Analyze business objects (beta)

Last updated: July 29, 2026 06:46

Business object analytics (beta) lets you analyze the business objects in your product, such as orders, tasks, or projects, the same way that you analyze Pages and Features. Use it to answer questions about the entities inside your product, not only the screens visitors view.

Use cases

Visitor and account analytics tell you who did something in your product. Objects add the other half of the picture: what they were working on.

Use objects to:

Measure conversion and time to completion, so you can see how objects move through a funnel, where they drop off, and how long each stage takes.
Understand engagement for the entities visitors actually use, not only the pages they visit.
Compare values against each other by visitors, event count, or time spent.
Track adoption of new entities as the number of active values changes over time.
Diagnose frustration, such as U-turns, rage clicks, and error clicks, on individual values.
Share object metrics on dashboards alongside your other analytics.

How it works

An object represents an entity your product works on, such as an order, task, or project, defined by an event property whose value identifies a specific entity (for example, orderId or taskId). An object can span many visitors and accounts rather than belonging to any single one. Object analytics works best for high-volume entities that appear across many events, such as large numbers of orders, documents, or devices.

For example, a project-management app sends a projectId on every event that happens inside a project. After setting up an object called Projects, a Pendo user can see how many projects were active last month, which ones had the most engagement, and how a specific project is trending, without building a separate report for each one.

Objects work alongside the rest of your analytics:

You analyze objects with familiar tools. Objects use the same metrics and analytics surfaces you already use for Pages, Features, and Track Events.
Objects complement visitor and account analytics. They add to your existing analysis rather than replacing it.
Objects build on your event data. An object is based on an event property, whether one Pendo already collects or a new one you send going forward, so there's no separate analytics pipeline to set up. Objects use event data collected after you add the object, so historical events aren't included.
Objects work with funnels. Measure how objects move through a sequence of steps to see where they drop off and how long each stage takes.

Before you begin

Before you get started setting up an object, you must have:

The Analytics module included in your subscription.
Permission to edit event properties, which lets you add, edit, or remove objects. Subscription admins have this permission by default.
The object's ID in your page URLs, if you're using URL rules to identify it. For example, an order ID that appears in the URL as /orders/A-1024. If the ID isn't in your URLs, send it as an event property instead.
(Recommended, not required) A basic understanding of how event properties and page parameters work, because objects are built from them. For more information, see Event properties and URLs for Page tagging.

To only view object data, a user needs viewer access to analytics, not permission to edit event properties.

Add an object

Each subscription can have up to five objects. Adding one is a three-step process that captures the property, defines where it applies, and confirms the setup.

In the left-side menu, go to Product > Object analytics.
Select Create object. If the button is inactive, you've reached your subscription's limit of five objects.
- To request a higher limit, contact your Pendo account representative or our support team.
- If you don't have permission to manage objects, the button doesn't appear.
On the Setup step, enter a Name (used as the object's label throughout Pendo) and an optional Description.
Provide an Example URL where the object appears in your app. Pendo uses it to suggest URL rules on the next step.
Choose how Pendo identifies the object:
- Use an existing event property. Select an event property already collected on your app's events. If you already send this value on an event property, use this option rather than adding a new one. On multi-app subscriptions, filter by application first.
- Add a new event property. Enter the field name you'll send on future events.
Select Next to go to the URL rules step, then add the rules and skip values that identify your object. For syntax, examples, and how to test your rules, see the next section, Set up URL rules. If you selected an existing event property in the previous step, this step is optional.
Select Next to go to the Confirm step. Review the summary, then select Save.

Set up URL rules

URL rules tell Pendo how to extract the object's ID from a URL, so they only work if that ID actually appears in your page URLs.

Add one rule for each URL pattern, and Pendo applies the first rule that matches. You can add up to 20 rules and up to 20 skip values. The URL rules step includes built-in formatting help with the same patterns and examples shown here.

Write a URL rule

Follow these conventions:

Start each rule with // so it matches whether the URL uses http or https.
Mark the part of the URL you want to capture with *value*. Each rule needs exactly one *value*.
Use these tokens to match the rest of the URL:
- * and ** apply to path parts only. Use * for a single part and ** for the rest of the path.
- ~contains: matches a path part, the server name, or the fragment after # that contains specific text.
- ~or: matches a path part that exactly equals one of several alternatives, separated by a vertical bar. Each alternative is matched literally, not as a pattern.

Syntax	Example rule	Example URL	Captured value
`*`	`///orders/value*`	`https://app.example.com/` `orders/A-1024`	`A-1024`
`**`	`//app.example.com/users/value/**`	`https://app.example.com/` `users/42/profile`	`42`
`~contains:`	`///~contains:order/` `value*`	`https://app.example.com/` `orders/42`	`42`
`~or:`	`///~or:orders\|invoices\|tickets/value*`	`https://app.example.com/` `invoices/A-1024`	`A-1024`

For more about how Pendo matches URLs, see URLs for Page tagging.

Add skip values

Skip values are values you want Pendo to ignore when parsing. Enter a string or number. Add a skip value for anything a rule would capture that isn't a real object, such as new in /orders/new while an order is being created.

Test your rules

Before you save, use Test URLs to check that your rules capture the value you expect. Select Add a test URL, enter a URL, and Pendo shows whether it matched, which rule matched, and the parsed value. Test URLs aren't saved.

