What Are Summaries?
Summaries are aggregation formulas attached to a board. They compute metrics like totals, averages, or counts across groups of cards — turning your board into a lightweight dashboard.
For example, on a Kanban board grouped by Status, you could show the total story points at the bottom of each column, or the number of cards per status.
Which Modes Support Summaries?
Summaries are available on 4 display modes:
| Mode | Where summaries appear |
|---|---|
| Kanban | Column footers (one value per column) |
| Datagrid | Group footers (one value per group) |
| Casino | Pile footers (one value per pile) |
| Chart | Used as chart data series |
Grid, Matrix, Gallery, and Gantt do not support summaries.
Available Aggregation Types
| Type | What it computes |
|---|---|
| Count | Number of cards in the group |
| Sum | Total of a numeric dimension |
| Average | Mean value of a numeric dimension |
| Min | Smallest value of a numeric dimension |
| Max | Largest value of a numeric dimension |
Count works on any board — it just counts cards. The other four require a numeric dimension (Number, Computed Number, or Integer) to aggregate.
Adding a Summary
- Open a board in a mode that supports summaries (Kanban, Datagrid, Casino, or Chart)
- Look for the summaries menu icon in the board header or column footer
- Click Add summary
- Choose the aggregation type and the dimension to aggregate
- The summary appears at the bottom of each group
You can add multiple summaries to the same board — for example, both a count and a sum of story points.
Configuring Summaries
Summaries are configured per board, not per column. All columns (or groups) show the same set of summaries.
You can manage summaries through:
- The summary menu in the board header — toggle the summary bar on/off, add new summaries
- The summaries dropdown in column footers — quick access to enable/disable specific summaries
- The summary editor modal — for creating custom summary expressions
Custom Expressions
For advanced use cases, you can write custom summary expressions using Klaro's Elo expression language. This lets you combine dimensions or apply custom logic beyond the standard aggregations.
Which Dimensions Can Be Summarized?
Only numeric-type dimensions can be used with Sum, Average, Min, and Max:
- Number dimensions
- Computed Number dimensions
- Integer dimensions (e.g., Identifier)
If you don't see a dimension in the summary picker, it's likely not a numeric type.
Practical Examples
Story Points per Status (Kanban)
- Create a Number dimension called "Story Points"
- Set up a Kanban board grouped by Status
- Add a Sum summary on the "Story Points" dimension
- Each status column now shows the total story points
Card Count per Assignee (Kanban)
- Set up a Kanban board grouped by Assignee
- Add a Count summary
- Each column shows how many cards are assigned to that person
Budget Tracking (Datagrid)
- Create a Number dimension called "Budget"
- Set up a Datagrid grouped by Team
- Add Sum and Average summaries on "Budget"
- See total and average budget per team at a glance
Tips
- Summaries + Chart mode — summaries provide the data for chart visualizations. Define what to aggregate, then switch to Chart mode for visual reporting.
- Keep it simple — one or two summaries per board is usually enough. Too many clutter the footer area.
- Use Count as a health metric — a quick card count per column helps spot bottlenecks in Kanban workflows.