Timeline

Reporting & Resources: Reports & Export, KPI Glossary, Platform Guide

Administration (Super Admin): Platform Monitoring, Audit & Data Quality, Administration (Users, Teams, Company Management)

The platform can ingest and analyse data from multiple source systems:

• CRM systems — pipeline, opportunities, accounts, contacts
• Finance systems — revenue, invoices, budgets, cost data
• Marketing platforms — campaign performance, leads, spend, channel data
• HR and workforce systems — employee records, task assignments, performance data
• Project management tools — milestones, work items, delivery timelines
• Customer support systems — tickets, SLA data, satisfaction scores
• Manual uploads — CSV or Excel for systems not yet integrated

All data is processed by a high-performance ClickHouse analytics database, enabling sub-second queries across large datasets.

Data freshness depends on your integration setup:

• Manual uploads — live immediately after processing (typically under 2 minutes)
• Scheduled syncs — as fresh as your sync schedule (hourly, daily, or custom)
• API integrations — near-real-time, typically within 5–15 minutes of a source change

Each dashboard displays a data timestamp so you always know how current your insights are. Most organisations opt for nightly automated syncs, which means dashboards reflect previous-day data by start of business each morning.

The platform tracks 80+ KPIs across all business domains. Key categories include:

• Executive: Monthly Revenue, Client Satisfaction, Operating Margin, Pipeline Value
• Sales: Opportunities, Win Rate, Conversion Rate, Deal Size, Sales Cycle
• Finance: Revenue, Gross/Net Profit, Margins, Cash Balance, Collection Rate, Overdue Invoices
• Marketing: Campaigns, Leads, MQLs, Spend, Cost per Lead, CTR, Pipeline Contribution
• CRM: Pipeline Value, Win Rate, Avg Deal Size, Opportunity Volume
• Operations: Active Clients, Service Delivery Rate, Cancellation Rate, Cost per Hour
• Customer Success: SLA Attainment, CSAT, NPS, Churn Rate, Account Health, Onboarding
• DevOps: Deployment Frequency, Pipeline Success, MTTR, Release Success Rate
• Employee Performance: Completion Rate, Throughput, Overdue Rate, Performance Score
• Milestones: Completion Rate, On-Track Count, Delay Analysis

Visit the KPI Glossary for full definitions, calculation methodology, and performance thresholds for every tracked KPI.

Each KPI has three threshold bands — On Track, At Risk, and Off Track — defined in the KPI Glossary. These thresholds are preconfigured with sensible defaults based on industry benchmarks.

Thresholds can be customised per organisation through the platform Settings. To view or update thresholds:

Navigate to Alerts → Thresholds in the platform

Select the KPI you want to configure

Adjust the threshold values for each band

Save — changes apply immediately to all dashboards and alert rules

The Global Filter Bar (visible at the top of every dashboard page) allows you to filter all data-driven visuals simultaneously by:

• Date range — any custom date window, or preset ranges (Last 30 days, Last Quarter, etc.)
• Region — filter to one or more geographic regions
• Team — filter to specific teams or departments

Super Admin users also see a Company filter that lets them switch between company datasets, enabling cross-company analysis and comparison.

All filters are applied simultaneously to every KPI card, chart, table, and graph on the page. Clearing a filter returns all data for that dimension.

The Company filter is available exclusively to Super Admin users. It appears in the Global Filter Bar as a building icon dropdown and allows super admins to:

• Switch the entire dashboard view to display data for a specific company
• Compare performance across different companies by switching between them
• Generate company-specific reports for any organisation in the platform

When a company is selected, every KPI card, chart, and table on the page updates to reflect that company's data. Selecting All Companies (the default) returns the aggregate view.

Regular users always see only their own organisation's data — the Company filter is invisible to them.

The KPI Drilldown module (/dashboard/kpis) provides deep-dive analysis for any individual KPI. For each KPI you can view:

• 12-month trend chart — historical performance over time
• Dimensional breakdowns — filter and segment by region, team, or category
• Threshold band indicators — visual On Track / At Risk / Off Track status
• Related alerts — any active alert conditions for this KPI

You can also access the KPI Drilldown directly from any KPI card by clicking the "View details" link, or from the KPI Glossary via the "View live KPI data" link on each glossary entry.