When your test URLs show the value you expect, return to the wizard's Confirm step and select Save to finish adding the object.

View your objects

The object list shows every object in the subscription and how each one is trending against the previous period.

Above the table, use the global filters to change the date range, segment, or account filter. On multi-app subscriptions, this page doesn't include an app filter, because each object's URL rules already determine which app and pages it covers.

The table title shows how many objects you've added out of the maximum, for example Objects 3 / 5.

Default columns include:

Object name. The object's default display name. Select an object to open its details.
Description. What you entered when you added the object.
Apps. Shown on multi-app subscriptions.
Track Events. Shown when at least one object has Track Events in scope.
Metric columns. Trending values with a percentage chip that compares to the previous period. Frustration metrics (U-turns, rage clicks, dead clicks, error clicks) invert the trend color, so an increase is flagged as worse.
Object property since. The date the event property was converted to an object.

Admins see row actions for Edit URL rules and Remove object property.

Analyze an object

Selecting an object opens its detail page. The header shows the object's title, description, the date it became an object, and a breadcrumb link back to Object analytics. Admins see Edit URL rules and Remove as object property in the header.

Filter the object's analytics

Under the header, a filter row lets you narrow the object's analytics by:

Apps or events. Restrict to specific applications or individual events.
Event types. Filter to only view Pages, Features, or Track Events.
Property. Add up to five event property filters (Add filter).

Overview tab

The Overview tab has three sections:

Details. A collapsible card that shows the object's URL Rules, Skip values, and Automatic skip values. Automatic skip values are values Pendo excludes on its own when they appear too frequently to represent a distinct object. Admins can select the pencil icon to edit URL rules inline.
Metrics. A metric grid and chart comparing key metrics against the previous period. Select the Manage metrics icon to change which metrics appear. Select the Add to dashboard icon to add the current view to an existing dashboard.
Event breakdown. A table of this object's individual values, ordered by how much event activity each one has. Select a value to open it on its own.

Selecting an object value from the event breakdown opens a view scoped to that single value. The header shows Filtered to {value}, and all metrics and events on the page apply to that value only. Use the breadcrumb to return to the full object.

Events tab

The Events tab shows how visitors interact with events tied to this object.

The chart title reads Top events by number of {field_name}. If you filter by event type, the title updates to match.
Below the chart, a table lists all events in scope. Use Search events to filter by name, and the Lifecycle role filter to narrow by role. Use the star icon to favorite those events.
Select the checkboxes in two or more rows, then choose the three dots in the top-right corner of the table and select Create report > Funnel to build a funnel scoped to those events, so you can see where objects drop off and how long each stage takes.

Build a funnel by object

Funnels measure how many items move through a sequence of steps and where they drop off. By default, a funnel measures visitors, but you can measure it by object instead to see how your business objects progress through a sequence.

To build one, create a funnel the way you normally would, then set Funnel by to your object. Funnel by is set to Visitor by default, so select your object to measure the funnel by that object instead. Build the rest of your query as usual.

For the full steps to create and configure a funnel, see Funnels.

Add objects to a dashboard

You can add object metrics to any dashboard using two widgets in the catalog under Analytics:

Object analytics key metrics. Shows key metrics for an object, including distinct values, average visitors per value, and total time per value.
Object analytics chart. Charts trends for an object so you can compare segments, periods, and dimensions over time.

To add a widget:

Open the dashboard you want to edit and select Add widget.
In the widget catalog, choose Object analytics key metrics or Object analytics chart.
Configure the object, time range, and segment. Widgets default to the last 30 days and the Everyone segment.
Select Save to add the widget to the dashboard.

Manage or remove an object

Subscription admins and event property managers can edit an object's URL rules from either the object list or the object's detail page:

Select the pencil icon (Edit URL rules) next to the object.
Update the URL rules or skip values.
Select Save.

To remove an object:

Select the trash icon (Remove object property) in the list, or Remove as object property on the detail page.
In the Remove object property? confirmation, select Remove.

Removing an object doesn't stop Pendo from collecting data. Pendo keeps collecting the underlying event data, but no longer treats the property as an object, which means:

The object no longer appears on the Business object analytics page.
You can't use it in a funnel.
If the property has a large number of unique values (high cardinality), you can't use it in other reports.

Pendo doesn't process this data retroactively, so if you recreate the object later, the data collected while it was turned off won't be available.

Troubleshooting

The Create object button is inactive or missing. If the button is inactive, you've reached the object limit for your subscription. Remove an object you no longer need, or contact your Pendo representative to raise the limit. If the button doesn't appear at all, you don't have permission to manage objects; ask a subscription admin.
A newly added object shows no data. Objects measure events that carry the object's property. Confirm that the property is being sent on the events in scope, and that at least one URL rule matches the pages where those events happen.
A frustration metric shows a red trend even though the number went down. Frustration metrics (U-turns, rage clicks, dead clicks, error clicks) invert trend colors so that an increase is flagged as worse. A decrease is a positive change.
A user without management access sees "Ask your admin to set one up." Object management requires subscription admin or permission to edit event properties. Someone with that access needs to add the first object before other users can analyze it.

Related resources

Event properties: how event properties, including page parameters, are captured and used.
Tag Features and Pages, or set up Track Events, so your events carry the properties you want to turn into objects.
Build a segment that combines object metrics with your visitor and account data.
Create a dashboard and add object widgets to share object trends with your colleagues.