How To Create A Simple Dashboard In Excel 2013

Excel Dashboard Examples and Template Files

The Excel dashboard section of TheSmallman has lots of Excel dashboard templates for you to download and use with your own data. The goal of the site is to create a visual hub for Excel dashboard design with a range of different dashboards, from financial, to organisational and KPI dashboards. The first part of the article deals with the theory of Excel dashboard design, with some pictorial examples of Excel dashboards I have created for CPA Australia. Next, there are links to pages on the site with a range of Excel dashboard examples - templates for you to take away.

An Excel dashboard is a one page summary that contains important information which allows you to analyse your subject. The art of creating stylish Excel dashboards is not an easy one to master. I will admit I have made my share of mistakes in Excel dashboard creation but I hope I am learning and improving the quality of information and appearance at the same time. There are a great many Excel dashboard examples on this site and it has taken a considerable amount of time to compile them so you should not have to. I hope you find the Excel dashboard example you are looking for.

The following outlines some key Excel dashboard design rules. Simple use of colours, clean design which is easily read. There are some key things to consider when creating an Excel dashboard. Excel dashboards should ideally be;

Understandable and easily read. There should be no confusion over what each of the metrics mean.
Interactive so can be changed to reflect different areas of an organisation.
Able to display the key measures of the time. Work out what is important and use those key items in the dashboard.
Liberal with white space. 'White Space' is the areas you are not using and they are just as important visually as the areas you are using on a dashboard.
Clearly labelled, each of the charts and tables on the dashboard need to display a clear message.
Try to work your dashboard into a symmetrical grid where you align sections into blocks of data. Symmetry is important for visual display.

Create stunning Excel dashboards like the ones above either in a course or buy my favourite Dashboards which make up my courses.

Excel Dashboard Example

The following YouTube video is a look at what is possible using an Excel dashboard. The video shows the key functionality and how things can move and change just by changing a single metric.

Excel dashboards are a very valuable corporate tool when created with forethought. An organisation can see all of the key information in one place and see how it is tracking against the key criteria. The following are some examples of Excel dashboards which I have put together. The information in these Excel dashboards is not real, it is for demonstration purposes only. After going through the exercise of creating all of these Excel dashboards I can say one thing with complete certainty, making Excel dashboards is a lot of work but very worthwhile when you see the final working result.

One of the issues with developing the following Excel dashboards is obtaining the data. I would scratch my head as I started creating the raw data from scratch early on. Later I got a bit smarter and found that wiki and some government websites had ready made tables which were Excel compatible. I then just needed to sketch out a final output dashboard and work backwards to make the data fit that vision. Many of the techniques spoken about in the site which I have incorporated on TheSmallman.com are built into these Excel dashboards. On the whole these Excel Dashboards do not need VBA at all. There are a couple of exceptions when you get down to the Heat Map section but mostly native Excel run these dashboards.

The following are the sites current Excel dashboards to download. I will be creating more and more Excel dashboards and these dashboards will be free to download. Click on the link or picture to visit the specific Excel dashboard page. An Excel file is on every page with a brief description of the Dashboard.

Excel Dashboard Templates

The next section contains a selection of the Excel dashboards on this site. All have an associated Excel dashboard template which is fully functional and has a complete data set inside it. The dashboards are all a little different, some spin on combo boxes, option buttons, slicers and there is a few that changed based on the mouse rolling over a cell or two. Enjoy.

Free Excel Dashboard Tutorial (90 mins)

I have made a quick dashboard tutorial which is posted on YouTube. This outlines how to extract data from the internet and format it in a way that allows you to generate an informative one page Excel dashboard. There are step by step guidelines to follow which will allow you to build the dashboard from scratch.

Dashboard Courses and Models

Generate highly visual and insightful insights, drive change through clarity which allows immediate action. Easily generate dashboards to help your organisation make timely decisions based on the right data, much faster. To learn how to put really these type of Dashboards together why not sit my Excel dashboard course.

Dashboard Course

Or maybe a starting point you are looking for - a professional model which can be populated with your data - then perhaps look at some of the premium model available on the site.

Dashboard Models

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Excel Dashboards in Practice

Here is an example of how the dashboards work in practice. This short YouTube video shows how all of the metrics change as the levers are pulled inside the dashboard. A lot of work inside Excel needs to happen for this sort of thing to become possible. When an Excel spreadsheet is laid out correctly the dashboard can change and update in the way that you want it to. The example presented is one of my favorites Excel dashboards to build and showcase.

The Following 35 Excel Dashboards are Free to Download

Click on the picture or link. At the bottom of the corresponding page there will be a link to the dashboard where you can download the Excel file associated with the dashboard.