Alerts are automatically generated when a KPI crosses a configured threshold (At Risk or Off Track). The Alerts & Exceptions module displays all active alerts ranked by severity and domain.

For each alert you can:

• View the triggering KPI and its current value
• See which threshold was breached and when
• Assign the alert to a team member for investigation
• Log a response or corrective action
• Mark the alert resolved when addressed

Alerts are refreshed in near-real-time as data is updated.

Yes. Alert notifications can be configured in Settings → Alert Rules. For each alert rule you can define:

• Threshold — which value triggers the alert
• Recipients — which users or roles receive the notification
• Delivery channel — dashboard notification, email, or both
• Escalation — automatically escalate to a manager if the alert is not actioned within a set timeframe

Multiple threshold levels can be configured per KPI (e.g. a warning at 80 % and a critical alert at 95 %).

The Unresolved Exceptions module maintains a live register of all exceptions that require follow-up action. Unlike alerts (which may be informational), exceptions represent issues that need a formal response — such as:

• Financial variances that exceed acceptable bounds
• SLA breaches that haven't been resolved
• Data quality issues requiring correction
• Compliance gaps needing documentation

Each exception is assigned an owner, a due date, and moves through a structured resolution workflow. The module provides a full audit trail from exception creation through to resolution.

The Action Tracking module (/dashboard/action-tracking) maintains a structured register of corrective actions. Each action includes:

• Owner — the person responsible for the action
• Due date — deadline for completion
• Priority — urgency level
• Status — pending, in progress, completed
• Resolution notes — documentation of what was done
• Linked exception or alert — the issue the action is addressing

Action Tracking provides the audit trail that demonstrates your organisation is responding to issues systematically rather than ad hoc.

The Escalations module routes exception requests and compliance actions through configurable multi-level approval chains. When an exception exceeds a defined severity threshold or has been open for too long, it can be automatically escalated to a manager or senior approver.

Every approval decision is logged with a full audit trail, ensuring accountability at every tier. The module supports:

• Multi-level approval chains — up to 3 levels
• Time-based escalation — auto-escalate if not actioned within N hours
• Role-based routing — escalate based on the exception type or department

The Finance Dashboard provides a decision-ready view of financial health, including:

• Revenue & Profitability — Total Revenue, Gross Profit, Net Profit, Gross Margin %, Net Margin %
• Forecast vs Actual — Revenue variance against forecast, with period-over-period trend
• Budget vs Actual — Spending against budget by cost category and period
• Cost Breakdown — Operating expenses by category with trend analysis
• Receivables & Collections — Accounts Receivable, Overdue Invoices, Invoice Collection Rate, Aged Receivables
• Cash Position — Current cash balance and forecast
• Invoicing — Total invoiced, paid, and overdue with drill-down by client

The CRM & Commercial module (/dashboard/crm) unifies the full sales pipeline with commercial KPI tracking. Key metrics include:

• Pipeline Value — weighted and unweighted total value of open opportunities
• Win Rate — percentage of closed opportunities that were won
• Avg Deal Size — mean value of won opportunities
• Opportunity Stages — distribution of deals across Enquiry, Assessment, Proposal, Negotiation, Won, Lost
• Account Health Scores — risk ratings for existing accounts
• Revenue by Segment — contribution by region, service line, or account type

The Marketing Dashboard (/dashboard/marketing) measures all marketing activity performance:

• Campaigns — total active, by channel, by status
• Leads — total generated, MQLs, by source and channel
• Spend — total marketing spend, cost per lead, spend by channel
• Conversion — Lead-to-opportunity conversion rate, campaign conversion rates
• Pipeline Contribution — total opportunity value generated by marketing campaigns
• Channel Performance — comparative performance across channels (paid search, email, social, organic, referral)
• Spend Efficiency — ROI and CPL by channel and campaign

All marketing data supports filtering by channel, campaign, lead source, and date range.

The main Dashboard (/dashboard) is the central command view, showing real-time status across all business domains:

• High-level KPI scorecards (Revenue, Client Count, Satisfaction, Pipeline, Margin, Delivery Rate)
• Alert count by severity
• Exception and action tracking summary
• Cross-domain trend indicators

The Executive Snapshot (/dashboard/executive) is a board-ready, single-screen summary distilling every domain into scorecards, trend indicators, and exception counts — designed for leadership presentations.

