How to Create Dashboard in Excel

Creating Dashboard in Excel to Track your Business Metrics

How to Create Dashboard in Excel: Excel is one of the most used software in the business environment. It has a vast array of tools that you can use daily which can make your life easier. Managers came to rely immensely on it when visualizing vast amounts of data to their team, stakeholders and top executives. One of the most used feature in excel is the dashboard. The dashboard is basically used to turn raw spreadsheet data into graphical charts and diagrams. This feature makes it easier for you to visualize and analyze the data. Just imagine you are scrolling through rows and rows of information and trying to make sense of it. It would take weeks or even months if it’s a large data set.

 

 

The dashboard feature is also very customizable; this allows you to quickly customize your diagrams and charts to your preferences. It also brings in a new stream of productivity because it cuts out a lot of unnecessary time. The time you would usually take to analyze raw data can now be used to tackle other business operations daily.

You have a lot of ways to create a dashboard. You also have a lot of different dashboards you can create, for example KPI dashboard, dashboard for sales etc. it’s all up to you and what you want to achieve. Below you can see a tutorial on how to create a simple KPI dashboard. This dashboard is not a solution for all dashboards. Excel is can be a very complicated software, persons spend literally years trying to master it.

Download Excel Dashboard Templates

You have a lot of other tools you can use online that can help you. On the other hand starting from this point can carry you a long way. A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. Hopefully this simple dashboard will be a key learning curve for you.

How to Create Dashboard in Excel KPI Reporting Tutorial

 

 
1. The first thing you have to do is to create the information you are going to use in your dashboard in excel spreadsheet. You can upload your information to excel as well if you’ve already created it. Make sure that your information is also organized and well structured. Draw out your layout (optional)

This step is pretty optional for this tutorial because this tutorial is very simple. If you are planning to take on other sophisticated projects. It would be necessary to draw out your dashboard charts and diagrams. This will help you to have a blueprint of how you want it to look before you had designed it in excel.
2. Select all the data you want on the dashboard from the spreadsheet.
3. Once all rows and columns are selected you can then go on home, click on conditional formatting and create new rule
4. You will then see a new rule formatting window; use the default rule at the top.
5. You can then customize your data from there on the new formatting rule window. The best thing to do is to experiment and try out different features on the new formatting rule window and overtime you will get better at it. You can master all this probably in a couple hours.

 

 
On a usual basis you can create or download formulas that can help you analyze your data if needed. This will make it easier for you to turn them into charts and diagrams. The good thing is that you can find a lot of these formulas online. You can also find amazing tools from companies who provide softwares you can download. These tools are also amazing and they can make your dashboard standout.

You have a lot of different ways and tools on creating a dashboard. It’s all up to you and your preferences, it can get pretty confusing at times but if you just stick to it and work towards having a certain level of mastery. You will realize all the hard work over the months was worth it.

The tutorial above was only to give you an introduction on what you can do right now. So that you can get a certain level of knowledge on it. You can find vast amount of information on it online, this tutorial will help to take out first time confusion. Taking everything into account the dashboard is a tool you can use that can help you visualize important data. You can use it to easily communicate and analyze important information with your team to make important business decisions.