Preferences

Preferences is where you choose how By the Numbers looks and reads for you. That covers the theme, the fonts, date and number formats, and what reports start with.

The Preferences page on the Display tab, with the Appearance, Fonts, Navigation and Report Presentation cards

How It Works

Open Preferences under Settings in the navigation, or from the menu under your initials. The page has tabs, and the ones covered here are Display, Reports, Benchmarks and Dismissed.

Your choices are personal. Each team member has their own, and they follow you to any browser. Two things are shared by everyone on the account: Revenue Calculation and Dismissed Prompts.

Save Preferences, at the top right, saves every change on the page at once. It isn’t there on the Dismissed tab. The theme and the fonts take effect and save the moment you choose them, with no need to save.

Display

Theme: 3 icon buttons: a sun for Light, a moon for Dark and a monitor for System. Hover over one to see its name. System follows your device’s appearance setting. It starts on Light.
Date Format: Short, Medium, Long or Full. In the United States region, the same day reads as 9/15/25, Sep 15, 2025, September 15, 2025 or Monday, September 15, 2025. It starts on Medium.
Region: the order and language of dates. Browser Default follows your device. Each other region shows today’s date in its style. The line under the menu shows what today looks like with your choices.
Body Font: the font for text. It starts on Helvetica. The others are System Default, Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Arial, Georgia, Verdana, Trebuchet MS and Tahoma.
Monospace Font: the font for IDs, SKUs and codes. Numbers stay in the body font. It starts on Roboto Mono.
Enable Universal Search: on by default. It turns on the search box in the top bar and the ⌘K shortcut, or Ctrl+K on Windows. Universal Search explains how it works.
Report Presentation: the checkboxes Enable animations on reports, Use fixed headers on tables and Display totals on tables are on by default. Hide help text on reports and Hide preset Customer Segments from dropdowns are off. The last one hides the preset segments in the segment dropdowns on reports.

A sample table beside the fonts shows each change as you make it. The date format applies to table cells, captions and tooltips. Chart axes always use a short format.

Reports

These are the defaults for every report you open:

Default date range: the range a report opens with, when you haven’t set one for it. With no preference, it’s Last 30 days. It doesn’t apply to reports that open on a long range, such as Cohort Retention, which start at Trailing 1 year.
Default comparison: the comparison a report opens with, when it supports one. With no preference, there’s none. You can change it on each report.
Default chart type: Line or Bar. It applies to reports that offer more than one chart type. A report where you’ve picked a type keeps that pick.
Default table density: Compact, Standard or Comfortable. It sets the row spacing in report tables.
Number format: Full shows amounts in full, such as 1,234. Compact shortens them, such as 1.2K. It applies to the numbers on summary cards and chart axes.

Revenue Calculation is shared by your whole team:

Include taxes in revenue and Include shipping in revenue are both on by default.
They change Net Revenue, and the figures worked out from it, on the P&L. Everyone sees the same numbers.

The Report settings menu on a report offers some of the same choices without leaving it. Show totals row, Sticky table headers, Chart animations, Show help text on reports and Show benchmarks on reports save the same preferences, for every report.

Benchmarks

Hide benchmarks on reports: removes the vs Stores Like Yours comparison from your reports.
Benchmark comparison style: how that comparison looks under a card. Choose Scale bar (default), Plain-English sentence, Side-by-side numbers or Badge, details on tap. A preview of each shows how it reads.

Dismissed

Dismissed Prompts lists the nudges and setup prompts someone on the account has hidden. It shows each prompt, where it appears, and whether it’s hidden for good or until a date.

Restore brings a prompt back where it normally appears. Hiding and restoring apply to everyone on the account.

What It Means for You

Match the app to your screen. Pick Dark for low light, or a body font that’s easy for you to read.
Match dates to your region. Choose a Region so dates read the way you write them. A team in the United Kingdom, for example, can pick United Kingdom and see day before month.
Set your usual defaults. Choose your Default date range and Default comparison once, so reports open the way you check them.
Keep reports quiet. Hide help text and benchmarks once you know the reports.

How to Choose a Date Range: the date range and comparison on a report.
Universal Search: jump to any report, page or saved item.
P&L: the report that uses Revenue Calculation.