# Autopilot > Plain-English summaries, a simple view for clients, alerts that watch your sites, setup that runs itself and a weekly plan. Source: https://datacenter.so/docs/autopilot Section: Start here Autopilot does the watching for you. It tells you what is happening in plain words, warns you when something needs a look, finishes setup on its own where it can, and suggests a few next steps each week. Nothing changes on your site or account until you press Apply. ## What's happening On the **Overview**, each site has a short briefing, and every client's view starts with one. It is three to five short sentences written from your own numbers. For example: "38 people visited in the last 7 days, 12 more than the 7 days before." Each sentence links to the place that proves it, such as the dashboard filtered to that source. - On the Overview they cover the last 7 days. On a client's view they follow the period picked. - On a client's view, up to two [card sentences](https://datacenter.so/docs/dashboards#what-the-card-sentences-mean) follow, such as "Signups up 22% over the 7 days before, mostly from Meta (+31)." - When a period has fewer than 10 visitors, you see "Not enough visits yet to spot trends." instead of guesses. - Ad cost per signup or sale shows only when Datacenter worked out which ads brought them. - Money is shown in your reporting currency. Other currencies are converted at the European Central Bank rate for each day. - With filters on, the summary steps aside, since it covers the whole site. When the Assistant is on, **Explain more** asks it to say what stands out. It counts as one Assistant message. ## The simple view for clients Most clients want one page with big numbers and no jargon, so a client you invite by email opens the simple view. Set it up in the site's **Reports**, then **Share**, under **Simple view**: - Pick the three big numbers. The default is visitors, signups or sales, and ad cost per signup or sale. A number with no data is swapped for the next useful one. - Pick what counts as a signup or sale, or let Datacenter pick. - Invited clients start on it. Press **Show full dashboard** next to a client to give them the full dashboard instead. The share link shows it only when you tick **Show the simple view on the share link**. Clients see the summary, the three numbers, the [targets](https://datacenter.so/docs/dashboards#monthly-targets) on the dashboard they see, where visitors came from as a ranked list in plain words ("Google", "Instagram", "Your email"), and the latest signups or sales with where each came from. Names, emails and phone numbers are never shown. A **See the full dashboard** button opens everything else. Press **Preview** to see what they see. ## Alerts Open **Alerts** in the sidebar to see every alert on every site, newest first. Each one links to where you fix it. Tap a site's name at the top to see only that site, its uptime, and **Alert settings**, where you pick which alerts it sends. - **Ad spend with no signups today**: your ads spent more than the amount you set and no signup came in by the hour you pick. Default: over 50, by 3 PM. - **Traffic dropped by half**: yesterday brought half or less of a usual day for that weekday, so a quiet Monday is compared with other Mondays. Sites with fewer than 20 visitors a day are left out. - **Unusual change**: a number moved far from a usual day. See [Unusual changes](#unusual-changes) below. - **A target falls behind**: on day 10 or day 20 of the month, a card's [monthly target](https://datacenter.so/docs/dashboards#monthly-targets) is Behind, or Over for a number where lower is better. Once per target per month. - **Tag stopped sending**: no visits for the hours you set (default 12) on a site that usually has them. - **Tracking needs a fix**: a [tracking health](https://datacenter.so/docs/tracking-health) check turned red, such as orders no longer tying to visits or Meta sends failing. Once per break: it alerts again only after the check has passed in between. - **Big day**: yesterday was your best day in 4 weeks, for signups or visitors. - **New signup**: the first signup of the day, within 15 minutes. Off by default. At most one alert of each kind goes out per site per day. Nothing is sent during quiet hours (9 PM to 8 AM by default, in the time zone you pick); what still holds true goes out after. Alerts go by email to you, and to invited clients if you turn that on ("Tag stopped sending" and "Tracking needs a fix" stay with you). Texts to you are (when shipped). The weekly report already covers the good news of the week, so there is no separate weekly alert. ### Emails you get **Alerts** also lists every email Datacenter sends you, each with its own switch. A switch works the moment you tap it. - **Alerts**, **Site down, SSL and domain** and **Weekly plan**: for every site, or for the site you picked at the top. - **Digest**: every site that needs you, daily or weekly (Studio and Agency). Its time and Teams are under **Digest and Teams**; Slack has its own card. - **Reports sent to you**: each report that