Hey Robert,
You are correct. If you want to see the dashboard you will have to enable it. However if all you are trying to do is validate your actuals you can do that without using the Dashboard:
1. You can you the reporting on the summary tab to see your actuals numbers.
2. You can create a forecast for the month and validate your actuals that way. You can just leave the forecast in the new state so only you as an admin could see it.
Please let me know if the above doesn't make sense or if you would like more clarification,
Lauren Griessel