Dashboard Planning and Outlining

Dashboard Planning & Outlining
Dashboard Design
1. How to Bring Data into Excel

Before creating dashboards in Excel, you need to import the data into Excel. You can copy and paste the data, or
if you use CommCare, you can create an Excel Connection to your export. But, the best way is to use ODBC (or Live
Data Connector). ODBC can connect your apps to Excel, passing real-time data from your app to Excel. As data is
updated in your app, your Excel dashboard will also be updated to reflect the latest information. This is a perfect
option if you track and store data in another place, and prefer creating a dashboard in Excel. Data can be imported
two different ways: in a flat file or a pivot table.

2. Set Up Your Excel Dashboard File

Once you have added your data, you need to structure your workbook. Open a new Excel Workbook and create
two to three sheets (two to three tabs). You could have one sheet for your dashboard and one sheet for the raw
data (so you can hide the raw data). This will keep your Excel workbook organized. In this example, we’ll have two
tabs.

3. Create a Table with Raw Data
In the Raw Data sheet, import or copy and paste your data. Make sure the information is in a tabular format. This
means that each item or data point lives in one cell.

In this example, we’re adding columns for Project Name, Timeline, Number of Team Members, Budget, Risks,
Open Tasks, and Pending Actions.

If needed, you can use a formula to automatically add all the values in a column. We will do this for our Budget,
Risks, Open, and Pending Actions columns. Click on an empty cell at the bottom of the column, and type =SUM(.
After the open parenthesis, click the first cell in the column and drag your mouse down to the last cell. Then, add a
close parenthesis to your formula. Repeat as necessary.

4. Analyze the Data

Before building the dashboard, take some time to look at your data and figure out what you want to highlight. Do
you need to display all the information? What kind of story are you trying to communicate? Do you need to add or
remove any data?
Once you have an idea of your dashboard’s purpose, think about the different tools you can use. Options include:
 Excel formulas like SUMIF, OFFSET, COUNT, VLOOKUP, GETPIVOTDATA and others
 Pivot tables
 Excel tables
 Data validation
 Auto-shapes
 Named ranges
 Conditional formatting
 Charts
 Excel dashboard widgets
 Macros
Don’t worry, you don’t need to know how to use every single one of these Excel tools. With some basic
knowledge of charts and pivot tables, you can make a beautiful Excel dashboard.

5. Build the Dashboard
Add a Gantt Chart

We’ll add a Gantt chart to visually show your project timeline.
1. Go to your Dashboard sheet and click Insert.

2. In the Charts section, click the bar chart icon and select the second option.

3. You’ll now have to link this bar chart to the Project Name, Start Date, and Duration columns in your Raw
Data sheet.

Create and Format Charts
1. In your Dashboard sheet, click Insert and select the kind of chart you’d like to make. For this first example,
we’ll create a column chart.

2. Right-click on the chart and click Select Data.

3. Click Add in Legend Entries (Series).

4. In the Series name field, click the title of the column you want to add on the Raw Data sheet. Hit enter.

5. In the Series values field, select all the data in that corresponding column. Hit enter and then click Ok.

6. You’ll notice that your X-axis is not correctly labeled. To fix this, click Edit in the Horizontal (Category) Axis
Labels and in the Raw Data Sheet, select what you’d like to display on the X-axis.

7. To add a title to your chart, select your chart and click the Design tab.

8. Click Add Chart Element > Chart Title > Above Chart.

9. Type your title in the text field on the chart.

10. Repeat this process for any other charts you want to create.

Insert PivotTables
A pivot table allows you to extract and highlight the most important information from a large data set.
Here’s how to insert a pivot table:
1. Go to your Dashboard sheet and on the Insert tab, click the PivotTable button.

2. A pop-up box will appear. In the Table/Range field, click the icon at the end and and select your whole data
table from your Raw Data sheet. Click Ok.

3. The PivotTable Field List will appear on the right side of your screen. Select which subsets of data you would
like to include in your pivot table by clicking the boxes.

3. If you’d like to include another pivot table in your dashboard, repeat steps 1-3.

Things to Consider: How to Design the Dashboard

 Dashboard elements: What do you want to include on your dashboard? You can choose from static
tables, pivot tables, dynamic charts, Excel gauge widgets, or non-charting objects, like auto-shape objects.
Do you want to add a lot of small charts or a couple big charts? Identifying the elements you want to add
to your dashboard will help you group similar data together and give you an idea of the layout.

 Dashboard background color: How much color do you want to incorporate in your dashboard? Do
you want to add a dashboard background color to make the dashboard elements pop? Do you want to
color-code similar charts?

 Enhancing the dashboard UI: How important is ease of use? Do you want to spend time enhancing
the dashboard UI? You could add hierarchy to the layout for easy navigation, add drop-down lists, add
labels to each graph with auto-shape objects, or use freeze panes to prevent users from scrolling.
Questions to Ask Yourself
 Why are you creating this dashboard? Are you trying to prove or disprove a hypothesis? Is this
dashboard for a specific task, like showing status of a project, or does it need to achieve a broader goal,
like measuring business performance? Understanding why you are building the dashboard will help guide
the design and data.

 Do you need to track certain KPIs? Your dashboard should only highlight data that adds value.
Make sure you understand the most important KPIs and create the dashboard around those metrics.
Anything outside those main KPIs aren’t necessary.

 Who needs to see the dashboard? Is this for a colleague, manager, stakeholder, external vendor, or
C-level executive? How do these people prefer to digest information? How much time do they have to
look at this dashboard? Think about who you’re making the dashboard for and keep their preferences in
mind.

 Where will the data come from? Do you need to manually import data into your dashboard or will
you use an integration or connector to automatically sync and refresh data? What other tools do you use
to gather data?

 How up to date does the dashboard need to be? Can you update your dashboard weekly or
monthly, or does it always need to show real-time, updated information? Depending on what you chose,
this will change the way you build your dashboard.

 What format does the dashboard need to be in? Are you emailing a static dashboard or providing
a link to a dynamic one? Does the dashboard need to be embedded in presentations or decks? Do you
want to share read-only access or do you want to provide editing capabilities to certain people?

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What are some of the main elements that can be included in an Excel dashboard?

What are some tips for analyzing data before building the dashboard?

Dashboard Planning & Outlining

1. How to Bring Data into Excel

2. Set Up Your Excel Dashboard File

4. Analyze the Data

5. Build the Dashboard

Add a Gantt Chart

1. Go to your Dashboard sheet and click Insert.

9. Type your title in the text field on the chart.

Here’s how to insert a pivot table:

1. Go to your Dashboard sheet and on the Insert tab, click the PivotTable button.

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