Skip to content

Free Printable Excel Dashboard Templates [XLS] for Human Resources, Sales

    Information is the most expensive commodity that we encounter every day. Information in a raw state has no value until it has been transformed into insights that deliver value. In a data-driven world, building an excel dashboard template comes in handy.

    The template helps you consolidate information from various sources and put it in a single platform for easy understanding. This helps stakeholders make better decisions about their business and get back to handling their core business functions. You can download Excel dashboard templates from websites such as Type Calendar.

    Excel Dashboard Templates

    Excel dashboard templates are pre-designed spreadsheets that allow users to visualize and track key performance indicators (KPIs) in a single view. These templates can be customized to meet specific business needs and provide a snapshot of data trends and performance over time. Excel dashboard templates are commonly used in sales, marketing, finance, and project management, among other areas, to help decision-makers make informed choices based on real-time data. With these templates, users can quickly create professional-looking dashboards, track and analyze trends, and make data-driven decisions.

    Excel dashboard templates are pre-designed spreadsheets that allow users to visualize and track key performance indicators (KPIs) in a single view. These templates can be customized to meet specific business needs and provide a snapshot of data trends and performance over time. Excel dashboard templates are commonly used in sales, marketing, finance, and project management, among other areas, to help decision-makers make informed choices based on real-time data. With these templates, users can quickly create professional-looking dashboards, track and analyze trends, and make data-driven decisions.

    What is an Excel dashboard?

    Excel Dashboard
    Excel Dashboard

    There are a variety of dashboard templates available that help you keep track of your company’s performance through statistical reports and charts. These Excel dashboard templates provide you with a quick view of the key performance indicators in just one place.

    Strategic Dashboards

    Strategic Dashboards are visual displays of vital information for strategic performance. They are utilized to define the performance of your business and inform decision-makers.

    Analytic Dashboards

    Analytic dashboards are like virtual spreadsheets in a business context. Most analytic dashboards focus on helping you compare past data so that you can identify spikes, drops, and trends. This keeps you from reinventing the wheel and allows for data visualization that would take a lot of time to identify otherwise. Even if these visualizations don’t lead you to find the answers, they can lead you to find more questions later on.

    Operational Dashboards

    Daily operational dashboards are great because they present the right metrics with the right level of detail and allow the viewer to make sense of their company’s day-to-day performance accurately.

    What are the main benefits of using Excel dashboards?

    KPI dashboard Excel is a strategic tool for monitoring and reviewing the performance of operations. It helps analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) on time and provides a clear picture of current and prospects. This enables you to plan your business activities more efficiently and effectively.

    Customizable

    The dashboard is customizable at a basic level and allows users to see a limited amount of detail or all of the important information they need to get done. When users want to focus on just one aspect of their business, such as overall sales, they can customize the dashboard so that everything else is invisible. Or, if they are working more with an individual client, they can display just that client’s information

    Comprehensive

    The dashboard can be thought of as a centralized room where information from all over the organization is sent and displayed. It allows for critical thinking for the user at the moment and does not require him to waste his time on unnecessary repetitive tasks. The dashboard gives you an overview of the displayed data and allows for in-depth evaluation if needed. You can achieve this by using different charts and graphs that are dynamic.

    Details

    Dashboards mean that you don’t need to flood overviews and reports with unnecessary details. A dashboard gives you the necessary information from various software applications and sources.

    The idea behind a dashboard is to provide you with all of the information you need to make better decisions and also make certain tasks easy to accomplish. But these tools may seem too simple for some, especially within a given area or under certain circumstances. So let’s see how we can make dashboards more capable by taking advantage of the power of details.

    Presentation of Data

    One of the most prominent advantages of Excel Dashboard helps to separate it from similar tools. For example, a dashboard with charts, tables, and other relevant information always smoothly fits into a certain design, providing easy navigation through the document.

    Accessible on mobile devices

    The dashboard is a very useful feature in some dashboard software that gives you direct and immediate access to several important tools and information without navigating across the whole site. As more and more people are using their mobile devices to check their accounts, websites and other dashboards can provide apps so that you can easily access this information anytime, anywhere.

    How do I use the dashboard in Excel?

    Creating dashboards in Excel can be useful for many different reasons. However, instead of trying to create a single dashboard that does it all, it’s essential to build them for a specific need.

    For example, if you are a sales manager interested in monitoring your sales team’s performance, the sales manager’s dashboard should focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to sales performance.

    This type of dashboard should not contain information unrelated to sales performance. Otherwise, the dashboard may become too complex. A cluttered dashboard makes it difficult to see the data relationships and patterns that matter. Other considerations when creating dashboards:

    • Use the right charts for accurate data.
    • Do not use too many colors in the control panel.
    • Organize the dashboard in common blocks with similar data and chart types.
    • Make sure each chart displays simple labels and isn’t too messy.
    • Arrange the widgets in order of importance, with the most important information in the upper left corner of the dashboard.
    • Use conditional formatting to make sure numbers are red when bad and green when good.
    • Most importantly, use creativity to design informative and interesting boards to use.

    How do I update dashboard data in Excel?

    When you create a dashboard, you don’t have to do anything to update the graphics. All data in these charts and widgets are updated as follows:

    Pages containing the imported data are refreshed on the date you specified when you first created the data import.

    Additional pages you create to correct or reformat the data on the imported pages will be updated with the new data on those pages.