includes you. - **From Datacenter**: milestones, setup tips and plan offers (a free trial when your site is ready). Security, billing, trial ending and failed payment emails always reach you, so they have no switch. ### Unusual changes Each morning Datacenter compares yesterday with the same weekday in the 8 weeks before. It needs 4 of those weeks first. "Usual" is the middle value of those days, so one odd week does not move it. A change counts only when it is 40% or more and well outside how much the number usually swings. There is nothing to set. It watches: - Visitors, from 30 on a usual day. - Your goal's conversions, from 8 on a usual day, and its conversion rate, from 200 visitors and 8 conversions. - Sales from connected stores, from 5 orders on a usual day. - Visits from each of your top 5 sources, from 20 on a usual day. - Ad spend per platform, from 20 a day in the account's currency, and cost per result where the platform reports results. Only once the platform's numbers for yesterday are in. Each alert says what changed and, when the data shows it, the likely cause: a campaign that stopped or started spending, the one source behind most of a change, the tag that stopped, or one big order. When the data shows no cause, the alert says none. For example: "Visits from Facebook fell 70% yesterday: 18, from about 60 on a usual Wednesday. Meta campaign "Fall sale" stopped spending on Oct 21." A change that lasts several days is one change: it alerts once, on its first day. What **Traffic dropped by half**, **Big day** or **Tag stopped sending** already told you is left out. **Alerts** lists the last 30 days of changes. Tap **Mute** next to one to stop hearing about that number or source. Muted ones are under **Muted**, where **Unmute** brings them back. ### On your phone Open **Alerts** and find **Phone alerts**. Tap **Turn on for this device**, then allow alerts when your phone asks. Each alert is one short line; tap it to open the page that shows why. - **Wins**: first sale of the day, milestones (going live, a first sale, 100 visitors), a record day, and the weekly summary. - **Problems**: tag stopped, site is down (and back up), traffic halved, unusual changes, a target behind, tracking needs a fix, ad spend with no results, and an SSL certificate or domain about to end. Uptime, SSL and domain checks come with paid plans. Turn each one on or off, and set quiet hours. Alerts that come in quiet hours wait until they end. Phone alerts follow your own switches, even when a site's email alert is off. On iPhone and iPad, alerts work only in the Home Screen app, on iOS 16.4 or later. In Safari, tap **Share**, then **Add to Home Screen**. Open Datacenter from your Home Screen and turn alerts on there. Signing out on a phone stops its alerts. ## Setup that runs itself When you add a site through **Set up my site**, Datacenter reads your home page once: - It works out what the site is built with (Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Framer, Next.js, Ghost, or your own code) and opens the right install steps. - **Email these steps to my developer** sends them the tag and those steps. - It works out what kind of site it is (a store, a site that gets leads, or a content site) and starts your first dashboard with the right charts. For the first 7 days, Datacenter checks your site for the tag every 15 minutes. When it finds the tag, or a first visit, you get one email and an "It works." banner on the Overview. After the first day, Datacenter looks at what your site already sends, like a "Signup" event or a /thank-you page, and suggests goals. Add one with one tap, or turn on **Add suggested goals without asking** in the Alerts settings. ## The weekly plan Every Monday morning (and any time you press **Make a plan**), each site's briefing on the **Overview** shows three to five next steps, each tied to a real number. Some run with Apply: add a goal, set up an abandoned checkout email, send new signups a welcome email, schedule a weekly client report, or build a signups dashboard. Some open a page, like connecting an ad account. Some are advice, like moving budget to the ad platform that brings signups for less; Datacenter never changes your ads. - **Apply** first shows exactly what will be made. Press **Apply** again to do it. Applied steps are in the Assistant's **Changes** list, with **Undo** where the feature has one. - **Not now** hides a step for a week. **Dismiss** hides it for good. - With the Assistant on, it picks and words the steps from a fixed list of what Datacenter can do. A plan counts as one Assistant message. If any number in its words is not in your data, that step keeps the plain wording instead. With the Assistant off, or no messages left this month, the steps come from the same numbers by fixed rules. - The plan is emailed to you each Monday, with a link back to Datacenter. Nothing is applied from the email. Turn the email off in **Alerts**, under **Emails**. - The Assistant never sees names, emails or phone numbers, and treats text from your website as data, not instructions.