Developing Excel dashboards require the use of the more advanced features that excel provides such as VBA and pivottables. They are different from traditional excel reports. Excel is a cost effective solution in the development of executive and operational dashboards.

Dashboard reporting based on the key principles should bridge that gap between systems and the information needs of management. More importantly, good dashboard design and data modelling should help information workers and analysts to spend less time with manual excel tasks and more time analysing information.

A single page

When designing your excel dashboard don’t over do it with unnecessary visual elements as it can make it look too busy. We are trying to communicate the data quickly and without too much study or thought. Sometimes you will need to think differently about what the message is and how to communicate it. Existing performance indicators will be a start. Don’t include every bit of data in a dashboard. The information should show progress towards key objectives and priorities. The other point here is that if something is out with your line of sight, then it can’t be viewed quickly or possibly missed altogether. When you print your dashboard, it should also fit to a single page.

Simple to understand

Also, excel dashboards should signal when more action is required through the use of visual attributes. When developing an excel dashboard, it is advisable to start with a mock-up of the performance information that is required and work backwards to the point where data is gathered. They should help to visually identify trends and patterns quickly without confusion. In other words, if it doesn’t communicate any information about the data then don’t display it. Examples of this could be logos, pictures and 3D charts.

Add interactivity

The position of your excel dashboard components will vary in importance to your reader. Usually, the upper-left and middle-left of a page generally gathers more attention than the bottom right. It is a bit like a web page.

New VBA interactive excel dashboard, comes with fully working examples to help get you started. Great guides and courses on how to go about learning excel and other advanced techniques.

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