Corporate Dashboard Report

This dashboard appears to be the most popular Excel dashboard template on thesmallman.com. It is a simple dashboard to create that uses very few colours.

The EBIT Excel Dashboard report is an update of another of the original dashboards on the site. I have used some relevant infographic elements to spice the dashboard up a bit. It is functional and tells the Excel story of a company based in the update of two combo boxes. Splits the dashboard by reporting metric and group. The following is a link to the dashboard template. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Department Dashboard in Excel

The department store Excel dashboard is a mixture of financial and non financial metrics all presented in a single page. It has a map feature which displays the region in focus. The following is a link to a page which contains the dashboard template.

The following is the link to this free dashboard template. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Operational Dashboard Report

This Excel dashboard uses a mix of 3 colours (blue, red and green) it is not overly busy and tells a story in a small space. Excel dashboards can be as simple or complex as need be, this is an Excel example of a simple data set shown clearly in a single page.

The above Excel Dashboard shows a range of metrics on a single page from an operations perspective. The underlying business is primarily banking however, the underlying data set can be adapted to fit a range of businesses. This dashboard did not take entirely long to produce relative to the other ones - perhaps I am learning... The following is a link to the dashboard template. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Corporate Summary Dashboard

The above Excel Dashboard displays a range of organisational metrics from revenue, expenses, FTE, Issues all against a "well thought out plan". The underlying dataset is split over several sheets and the report updates via a slicer at the top of the Dashboard which allows it to spin by State. It is highly interactive and very user friendly - enjoy. This link takes you to the dashboard template. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Consulting Excel Dashboard

The above Excel Dashboard is an update of one of my very first dashboards on the site. It have had some infographic elements added to it to enhance the story. It is debatable weather they work or not but I like the finished product.

The dashboard displays revenues, expenses, FTE, key projects by region and a range of other metrics.

The following is a link to the dashboard template. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Traffic Light Excel Dashboard

While the above is an updated version of the first Excel dashboard I published on the site. It has been refreshed and updated which was long overdue. The following is a link to the traffic light Excel dashboard template.

The template uses example data to display actual V plan data and shows EBIT, revenue and expenses graphically at the side. There is a traffic light effect to indicate progress against plan for each of the areas of the organisation and a combo box to choose which areas financials you want to see. It was the very first Excel Dashboard I incorporated into thesmallman.com, so it gets centre. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Key Measures Excel Report

This Excel dashboard has only a small amount of information - this is an example of how to fill the space with infographics - adding relevant pictures can enhance the story of your dashboard. You will notice the dashboard is still fully flexible.

The above is another original updated Excel Dashboard. The heat map on the right with some key metrics has been added along with an EBIT chart which shows a trend over time. The following is a link to the excel dashboard template displayed above. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Excel Revenue, Expense and Staffing KPI Report

This KPI Report is an update to one of the original dashboards on the site. I have reworked the dashboard and added additional features to fit inside a single page. The toggle at the top right of the report allows the user to spin the information by year which will change all of the data within the display. It is a functional report which displays a lot of information about various groups within an organisation in a small amount of space. The following is a link to the Excel dashboard template. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Human Resources Dashboard

The Human Resources - HR Dashboard is a mixture of employee related information, from salary, hires, employee satisfaction, age demographics and much more. All split by department and sub department. It makes a very nice template for a human resources department to track a range of key performance metrics. To get to the dashboard template either click the picture above or the link below. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Sales Dashboard

The Sales Excel dashboard highlights the month in focus with a light blue bar depending on the month shown in the drop down. You can see from the chart that September is in focus so the bar shifts to light blue in September and all of the other Charts change to reflect that month. The dashboard also has a traffic light setup. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Financial Trends Excel Dashboard

The Financial Trends Excel Dashboard features price and turnover by region. The dashboard uses an Excel slicer on the main page to isolate countries in the chart. It also has the ability to slice by region and has a combo box for top or bottom 5 by country.

The months which appear in the dashboard is controlled by a combo box which allows year to date data to be shown without too much fuss. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

US States Dashboard

This US Excel dashboard is a sneak peak at population data obtained from Wiki. At the right of the dashboard there is some radio buttons which enables the selection by region. The States are grouped into their regions and as the grouping is selected the State Flags and charts change in accordance with the radio button.(Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Banking Excel Dashboard

The following Excel dashboard has been used in the financial modelling document. It is an Excel dashboard which outlines Banking highlights. It uses a spinner button to generate projections which are highlighted in blue on the right to indicate that these figures are budget. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

Restructure Excel Dashboard

The Restructure Excel Dashboard is predominant designed around workforce planning and trapping the savings from changing the size, shape and nature of the organisation. It is clean and clear, it has no spinner controls on the dashboard which means the dashboard is updated with new raw data. (Free Excel Dashboard - Updated April 2020).

