What is a dashboard and how to create it in Excel – Nairobi Times

If you’re not familiar with the concept of dashboard, it’s time to learn more about this type of tool and, especially, learn how to use it in your company. So, check out below what a dashboard is and how to create one in Excel!

what is dashboard

In general terms, a dashboard is a dashboard that contains, in a simplified way, visual information, metrics and indicators of a company. All of these factors together help and speed up important decision-making.

Each dashboard will be different for each type of business as they may have different needs and metrics to assess — even if they are in the same industry. Some more complete models can even receive real-time updates and integration with other software. There are even several types of dashboards, but the most used are Organizational, Tactical and Strategic.

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• Operational Dashboard: contains metrics that will validate the performance of organizational processes;
• Dashboard​ Tactical: uses indicators that will help in decision making in the medium term;
• Strategic Dashboard: have key performance indicators (KPIs) that help plan the company’s growth.

How to make a dashboard in Excel

On the market, you can find many professional and complete tools to create a dashboard, but, in many cases, users with a certain knowledge of Excel can build one that is functional and practical.

Enter data into a spreadsheet

1. Having chosen the metrics that will be analyzed in the dashboard, create a table in Excel containing the data;
2. Another option is to use a data source from a management platform such as Microsoft Project, Trello, Jira, Arsana, and many others. For this case, make sure the information is correct and entered in separate cells .

Create and configure a pivot table

1. Select the entire data table (or use the shortcut “Ctrl + Shift + *”);
2. Access the “Insert” menu in the upper corner;
3. Select “Pivot Table”;
4. Click “OK” in the next opened window;
5. Check the fields that are most suitable for your analysis. For this example, let’s mark “Factory” and “Profit”.

This step is much freer, because you may need to create other pivot tables to analyze other factors, so be free to create as many more as you need and make your dashboard even more complete. If you have questions, see our tutorial on how to create pivot tables.

Add a targeting item

If you want to add a filter to the dashboard, enter a targeting item. For this example, let’s use the “Year” field.

1. Access the “Pivot Table Analyze” menu;
2. Click on “Insert Slicer”;
3. Select which item will be the filter and click “OK”;
4. A window will be created with the items, so adjust it to make it easier to see.

assemble the graphics

1. Select one of the pivot tables you created;
2. Click on “Pivot Graph”;
3. In the opened window then choose from the available formats
4. Click “OK” and configure the graphic layout in the way that is most convenient.

Create a more accessible layout

This step is where the magic happens. As the dashboard is a visual tool, we suggest that you migrate the created graphics to a new tab and organize a layout that suits your company.

1. Create a new tab called “Dashboard”;
2. Cut and paste the graphics of all the tables you created, as well as the targeting items into it;
3. Customize it by adding colors or your company logo.

From that moment on, you are a little more familiar with the concept of a dashboard, and are able to create your own using Excel.