My Understanding of the Economy Overview

Economy Overview
One of the new tools we have is the Economy Overview. Even though the concept is a fairly simple one, it may be helpful to walk through the different parts of the information to see how it works.

Clicking on the abacus on the main toolbar at the bottom of the screen opens the Economy Overview. This shows the main window, which is composed of two sub-windows.

The left window displays the various resources and items available to produce or harvest in the game. The right window is larger and displays information about the resource you choose to look at from those listed on the left.

I will refer to the left window as the "resource window" and the right window as the "information window". Looking at the resource window shows the resources are divided into four groups.

1. Building Materials, the resources/items needed to build basic buildings.
2. Food, used to make buffs and to produce military units.
3. Weapons, used to produce military units.
4. Resource, the raw materials used to produce items.
I'm not going to list each resource here, since it's clear which is what. A simple mouse-over of the resource will show the resources name if there's any possible confusion. Looking at the resource entries, we can see that they are divided into 3 parts: a picture identifying the resource, a number showing your current stock, and a colored arrow indicating how well you're doing at producing that resource.

The four colors (green, yellow, grey and red) of the arrows show at a glance the status of that resource.
Green is the best color for your resource to show. This shows that you're adding to your stores of the resource, despite meeting the demands your various buildings have on it.
Yellow shows that somewhere in the chain, enough of a needed resource is not being provided.
Grey shows that the production of the resource is in balance. Its needs are being met but it's not being produced quickly enough to build up any stores.
Red is the worst color to see. Seeing a red arrow means that you're not producing enough to meet your needs.
To see what information about your economy or production is available, we need to choose one as an example. The first resource is the humble but essential pinewood planks. Let's click on the pinewood planks in the resource window to bring up its simple production chain in the information window. Looking in the information window we now see three items. Each item gives similar information to an entry in the resource window. The information is provided by a picture identifying the resource, a number showing your current stock (rounded down to the next thousand if it's over 1000), a colored arrow indicating the status of that resource and a number showing the over-production or under-production of that resource (rounded down to the next thousand if it's over 1000).

The base of the production chain is shown at the bottom. In our example that is the hapless pinewood tree ready to be harvested. Following the arrow pointing up from that is the pinewood log and above that the pinewood plank. Let's click on the entry for pinewood logs in the information window to see the next level of information available. The information window now shows a new layout.

The top of the screen shows the amount of that resource we have in stock (in our storehouses). Below that, the information window has been divided in half. Production of the resource is shown in the left window and the use/consumption of that resource is shown in the right window. On the left, the production of the resource is shown by a picture of the type of building producing the resource with a number showing how much is being produced (rounded down to the next thousand if it's over 1000). If any of that type of build is buffed, this is indicated by a green star and a second number, in green, showing how much is being produced by the buff (rounded down to the next (thousand if it's over 1000). On the right, the use/consumption of the resource is shown by a picture of each type of building drawing on the resource and a number showing how much is being used by those buildings (rounded down to the next thousand if it is over 1000). Below the two windows, the net production is shown by a number (rounded down to the next thousand if it's over 1000) on a colored field matching the arrow color for that resource.

By clicking on any picture in these sub-windows, you bring up another sub-window. The new sub-window shows pictures of each building of that type and the production or use of each building. In addition to how much the building is producing or using, it also shows the level of each building and if it's active or sleeping and whether it is buffed and the amount being produced by the buff.

One of the most convenient aspects of the economy overview is realized by clicking on the picture of a specific building you want to look at. Clicking on the picture closes the economy overview, shifts your view to the specific building and opens the control panel for that building. This way you can quickly find and activate, shut down, or even upgrade a specific building. Please remember that when you upgrade a building, during the time that it's being upgraded, it does NOT produce any resources/items. This appears to confuse the Economy Overview. So if you want an accurate picture of your production while upgrading a building, shut the building down while you're upgrading it before opening the Economy Overview.

In Summary, the Economy Overview helps you to track how well your production chains are working and to locate the buildings that aren't quite living up to your needs. Being familiar with and using the information in the Economy Overview will help make sure your island is a productive and prosperous one.

I made this guide/overview to help my fellow guildmembers in DFF (Delilah's Fierce Friends) and thought to go ahead and share it with everyone else in the hopes that they might find it helpful.
I'd also like to thank Delilah98 and Katybz for their helpful suggestions and outright editing, which helped make this far better than it would otherwise have been.