Yes. The Finance Dashboard includes a forecast vs actual comparison, showing:

• Forecast Revenue — the projected revenue target for the period
• Actual Revenue — recognised revenue to date
• Variance % — the percentage difference between actual and forecast
• Revenue Trend — period-over-period momentum chart

Forecast data is ingested from your finance system or can be entered manually as a budget target through the Data Management module.

Three integration pathways are supported:

1. File Upload (immediate, no IT required)

Upload CSV or Excel exports from your existing systems directly through the Data Management module. Column mapping is handled automatically.

2. Scheduled Sync (recommended)

Configure automated data syncs from source systems via:

• SFTP drops — export files deposited to a secure SFTP endpoint on a schedule
• API integration — direct API-to-API connection for compatible systems
• No-code automation — Zapier or Make connectors for simpler integrations

3. Direct Database Connection (advanced)

For organisations with data warehouses, connect directly to PostgreSQL, MySQL, or other databases via read-only credentials.

ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented database built for real-time analytical queries at massive scale. Unlike traditional row-based databases, ClickHouse can scan and aggregate millions of records in milliseconds.

The platform uses ClickHouse as its analytics engine because business performance data is inherently large and time-series in nature — you need to query years of transactions, performance history, and engagement records simultaneously without waiting for reports to load. ClickHouse makes this instant.

All data in the platform is:

• Encrypted at rest — AES-256 encryption for all stored data
• Encrypted in transit — TLS 1.3 for all data movement
• Access-controlled — strict role-based access ensures users only see authorised data
• Backed up regularly — with point-in-time recovery capability
• Isolated by organisation — each company's data is fully separated in the multi-tenant architecture

Super Admin users can review the data infrastructure and sync status through the Platform Monitoring module.

Yes. You can export:

• Any report — as PDF or CSV via the Reports & Export module
• Raw dataset exports — full table-level exports through the Data Management module (Super Admin)
• Dashboard views — export any current view as a formatted PDF report

The Reports & Export module (/dashboard/reports) supports date-range selection, filter application, and scheduled delivery to stakeholders.

The Audit & Data Quality module (/dashboard/data-quality) monitors data integrity across all integrated sources. It flags:

• Missing or null values in required fields
• Out-of-range values that are statistically unlikely
• Stale records that haven't been updated in an expected timeframe
• Duplicate entries
• Schema mismatches between source and expected format
• Sync failures and connection errors

Issues are ranked by severity (Critical, Warning, Info) and can be assigned to team members for resolution through the standard workflow.

The platform uses role-based access control with the following built-in roles:

Role permissions and access levels are documented in detail in Roles & Platform Architecture (/dashboard/roles).

The Administration module (/dashboard/users) consolidates all user and organisational management into a single page with three tabs:

• Users — invite new users, set roles, deactivate leavers, reset passwords
• Teams — create and manage teams, assign members, set team-level permissions
• Company Management — (Super Admin only) view and manage all registered companies, update company details

The Administration page also includes a Roles & Architecture button that links to the full role definitions and platform permission matrix.

Yes. SSO is supported via:

• Google Workspace — sign in with your organisation's Google account
• Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) — sign in with Microsoft 365 credentials
• SAML 2.0 — integrate with any SAML-compliant identity provider

With SSO enabled, user provisioning and deprovisioning can be managed through your identity provider — reducing admin overhead and ensuring leavers lose access immediately upon account deactivation.

When a team member leaves, their access can be revoked immediately via the Administration module. Upon deactivation:

• All active sessions are immediately terminated
• The user cannot log in again
• Their historical activity is retained in the Audit Log
• Their assignments can be reassigned to another team member

If your organisation uses SSO, deactivating the user in your identity provider simultaneously revokes platform access.

Yes. MFA is supported for all users and can be enforced organisation-wide by an administrator. Supported MFA methods:

• Authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy)
• SMS one-time code (as a fallback option)

The Platform Monitoring module shows which users do not have MFA enabled so administrators can follow up and enforce compliance.