The Top 10 Excel Dashboard

Top 10 Excel dashboard depicts the top 10 US corporate, highlighting some key common metrics. The design of the body of the Excel dashboard (world) stays the same while the logo changes as each company is filtered with the drop down on the left hand side.

Gauge Excel Dashboard

The Gauge Excel dashboard features a gauge. I once read that the gauge on a dashboard was like the fast food for Excel Dashboards. They take up too much space for the information they provide. However, when you only have a small amount of information to show on your dashboard and that information is important, then there is no reason why they can not be added to a dashboard.

Demographic Dashboard

The Demographic Excel dashboard shows demographic information for the USA. It introduces a heat map which shows high concentrations of particular demographics, such as race.

Prior Year Excel dashboard Prior Year

Excel dashboard tracks a firms key spending items, plan v actual for EBIT, revenue and expenses. I tried adding just two colours to the Full time equivalents chart but it did not look right so I kept the multi coloured look and in this dashboard I think it works.

Sparklines Excel Dashboard

The Sparklines Excel dashboard is an interesting one as it has many sparklines and the sparklines are conditional formatting not charts. The file works well as a visual display of each of the metrics being displayed.

World Cup Excel

The World Cup Excel dashboard is a tribute to the upcoming world cup in Brazil. This sort of dashboard is known as a Wall Chart. So it's a world cup wall chart in Excel. You can predict the matches and see who may meet up in the knock out stages of the tournament. This sort of dashboard can be used with any tounament based competition if the methodology which I have used is followed. Enjoy!

Rollover Dashboard

TheRollover Excel Dashboard draws on the article onChart Hyperlinks which details how to change a chart by rolling over a particular cell. It is a really cool technique which has far reaching implications especially in the creation of Excel dashboards. I have shown a couple of concepts for a dashboard however there will be many many more.

Overview Dashboard

TheOverview Dashboard below once more has a rollover feature in the same manner as the above dahsboard. The years in the top right pannel of the dashboard are what change the charts in the dashboard add in the flexibility in the model. Just roll the mouse over a year to see the metrics associated with that year in the dashboard. The article onChart Hyperlinks might provide some more insight in how to set one of these Excel dashboards up.

Heat Map Dashboard in Excel

TheHeatmap Dashboard is a breakdown of salary and unemployment information in the USA. The charts on the right of the dashboard are spark lines and will change colour with the change in the combo box on the top left. The heat map of the USA will change colours based on the selection of the drop down above the map of the USA. The dashboard displays top and bottom 10 metrics by state by region.

Heat Map of India Dashboard

India Heat Map Dashboard is an Excel dashboard which displays a heat map of the states of India. The dashboard displays revenue and expenses by type and by State. The dashboard also has a break down of the top 5 revenue, expenses and profit by State. It is quite a simple Excel dashboard and should be easy to follow.

UK Heatmap Dashboard in Excel

TheEngland Heat Map Dashboard is an Excel dashboard which displays a heat map of the regions in England. The dashboard displays age group metrics, house price, income and life expectancy data. The dashboards spins on a combo box beside the map of England. The colours in the heat map part of the dashboard change with the combo box.

NBA Dashboard

TheNBA Player Excel Dashboard is a dashboard which shows some of the current batch of NBA starts and their statistics. It is an Excel 2010 workbook with a couple of macros to show change the colour of each of the active tabs. These tabs control the charts on the dashboard which display stats like points per game, rebounds per game and steals per game. I enjoy the NBA so this dashboard was a bit of fun.

National Excel Dashboard

National Excel Dashboard The following Excel dashboard has a heat map of Australia which changes according to the selection made in the drop down. The flags next to the slicer will change based on the selection. The technique for this can be found on the Toggle Chart page. This Excel dashboard will work on Excel 2010 and later.

School Dashboard

TheSchool Excel Dashboard is a dashboard which shows plan v actual for a number of schools across disciplines. It is an Excel 2010 workbook which uses a slicer to flick the dashboard between schools to show performance. The dashboard shows data by discipline and shows the trends on spend over a one year period. You can see the peaks and troughs. There is some coding behind the sheet but this is only to speed up the data input. I will leave the coding in the worksheet in case people find this useful. People are added to schools on the staff sheet. The input sheet acts as the control tab where data is entered into the back end database.

