Data freshness describes how up to date the figures on a page are. A live dashboard reads the source system each time it opens, so it is as fresh as the system itself. An imported table is as fresh as its last refresh: hourly, nightly, weekly. Neither is right for everything; the point is to know which you are looking at, and for the page to say so.
Freshness decides whether a dashboard is trusted. A logistics operator watching deliveries at 3pm needs figures from 3pm, not from last night’s load. A board pack for last quarter does not. When a page carries no timestamp, people quietly assume the worst and go back to asking the person with the spreadsheet. When it says “updated 07:02 today”, the argument about whose number is right mostly disappears.
Fresher is not always better. Live queries against a busy operational system can slow that system down, and some questions — month-end totals, year-on-year trends — do not change minute to minute. A sensible rule: connect live where decisions are made during the day, refresh on a schedule where they are made weekly or monthly, and always show the time.
In Klayara, every dashboard shows when its data was last updated, live connections and scheduled imports can sit side by side on one page, and refresh schedules are set per table. See connectors and the terms live connection and data import.