The Platform Monitoring module (/dashboard/monitoring) is available to Super Admin users and provides visibility into system health, including:

• System Status — uptime, API response times, database performance
• Data Sync Status — last sync time, success/failure for each integration source
• User Activity — login counts, active sessions, recent actions
• Data Management — (embedded tab) manage data sources, run manual syncs, review schema

Monitoring provides the infrastructure visibility needed to diagnose data freshness issues, integration failures, or unusual system behaviour.

Yes. The Audit Log module (/dashboard/data-quality/audit-log) maintains a comprehensive record of all user and system actions:

• Timestamp — exact time of each action
• User identity — name and role of the acting user
• Action type — create, update, delete, export, login
• Target record — which data or configuration was affected
• Before/after values — for data change actions

Audit log records cannot be edited or deleted, providing a tamper-resistant activity trail for compliance and investigation purposes.

The DevOps & Delivery module (/dashboard/devops) is a unified hub with five tabs:

DevOps & Delivery — CI/CD pipeline health, deployment frequency, open bug count, MTTR, release success rate

Work Output — team velocity, productivity trends, sprint throughput

Milestones — project milestone status, on-track/at-risk/delayed counts, delay analysis

Work Items — Kanban-style backlog view with status, priority, and assignee

Gantt Timeline — visual project timeline with task spans and milestone markers

Individual views are also directly accessible via their own URLs for deep-linking.

The Notifications & Workflow module (/dashboard/notifications) centralises all system notifications, action items, and flagged exceptions into a unified workspace. It:

• Routes alerts to the appropriate owners based on configurable rules
• Tracks each notification through its workflow stages (new → assigned → in progress → resolved)
• Maintains a full audit trail from trigger to resolution
• Supports filtering by notification type, severity, team, and status

Owner Assignments (/dashboard/owner-assignments) complements this by mapping explicit accountability for every KPI, alert, and corrective action to a named owner.

The Reports & Export module (/dashboard/reports) allows you to:

Select a report template (or start from a blank canvas)

Apply date range and filter parameters

Preview the formatted report

Export as PDF (print-ready, formatted) or CSV (raw data for analysis)

Schedule regular delivery to stakeholder email addresses

Report templates cover all major platform domains. Custom templates can be saved for repeated use.

Most organisations are live within 3–5 business days:

• Day 1 — Account provisioned, admin user created
• Days 1–2 — First data upload, schema mapping verified
• Days 2–3 — KPI thresholds configured, alert rules set, users invited
• Days 3–5 — Team trained on dashboards
• Day 5+ — Automated sync scheduled if applicable

Organisations with complex integrations or large data volumes may require a 2–4 week implementation project.

No. The majority of setup requires no technical knowledge:

• Data upload — drag and drop a CSV file
• User management — add users by email address and assign roles
• Alert rules — visual rule builder, no coding required
• Dashboard configuration — toggle KPI cards through platform Settings

For automated data syncs or API integrations, basic IT support is helpful. The implementation team can also handle technical setup on request.

Navigate to Settings → Alert Rules or Alerts → Thresholds:

Select the KPI to configure (e.g. Win Rate, Service Delivery Rate, Overdue Invoices)

Set threshold values — the platform provides sensible defaults you can adjust

Define the alert action — dashboard notification, email, or escalation workflow

Save and activate

Changes take effect immediately. Multiple threshold levels per KPI are supported (e.g. At Risk at 80 %, Off Track at 90 %).

All platform reference material is available in the Platform Guide (/dashboard/info), which includes four tabs:

• KPI Glossary — full definitions, calculation methodology, and thresholds for every KPI
• Module Catalogue — what each module does and where to find it
• Onboarding & Guide — platform walkthrough, demo flow guide, persona journeys, and presentation mode instructions
• Branding — brand system, visual identity, voice, colour palette, and assets

The Platform Guide is accessible from the profile menu (top-right corner) under "Platform Guide".

The platform provides:

• In-platform contextual help — tooltips and guidance from any dashboard
• This FAQ section — comprehensive answers updated with the platform
• KPI Glossary — full definitions and interpretation guidance for every metric
• Email support — contact the platform team via the Contact page (/contact)
• Live onboarding sessions — walkthroughs available on request for new teams

For urgent issues, use the Contact page to reach the support team directly.