This post is part of Excel Dashboard Week
Background:
In 2008, I received an email from Robert Mundigl, which was the start of a life-long friendship. Robert asked me if he can teach us how to make KPI dashboards using Excel. I gladly said yes because I am always looking for new ways to use Excel.
The original KPI dashboards using Excel article was so popular. They still help around 12,000 people around the globe every month. Many of our regular readers and members have once started their journey on Chandoo.org from these articles.
In this article, we will revisit the dashboard and give it a fresh new spin using Excel 2007.
KPI Dashboard – Reconstructed in Excel 2007
KPI Dashboard – Snapshot
First, take a look at the dashboard I have constructed. This uses almost the same data as Robert’s original dashboard, but adds a lot of new features etc.
KPI Dashboard – Demo Video
How is this KPI Dashboard Constructed?
It would take me 2300 words and 7 cups of coffee to type out the entire instruction. So I will instead tell you what new things I have added to it and how they are done.
Note: For a detailed step-by-step instruction, please consider joining Excel School because this is a 3 part, 120 minute lesson in our class.
Changes to the KPI Dashboard:
I have made the following changes to the original dashboard:
- Added a top bar where we show top 3 products in each KPI
- Added ability to restore to original sort order (as per the input data in Data sheet)
- Instead of showing triangle arrows, used conditional formatting arrow icons – green for values >=90th percentile and red for <= 10th percentile for any given KPI.
- Added individual KPI targets by product (instead of same KPI targets for all products). Also, changed the bar chart visualization to show target markers.
- Added ability to switch on/off the target indicators.
- Added a KPI distribution chart and ability to search by any product.
How are these changes made?
Restoring original sort-order:
For this, I have used the product numbers (values 1 to 100) in Data sheet and sorted them on ascending order. When you click on the product column’s sort button, in the background I just use the product numbers column to sort the KPIs.
Percentile Indicators:
This is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green icons.
Turning on / off the KPI target indicators:
Based on the check-box setting, I return #N/A (thru NA() formula) or actual target value to the chart’s source data range. Rest of the puzzle, you can figure out.
The technique is also explained here: Dynamic Excel Chart with Checkboxes.
Search by Product & Highlight KPI values:
For this I have used an active-x text box and linked it to a cell (L22). Then, I used COUNTIF with wild-card search to locate if a product matches the input or not. [More on the wild-card search technique]
KPI Distribution Chart:
This is an area chart, re-sized to fit inside the space. The red-lines are y-error bars and they are drawn for products that match the search criteria.
Download the KPI Dashboard Workbook
Click here to download the Excel workbook with the KPI Dashboard.
Thanks you Robert:
Special thanks to Robert for such a beautiful dashboard. Visit his clearlyandsimply blog to get some more awesome dashboard / Excel ideas.
How would you have designed the KPI Dashboard?
Share your views on the above dashboard. Also, tell me how you would have designed the same. What charts / tables will you retain. What will you remove and what will you add.
Share your ideas using comments.
More Resources on Excel Dashboards:
- Excel Dashboards – Lots of examples, information and downloads.
- Sales Dashboards – 32 Examples & Download workbooks
- KPI Dashboards using Excel – 6 part tutorial
- Dynamic Dashboards in Excel – 4 part tutorial
- Excel School Dashboard Program – Learn how to make world-class dashboards using Excel
21 Responses to “Distinct count in Excel pivot tables”
The distinct count option works well but I have found that if I have a date field and want to group by year, month, etc. that option seems to be disabled. I need to do both, distinct count and group by year/month.
Example data; sales orders with item quantities with dates.
Challenge; sum the item quantities, count the distinct orders and group by month. How do I do this?
Perhaps that's not possible due to the grouping?
@Al... When you use data model based pivots, you cannot group values manually anymore. Why not use Excel 2016's default date grouping option? In this case we have just a few dates, so Excel is not grouping them, but if you have an year's worth of data, when you make the pivot with date in the row label area, Excel automatically groups them. If you have fewer dates or want to use your own grouping, just create a table with all dates, add columns with month, week, year etc. Then connect this table (these types of tables are usually called as calendar tables) to your data on date field as a relationship. Now you can create reports by month, quarter etc easily.
Is this the only way to do it in 2013? I find it rather cumbersome to have to create another data table listing dates with the another column for MONTH() and YEAR() to be able to summarise data for senior level...
I know people find adding calendar tables cumbersome, but it is a best practice and let's you add more layers of analysis quite easily. For example, adding analysis by weekday vs. weekend or by financial quarter or YTD calculations (you would need either Power Pivot DAX or some very carefully setup pivot table value field settings)
I had absolutely no idea this was possible. Very useful, nice work!
Doesn't work for 2010 version though (or at least not my works version)
Hi ,
The post has the following in it :
These instructions work only in Excel 2016, Office 365 and Excel 2013.
when i have 2 different Pivot tables, one without the enabled “Add this data to data model” option, and the other one with it enabled.. is there anyway i can link slicers between them?
if the answer is NO,, what to do ?
Quick note, the “Add this data to data model” option is not available for the Mac version.
perhaps outside scope of this article but I have found when I attempt to create a pivot table from an external data source (connection to a sql view) the "Add this data to data model" becomes greyed out. Anybody experienced and found a solution so I can start getting distinct count in my pivot tables?
Is there a way to still add a calculated field when using distinct count?
I found I can't change the date source after tick the " add this data to the data model", can you help to adv how to change the date source in such case?
Is there a way to update the source once you have added to the data model? I receive a new spreadsheet weekly and would like to update the connection so my tables pull from the new source.
Hi Crhis, I like how you have hulk (superhero) as your avatar. Do you know that there is a superhero in Excel too? It's Power Query. You can use it to solve your problem in a simple click. Here an intro if you need some guidance.
Powerful Introduction to Power Query
A big Thank you. It worked.
Hi, have survey data that I need to analyze but the challenge is that my key fields are showing horizontally. I tried to transpose the fields using Power Query, but unfortunately the new fields are returning same values on a pivot table despite using distinct values
How I can a do a pivot table with discount conts in some columns and then generate shor report filter pages. pls it drives crazy
Hi. Why grand total pivot of distinct count is 13? shouldn't it be 67?
Great Answer! Saved me lots of time!
Thank you!!!
Worked awesome! Thanks!!
Hi Chandoo,
I am using pivot tables for distinct count and now I need to update them with new set of data. But when I update the source data, all the columns and formatting of Pivot table disappears and I need to build it from Scratch.
Is there a possibility that I can update the source data with new rows added and also retain my pivot tables?