Making a Dynamic Dashboard in Excel [Part 1 of 4]

Posted on March 16th, 2010 in Charts and Graphs , Featured , Learn Excel - 15 comments

This is a guest post by Myles Arnott from Clarity Consultancy Services – UK.

In this and next 3 posts, we will learn how to make a Dynamic Dashboard using Microsoft Excel.

At the end of this tutorial, you will learn how easy it is to set up a dynamic dashboard using excel formulas and simple VBA macros.

Dynamic Dashboard in Excel

[Click here for large version of the image]

Introduction:

The dashboard also demonstrates the standard approach I use in all of my models which is to incorporate three key sheets in addition to the data and analysis tabs.

These are:

  • Home page
  • Inputs (or drivers)
  • Helpsheet

The dynamic dashboard can be downloaded here [mirror, ZIP Version]

The dashboard file works in Excel 2007+. Pls. enable macros to get it work.

The plan is to break this dashboard tutorial down into four parts over the next four weeks. If further topics fall out as a result of discussions either Chandoo or I will pick them up and if necessary post further parts.

I would like to take a quick opportunity to give credit for some of the elements of functionality in the model:

  • Boxcharts – Chandoo [Link]
  • Scrolling report – Chandoo [Link]
  • Competitor analysis – Chandoo [Link]
  • Use of camera tool – Chandoo [Link]
  • In cell microcharts – Chandoo [Link]
  • Helpsheet – John Walkenbach

Okay so lets get started with an overview:

What is the objective of the report?

The Dynamic Dashboard is intended to provide pertinent summary information to aid management decision making. Combining a high level of flexibility within each report and then allowing the user to choose which reports to include and where to position them allows an enormous amount of flexibility over the message to be communicated.

What does this Dynamic Dashboard do?

The dynamic dashboard allows the user to select a report from the range of reports within the model and decide where to position it on the page. The user can select “hide” to hide a report that they do not want to see or select “view” to preview it prior to choosing its position.

  • Clicking on either the hyperlink name or the report image will take you to the report.
  • Each report is highly flexible allowing the user to cut the data in many ways to show management the most pertinent information.

Overview of Dashboard Tabs:

Home Page

I always include a homepage in my models and often set an auto_open routine to select this as the first page seen on opening. The Home page is designed to present the contents of the model to the user and provide links to each page for easy navigation.
Dynamic Dashboard - Homepage Worksheet

The Dynamic Dashboard

This is the main tab for pulling together the dashboard and will be covered in parts 3 and 4.
Dynamic Dashboard - Finalized Dashboard

Inputs

This is the page for all validation lists and drivers.
Input Data for Dashboard Data

Help Sheet

Once again a sheet that is in all of my models. This user form based help sheet provides the user with a quick help function and complements the accompanying user notes. I find it helpful to lay it out in tab order.

Dashboard Help Sheet Setup

This is how the Help user form looks once opened. The user can either choose the topic from the dropdown or by clicking next.

Dashboard Help Sheet Demo

Chart 1 and 2 : Flexible pie charts

Dynamic pie charts with the option to select the KPI, period and product/salesperson to be analyzed. These are covered in part 2.
Charts 1 & 2 - Dynamic Dashboard

Chart 3 & 4: Flexible line charts

Dynamic line charts with the option to select the KPI, period and product/salesperson to be analyzed. These are also covered in part 2.
Charts 3 & 4 - Dynamic Dashboard

Chart 5: Box Chart

Details on how to create these box charts.
Chart 5 - Bullet Chart - Dynamic Dashboard

Chart 6: Scrolling Report of KPIs

Chandoo’s blog on how to create this scrolling report can be found here. Micro charts which is of my favorite blogs from Chandoo are covered here.

Chart 6 - Scrollable KPI List - Dynamic Dashboard

Chart 7: Scrolling Comparison Chart

Details on how to create this scrolling chart.
Chart 7 - Scrollable Comparison Chart - Dynamic Dashboard

Chart 8 : Executive Summary

A simple executive summary. Please see Chandoo’s article on a twitter board for an alternative view.
Chart 8 - Executive Summary - Dynamic Dashboard

So that was an overview of the model and its main tabs.

What Next?

Next week we will look at  Part 2 of this series and learn how to construct dynamic charts.

Download the complete dashboard

Go ahead and download the dashboard excel file. The dynamic dashboard can be downloaded here [mirror, ZIP Version]

It works on Excel 2007 and above. You need to enable macros and links to make it work.

Added by PHD:

Myles has taken various important concepts like Microcharts, form controls, macros, camera snapshot, formulas etc and combined all these to create a truly outstanding dashboard. I am truly honored to feature his ideas and implementation here on PHD. I have learned several valuable tricks while exploring his dashboard. I am sure you would too.

If you like this tutorial please say thanks to Myles.

Related Material & Resources

This is a guest post by Myles Arnott from Clarity Consultancy Services – UK.

Subscribe to Chandoo.org Email updates and get a free excel e-book with 95 tips & tricks

Comments

Thanks, Myles. I’m looking forward to the next installment. Get that baby some milk :)

@Tom… the baby is not Myles’. It is my sweetie, Nakshatra. I recorded the demo vid.

Ubique72 March 16, 2010

Myles congrats!
Chandoo – awesome post once again – you totally rock and yeah hope Nakshatra is not crying now :)

wedgedgravy March 16, 2010

Oddly enough, I was just thinking the other day about building a dashboard like this. I look forward to seeing the finished example. Could you post it in 2003?

@Chandoo…sorry for the mix-up. I love her name!

Vishal Haria March 18, 2010

Awesome! Thanks Myles and PHD … you guys rock

HI Chandoo,

Need some guidance on a problem I have been trying to tackle (but gave up and put it on deep freeze)

Here is my situation: I want to do a certain data manipulation and caluclations to stcok market data from BSE India.com but when I import the data into excel, the data does not get imported. I guess, this is due to ASP page.

Can you tell me how can I import the data into excel? The ultimate purpose being to do calculations on the same.

Thanks and best regards,
J

Hui... May 16, 2010

JB
Have you tried importing data from Yahoo Finance,
use the .BO extension for the Bombay exchange
eg DLF.BO as the stock code etc

Hi Chandoo,

Congrats on you baby daughter… Nakshatra! Sweet Star.

@Hui: I need several other data like marketcap, real-time which I am not sure if I can take from Yahoo. And one app I built using Yahoo is freaky in the sense, it starts and stops working for inexplicable reasons. But I would be open to work with Google Finance. Any ideas on either one of them.

Thanks,

PB Intern June 11, 2010

Hello,

I ran upon your site and think it would be extremely useful if only it applied to Excel 2003. Is it possible to post these tutorials for Excel 2003 ASAP? I am working on a summer project and could really use this help. However, when I download the dynamic dashboard I can’t explore much of the functionality because it doesn’t conver to an older version. Please advise!

Hi, can you let me know if there is a download version for Excel 2003.

Thanks in anticipation

@PB Intern
I commiserate with you but a lot of the fancy dashboard stuff is only available with improved and new functionality not available with older versions of Excel.
Follow the basics and read the tutorials and you can still go a long way with 2003.
Keep asking questions here for assistance where you need it specifically.

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