You must be logged in as an admin user and your role must include the Dashboard permission (listed under the Admin group when editing a user role). Without it the page still loads the admin frame but shows the notice "You do not have permissions to access this information." instead of the dashboard content.

Two special cases apply:

• If your account does not have the Dashboard permission but the Human Resources module is on and you are registered as an employee, you are sent to the Employee Dashboard (/admin/employee/dashboard) instead.
• Super-admins can preview the dashboard as any role using the SHOW AS menu (see the question on "Show As").