Excel dashboards are some form of visual reporting mechanism. Excel dashboards are completely different from your default spreadsheet report that is usually created in excel.
Most organisations will have aims and objectives or a balanced scorecard with their performance indicators. Developing an excel dashboard creates an opportunity for managers to have all their most important success factors that are relevant to be shown on an executive dashboard. You can also have more detailed operational dashboards that focus on a certain aspect of performance.
A single page
If your dashboard contains too much information it will fail to convey the data effectively. Also, the data might end up on more than one page. Remember, our aim is to communicate a message about the data, don’t include every bit of data in a dashboard. The information displayed should be the most relevant and within the left and upper part of the screen. This will depend on the purpose of the dashboard. The other point here is that if something is off-page, then it can’t be viewed quickly. It might not be seen at all. The other reason for this is when you print your dashboard, it should also fit to a single page.
Easy 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
Adding extra interactivity to your dashboard, such as being able to select a certain region or being able to drill down can make a huge difference in the perceived usability.
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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