Creating KPI Dashboards in Microsoft Excel is a series of 6 posts by Robert from Munich, Germany.
This 6 Part Tutorial on KPI Dashboards Teaches YOU:
Creating a Scrollable List View in Dashboard
Add Ability to Sort on Any KPI to the Dashboard
Highlight KPIs Based on Percentile
Add Microcharts to KPI Dashboards
Compare 2 KPIs in the Dashboards Using Form Controls
Show the Distribution of a KPI using Box Plots
The challenge – Adding Percentile Information
Let’s get back to our last week’s KPI dashboard example: Adding sort options to excel dashboards. In today’s post we want our dashboard to take a step forward by adding another data analysis feature. Up to now the user is able to view a window of 10 rows out of a much larger list and to sort by any given decision parameter. But the KPI dashboard falls short if we want to evaluate the performance of the displayed items regarding the other 4 KPIs.
Imagine we are at the top of the list and the table is sorted by KPI 1 (see left). We see that “Product Name 36” is the TOP performer regarding KPI 1. But how does it perform regarding KPI 3? The value of 2% is probably rather poor, but how poor? Sure, we can change the sort order to KPI 3 and scroll down until we find product 36 and look at the ranking in the first column. But changing the sort order back and forth is in-convenient, time-consuming and not user-friendly.
The solution
One statistical method to examine a list of data is the percentile. A percentile is the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall (more). The 10% percentile of our list of values for KPI 3 returns the threshold at which 10% of all values are smaller than this threshold. We will use this method to classify the values of the KPIs that are not selected as the sort criteria by highlighting the values above the 90% percentile in green (10% best performers) and by highlighting the values below the 10% percentile in red (10% poorest performers).
After the highlighting we are now able to see immediately that Product 36 is best in class regarding KPI 1 but it belongs to the poorest 10% of all products regarding KPI 3.
Download the Excel file with KPI Dashboards and read on below how it is done.
The implementation
Implementation needs a simple conditional formatting and the excel spreadsheet function PERCENTILE. The syntax of this function is PERCENTILE (array, k), where ‘array’ is the range with the data and ‘k’ is the percentile value in a range between 0 and 1. PERCENTILE (A1:A100, 0.10) returns the threshold at which 10% of all values in the range are smaller than this value and the remaining 90% are larger than this value.
Here is the description how to change the workbook:
- Add two additional rows to the data worksheet to define the upper and lower percentile value.
- Insert five new columns on the dashboard each of them right to the existing column with the data.
- To simplify the formula, insert the number of each KPI in the cells below the header (F6 = 1; H6 = 2, and so on).
Fill the new columns with the following formula (example for cell G8):=IF (mySortCriteria=F$6,"",
IF (F8>PERCENTILE (Calculation!$K$10:$K$109,Data!$E$5),"<+",
IF (F8<-","")))If the actual column is the one the table is sorted by, a blank would be returned. Otherwise: if the value
in the cell left is larger than the e.g. 90% percentile, “<+”, if the value is smaller than the 10% percentile “<-” will be returned. For all other values the result of the formula is a blank.
Format the new columns with a red font color and add additional formatting that changes the font color to green if the cell value is “<+”.- Finally add a caption under the table to help the user understand what the triangles are representing.
Final remarks
If you don’t like the triangles, you could easily replace them by a dot or a diamond or whatever you choose. Or you might want to change the colors or put the triangles to the left of the columns instead of the right. If you don’t like the extra columns next to the data, you could also use the described formula to conditionally format the cells with the data (e.g. with red and green fill color).
What’s next?
Make sure you have downloaded the KPI Dashboards XLS files – Click here
Up to now we have limited our dashboard to texts and numbers. Of course graphical visualization can always add much value for analysis. See next post: Part 4: Add Microcharts to KPI Dashboards
Also, Checkout our Excel Dashboards Page for more examples and resources.
Chandoo’s note: Robert is a regular reader of this blog, please leave your comments, questions, appreciations here and he will respond.
19 Responses to “Free Invoice Template using Excel – Download”
Nice post! Invoicing for the small biz or solo entrepreneur is something I see a lot of interest in. Also there are great templates from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates
This is awesome.
I would need a little more. e.g. say I generate a Inv. # 1 with all the details. Once done I can click a button all the relevant details gets stored in some table. Further, when i generate a new invoice those details gets stored in same table but just below the previous invoice.
Is their a way to do this?
I did create a solution you are looking for, however its wrapped in a larger 'Medical Scheduler' and it uses VBA, But you can Save, Update, Lookup, Email, Print & Apply Payments to the Invoice.
You are welcome to download it here:https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yvo0o2tgq9quhe/Medical_Massage_and_Salon_Application-Free.xlsm
The Invoice Items are created from the Appt. Types & Service Items table.
I would love all feedback from this
Thank you for sharing. I will definitely have a look at it.
Daily dose of Excel held a competition in 2005 for this same topic
It obtained 9 solutions which are shown:
http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2005/10/27/invoice-app-the-results/
[…] http://chandoo.org/wp/2014/03/19/free-invoice-template/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&a… […]
How can i removed Dollar Sign, As want to use this in india.
Please reply.
Also if possible then can i use Indian Rupee Sign and how?
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for sharing this invoice template, Let me tell you this template will definitely help me since I got a process to handle where this invoice piece comes. Just a small doubt, can we store all the invoice details in PRODUCT & SERVICES sheet. So that whenever I select an invoice number from invoice sheet I can take print out and I can share it as well. Can we do that?? Since I will be dealing with this on monthly basis.
It would be great if you can help me with this.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Regards,
Gaurang Mhatre
Hi Chandoo,
I was thinking learning excel is quite tuff task but your blog proved me wrong. You made it very interesting. Thank you. Also the template you have provided for Invoice is very helpful to us.
Thanks thanks thanks.. Very helpful. 🙂
Hi i love the speadsheet but would like to ask how do i get it to add the description into the invoice as well
Hi Randy, I tried to download one of your link "https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yvo0o2tgq9quhe/Medical_Massage_and_Salon_Application-Free.xlsm" However, i found the link unavailable. Can you please help me get the new link or can you please send this VBA file on my Email-ID.
Hello Anuj,
Thanks for alerting me to the broken link. This one should work:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gz89gshex1ad0ex/Medical_Massage_and_Salon_Application-Free.xlsm?dl=0
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Randy
Thank you so much Buddy. will check and revert you soon.
Hi, is there any chance that this can work with the "Products & Service" sheet outside of the Invoice sheet. I create multiple invoice files for the numerous clients. Updating the product sheet for each of them maybe a task. Hence, I want to create a MASTER FILE from which data can be picked up without having to insert new data in each of the invoice files.
Possible? Or am I asking for the moon 😉
Thank you so much for tutorial.
This example can be reviewed for the example of the advanced invoice that made with excel userform :https://youtu.be/Qr-4of-38DI
Good Day
i love this template may i ask if it could be modified to have the following
when you lookup a item code in the next column to the right it brings up the description then the quantity, unit cost, discount and then total otherwise i love the template
Item Code Description Quantity Unit Cost Discount Total
When creating an Invoice template in Excel are you able to utilize the auto row height and wrap feature when the cell is a merged cell? I need to have a number of cells merged together to allow for enough space to type in the description of work performed (lets say cells A-D are merged in each row) however it seems that I am unable to utilize the auto format feature. To work around this I have to manually increase the row height after each entry. Is there a better solution for this? Thank you!