    Each widget in your dashboard automatically updates to display new data inside these updated sheets for the ranges you selected when creating these charts.

    These updates happen automatically as long as Excel is open.

    How do I create a dashboard in Excel?

    Dashboard reports appear to be a hot topic for Excel users these days. The fact that you’re reading this shows you’re either looking for a dashboard template in Excel or some guidance on creating one. And both are for a good reason. A report template in the form of a dashboard report is special since it presents information in a specific, pictorial presentation that’s actually quite interesting and easy to read.

    Now that you have all the data you need in your Excel workbook, and all that data is automatically refreshed, it’s time to build your real-time Excel dashboard. The example dashboard below will use weather data from websites on the internet.

    Sometimes, when you import data from external sources, you cannot graph the imported data. The solution to this is to create a new spreadsheet and write to each cell. = convert ( and select the data from the imported spreadsheet. For the unit parameters, choose the same parameters for the before and after. Fill the entire sheet with the same function so that all the data is copied to the new sheet and converted into numbers that you can use in the various charts you will create for your dashboard.

    Create a Graph bar to display a single data point. For example, to display the current relative humidity (from 0 percent to 100 percent), you create a bar chart with the lowest point at 0 percent and the highest point at 100 percent. First, select the Insert menu and then the 2D Clustered Column chart bar.

    Chart menu on Insert ribbon

    In the Graphic Design menu, in the Data group, select Select Data.

    Under Graphic Design, select Select Data.

    In the Select Data Source popup window, enter the Chart data range field and then select the cell in the data spreadsheet you want to display with this bar chart.

    Screenshot of selecting chart data range in Excel

    Change the title of the chart to match the data you are viewing. Update the axis boundaries between 0 and 100 percent. Then move the chart to the line area you want to show.

    Screenshot of creating a single data point bar chart in Excel

    Repeat the same steps above to create bar charts for any other single data points you want to chart. Make the axis spacing the minimum and maximum for these measurements. For example, a good barometric pressure range would be 28 to 32.

    Choosing the right data range is important because if you only use the default, the scale can become too large for the data, leaving mostly blank bar charts. Instead, keep the minimum and maximum end of the axis scale only slightly lower and higher than the possible extreme values โ€‹โ€‹of your data.

    Screenshot of adding bar charts to Excel dashboard

    Create a line chart to display a data trend. For example, to view the local temperature history for your local area, you create a line chart that covers the last number of days’ data that you can import from the weather website table. First, select the Insert menu and 2D Area chart.

    Select the 2-D Area line chart

    In the Graphic Design menu, in the Data group, select Select Data.

    Under Graphic Design, select Select Data.

    In the Select Data Source popup, click on it. Enter the chart data range field and select the cells in the data spreadsheet you want to display with this line chart.

    Screenshot of selecting a range of data in Excel

    Change the chart’s title to match the data you’re viewing and move the chart to the line area you want to show. Charts are very flexible when embedded in a dashboard. You can change the chart widget’s position, size, and shape. Use this flexibility to design organized dashboards that provide the user with as much information as possible in the smallest space.

    Screenshot of adding line chart to Excel

    Create a text box to display string data on the pages you’ve imported. For example, link the text box content to a cell in the imported datasheet to see weather alert updates on your dashboard. To do this, in the Insert menu, select Text, and then Text box.

    Select the Text Box command at the bottom of the text menu

    Move the mouse cursor to the formula field, type =, and then select the cell containing the string data you want to display in the imported data table.

    Enter the data you want in a text box into the formula field

    Select the text box and select the Format Shape window on the right to format the text display area in your dashboard.

    Format Shape menu

    You can also compare two data points in your imported datasheets using pie charts. For example, you may want to display the relative humidity in the form of a pie chart. First, select the data you want to view, and from the Insert menu, select 2D Pie Chart.

    Pie charts compare two or more values. If you display a percentage such as relative humidity, you may need to manually create another cell that subtracts that value from 100% to compare with the second value. This will result in a pie chart that displays the percent value as a fraction of the total possible 100 percent.

    Change the chart’s title to match the data you’re viewing, and then move the chart to the line area you want to show.

    Screenshot of pie chart placed in Excel Clipboard

    By adding various data chart types, you can create a handy dashboard that displays all data types in one handy dashboard.

    FAQs

    What is an Excel dashboard?

    A dashboard is a visual interface that provides quick access to key metrics, data points, and insights. It consolidates multiple reports into a central location.

    What are the benefits of Excel dashboards?

    Excel dashboards allow users to monitor business performance at a glance. They make data easy to absorb and share with visuals. Users can customize and interact with the data.

    What dashboard design tools does Excel offer?

    Native Excel tools like Sparklines, Slicers, Timelines, Form and Group controls can enhance dashboard design and interactivity. The Power Pivot add-in is very useful.

    Are there free templates and add-ins?

    Yes, Microsoft and third-parties offer free dashboard templates, icons, shapes, and add-ins to accelerate dashboard building in Excel.

    How do you create one in Excel?

    • Structure data on separate tabs or a single tab
    • Set up tables and pivot tables to organize data
    • Use charts like line graphs, bar charts, gauges to visualize data
    • Consolidate visuals on a summary worksheet
    • Format for visual appeal and clarity
    Click to rate this post!
    [Total: 0 Average: 0]
    Betina Jessen

    Betina Jessen

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *