Excel dashboards are the difference between good and great data presentation.
A well-built dashboard can breathe life into the most boring and mundane subjects.
Simple Excel dashboards are easy enough to build if you follow a proper tutorial like ours here.
But to truly wow your audiences 😮, you have to take it to the next level! ⏫
It can get tricky though.
So instead of building from scratch, you can customize an existing dashboard template.
Today, we’re going to take a look at seven of the best Excel dashboard templates we have found!
An Excel dashboard is a one-page summary of key performance indicators and metrics.
It usually employs visuals like charts and shapes 🔺🟩🔵.
We use dashboards to make sense of datasets and identify trends and insights.
Most dashboards fall under one of three major categories:
This is the most common type. It usually shows performance-related metrics on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Companies often have these to track work performance across their teams or departments.
Example: A weekly operations dashboard for a restaurant. This displays the speed of service, client satisfaction, and table turnover.
This type of dashboard focuses on comparing data across different periods. It helps check trends and compare metrics from the past.
These are often very detailed and are also interactive. They allow you to drill down to specific data points and periods.
Example: A web analytics dashboard. It monitors a website’s ranking, traffic sources, and conversion.
Lastly, this type of dashboard is a high-level summary report of key metrics. It is purpose-built for presentation and decision-making.
You will see many of these in company briefings and business meetings.
They are often used to show performance in general and areas of strength and weakness.
Example: A strategic dashboard for a business partnership. It presents the potential gains and risks.
Here are a few key advantages and reasons to use an Excel dashboard:
These dashboard templates are specifically designed to provide stakeholders with comprehensive insights into sales, finances, project management, and KPIs, enhancing strategic decision-making.
Now that you’re all caught up, let’s start with the list of the best Excel dashboard templates you can find online!
First up, we have a straightforward sales dashboard from the official Microsoft website.
This free Excel dashboard template is ideal for small to medium-sized online stores.
The dashboard’s simple interface lets you track cost and profit from sold items.
It comes in a single sheet with chart elements like a bar chart and pie chart on top and the input rows at the bottom.
To use it, enter the item details in the table at the bottom of the dashboard. These are the cost per item, markup, total sold, shipping charge & cost, and the number of returns.
The formulas for total revenue and income are already in place for your convenience.
This Excel dashboard template is a great tool to introduce into your retail business.
This dashboard focuses on tracking sales across different areas of your business.
It has plenty of colorful line graphs 📈 and bar charts 📊. And it uses these to compare sales between products, salespersons, regions, and more.
Entering data into this Excel dashboard is also quite easy.
Raw data goes into a separate sheet and the dashboard updates based on it.
There is also a “Tables” sheet where you can store and manipulate pivot tables.
Use this dashboard to identify your business’ key areas of strength and weakness.
If you need a KPI dashboard template to track KPIs in a manufacturing setting, look no further than Someka’s Manufacturing KPI Dashboard.
This is as complete as Excel dashboard templates get!
It allows you to track up to 28 key metrics used in the manufacturing industry. It also has separate tabs for tables and charts, keeping things neat and organized.
You can also compare actual KPIs from the current year to the previous year and the current year’s targets.
It’s a comprehensive Excel dashboard that is easy to set up and use 🤩.
There’s a free and paid version of this dashboard. The free version allows you to try out its many features before deciding to buy. Someka has provided a user guide and walkthrough video for this template.
Upon buying, you get access to the licensed version with all the dashboard features. You can also change the template and add your logos and visuals.
This user-friendly Excel dashboard template is highly recommended for manufacturing applications!
Here we have another entry from Smartsheet’s collection of free Excel dashboard templates.
This financial dashboard is like the sales dashboard at number 2. It tracks sales by product, salesperson, and region.
However it is more focused on the fiscal performance of the company.
The dashboard elements, raw data, and tables are all in a single sheet. To use this dashboard, enter the sales data in the middle of the sheet.
It then displays the comparisons of estimated and actual sales across several years.
Periods are also divided into quarters. This makes it very useful for quarterly reports and business meetings 💼.
Use this to set sales targets and track actual performance.
Our next entry takes free Excel dashboard templates to the next level!
This Excel dashboard tracks company-wide revenue and expenses. It also allows you to view multiple KPIs. This includes customer satisfaction, full-time equivalents (FTEs), and issues by department.
There is a filter selection at the top right of the dashboard to change views between states. You can change this to reflect cities or countries as needed.
This Excel dashboard is easy-to-use and fully customizable.
It’s also one of the more visually-appealing free Excel dashboard examples available online.
With its well-organized harts and visuals, business presentations will never be boring again 😎!
Lastly, we have a project management dashboard template from Smartsheet.
This is one of the most effective project management dashboard templates available online.
Its sleek design and easy input make it ideal for most project needs. This includes construction, product design, marketing, and many other applications.
It includes a Gantt chart that lets you schedule and track your team’s progress.
Project management Excel dashboards like this one are easy to learn and use. Teams can import and use it in collaborations using Microsoft 365 or Google Sheets.
All-in-all, it is a great project management addition to any team’s resources.