Team Performance Dashboard

TheTeam Performance Dashboard is a dashboard I created as a submission to the Excel Forum Dashboard competition in November 2014. The competition was open to all with a first prize of an iphone 6. There were 119 entries in the dashboard competition. It was enjoyable putting together this Excel dashboard, I did not win but I did get a page dedicated to this dashboard onExcelTip.com

I have recently updated this dashboard to include a few new elements, an additional chart and I have streamlined the colour scheme.

Sales Person Excel Dashboard

The Sales Person Excel Dashboard is a dashboard which traps sales person data by State based on Australian States. There is quite a bit of information on the Excel dashboard. The dashboard has 5 static charts to show the overall sales position and 20 dynamic charts which are based on the slicer at the top of the dashboard which spins on year. Apologies to Tasmania and the territories for the no show on this dashboard.

Road Traffic Dashboard

The Road Traffic Statistics Dashboard is a dashboard which captures traffic statistics in Australia over a long period. The raw data came from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
www.abs.gov.au

It is the government body here in Australia which looks after the collation of society demographic and other data related to life in Australia.

The dashboard presents an all too real picture of the age, sex and vehicle type of all fatal accidents recorded over a 7 year period. One of the positives is that traffic fatalities seem to be falling. A slicer at the top of the dashboard allows you to generate a report by State or by year. There are high level charts, charts showing speed statistics, vehicle involved in fatality, month and time. The data is not complete on the ABS site however I have tried where possible to keep the data as close as possible to actual figures.

Revenue Expense Dashboard

TheRev Exp Staff Dashboard is an Excel dashboard which captures expenses by State and department, revenue and national staffing levels. The dashboard spins on year and has 3 years as an example. It has a very nice staffing chart and a consistent colour throughout.

The Incident Dashboard

The Incident Dashboard is an Excel dashboard which is quite small but captures some important metrics. The dashboard uses the same in cell technique for charting incidents as the prior dashboard. In the blog post I will give some examples of in cell charting using the REPT formula. It would be nice if the picture library were enhanced a little more but it is what it is at this stage.

Social Media Dashboard

The Social MediaDashboard is an Excel dashboard outlining social media activity for a company. It focuses primarily on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Apologies to other social media outlets.

Premium Excel Dashboards

The following files are from my premium dashboard selection, dashboard menu Shop Dashboard at top of page. They tend to be my Excel Dashboard courses, so are available for a fixed price. These Excel dashboards are a lot larger in size than the free Excel dashboards above. All the inputs and calculations sheets are included in all models in these sections. The dashboards can be used to add your own data saving you time and effort. The short video in this section is an idea of how one of the premium dashboards operates.

KPI Dashboard

This Excel dashboard has a combo box which give the dashboard the capacity to spin on month and has a range or organisational and operational metrics that change as the month changes. The dashboard is mostly a trending dashboard and does not have the variety of detail as some of the other dashboards on the site. There is a great deal more information not used in the dashboard so the dashboard can be modified to suit with your own Excel data.

Global Sales Dashboard

Global Sales Dashboard The Global Sales Dashboard is a dashboard which captures sales statistics for a fictional company. This Excel dashboard uses an Excel heat map to highlight each of the regions. It uses 5 colours, one for each region. There are some option buttons to show data by year at the top and option buttons on the left to set the focus of the dashboard on a specific region. The map will change colour to reflect the region in focus.

KPI Sales Dashboard

A key performance indicator (KPI) dashboard can give you the ability to consolidate all finance and operational activities and compare key projects, compare actual to plan all within a single page. These dashboards have audit, administration, staffing, data by department, by product. Check on the status of staff and customer satisfaction, cost to hire and the change between permanent and casual staff. Excel dashboards like the one beside are a great way to report key metrics clearly to management.

Key Operational Dashboard

Consolidate all finance and operational activities and compare key projects, compare actual to plan all within a single page. These dashboards have audit, administration, staffing, data by department, by product. Check on the status of staff, cost to hire and the change between permanent and casual staff. Excel dashboards like the one beside are a great way to report key metrics clearly to management.

Financial Trends Dashboard

Showing financial trends over time in a succinct manner is key. Show the big larger view of all sales activities and progress against target over time, both month and year to date.

This financial trends dashboard is part of my premium selection of Excel Dashboards. In addition this is my latest creation for one of my courses which I run for CPA Australia. I will pull this together with one of dashboard videos. Look forward to using it with my students in mind. It took quite some time to come up with the concept and get the look and feel exactly as I wanted it. There were many iterations before this final dashboard output.

Dashboard with Power Pivot

This is a full day training course I use as the output from a large data set. It takes current year and prior year sales and compares the sales against by department, industry segment, compares region and gives an idea of how the company performs against prior year. The dashboard is entirely created in Excel with a Power Pivot back end as its source.

Product Dashboard

This product dashboard is used to report on products by department or category. The dashboard tracks a range of metrics including, revenue, expense, gross profit, net margin, staffing metrics and many more. The metrics in the body of the dashboard are both month in the chart and quarter in the table. Giving the user a range of dashboard items to focus on.

BI Excel Dashboard

This is a concept business intelligence (BI) dashboard which has been adapted from the infographics section of thesmallman.com. BI dashboards can monitor metrics such as gross margin, profit or loss on sale, plan versus actuals, new customers details, market volumes, market share and plenty more. Building a dashboard from a infographic is significantly more work as there needs to be more data and the data needs to have formulas which will help the Excel Dashboard spin appropriately.

Key Metrics Dashboard

The latest dashboard for a new series of webinars for CPA Australia. This dashboard is packed full of features including a rollover function and heaps of charts, controls and conditional formatting. I adapted it from a more basic dashboard and now it has wings. Infographics, symmetry and consistent use of colour. All good in the dashboard hood.

Cost and Sales Dashboard

The following is a brand new dashboard. I was playing around with a file I had and started arranging the data in columns and it started to take shape. I added some charts for my client (changed the source data) and kaboom, completed dashboard with all the bells and whistles. It is very satisfying finishing a dashboard in Excel. Click the dashboard to see a larger version.

Storytelling with Excel Dashboards

Over this holiday season my colleague wanted to create a Power BI (PBI) prototype so I offered and with his data I made my first cut in Excel. I will be transferring the results to PBI in due course. The above would never fit into PBI but is a bit of fun with some of the results. Excel has the flexibility to generate the most visually appealing dashboards and with creativity and forethought you can create stunning results.

Website Traffic Excel Dashboard

This Excel Dashboard became a labour of love as the months passed and I slowly put it together. It has hundreds of data points and tells a compelling and ever changing story of website traffic and related metrics in a single page. You could take this Excel dashboard which has metrics like site visitors, site bounce rate, time people spend on site, page views per user, social media, paid traffic, organic and direct search traffic.

YouTube Demonstration

Dashboard Tutorial YouTube

Dashboard Tutorial YouTube Since the start of the growing pandemic, the general public has become increasingly interested in numbers and statistics, so being able to quickly interpret and comprehend large quantities of information has become more important than ever. The following model outlines the crisis and tracks changes automatically. The creation of this dashboard will be run as a webinar for the Financial Modelling Meetup group. Link below to more details and registration.

Dashboard Design in Excel

Recently I update my Excel charting course to include some additional charts I have been working on and some more detail in and around the calculations pages. The final output is presented in a well laid out design presented in three horizontal areas and four vertical areas, will some details and comparisons at the top. Enjoy.

Construction Dashboard Metrics

Had a client ask to track some key metrics. Started with a neat dashboard template and build on it. Split into three levels the dashboard displays information by state and gives some of the key performance indicators for each of the business areas. I am not sure how I will use this Excel dashboard but most likely it will be the basis for a future course.

Corporate Reporting Excel Dashboard

Occasionally I have a little time on my hands and I can update one of the dashboards that i devised many years ago. The following time is such a time. I added a fresh section to the following dashboard and made it spin by regional area. It is neat and to the point providing a high level overview of key operational metrics. The smaller version is available free to download at the following link. Alternatively you can get many dashboards of this quality at my premium section.

Sales & Commission Excel Dashboard

The following Excel dashboard is a summary of seven departments withing an banking environment. It summaries the financial performance by region showing sales, commission, performance against plan and prior year to data and some human resources metrics by each department. It displays the data in a clear structured format providing a sound overview of key organisational metrics. A link to the blog article which has more details on this dashboard is as follows - Cool Dashboard You can get many dashboards of this quality at my premium section.

Multi-National Excel Dashboard

During the later part of the year I had some time on my hands and decided to add to the dashboard stable. The dashboard will spin on global region, Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe. It shows you month of the year, can go forwards and backwards and provides comparisons with plan and prior year data to show a meaningful comparison. I do hope you enjoy.

Full-Year Rolling Excel Dashboard

This dashboard was created for a client and has been modified slightly to protect the innocent. All of the images in the Excel dashboard are in fact Excel charts. It took a while to get all of the charts just right but has a striking final look and feel. The dashboard is split into 4 areas with current and prior year comparisons and data validation. You can get many dashboards of this quality at my premium section.