This is 4th part of Creating Management Dashboards in Microsoft Excel 6 post series by Robert.
This 6 Part Tutorial on Management 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 Visualization to the KPI Dashboard
In this final post on KPI dashboards with Microsoft Excel, we will show you how to add meaningful graphical visualization directly into our dashboard table. With scrolling, sorting and highlighting the dash-board already offers some interesting analytical features (see previous posts). But it is still displaying the data as pure numbers. That makes it difficult for the user to recognize the relative sizes of the values at a glance. Furthermore it is often necessary to communicate the relative position of the data compared to one or several other calculated or given values like the total average or a target.
The solution
[click here to view larger size]
Inserting conditionally formatted bar-line-combination-charts directly into the dashboard table visualizes the shown data and enables the user to get an overview at a glance. The bars show the relative sizes of the corresponding values, the conditional formatting let us immediately identify which values are below target (red color) or larger than target (grey color) and the line makes it easy to see whether a value is above or below the total average.
Download the Excel file – KPI Dashboards with visualization
The Implementation
To implement the charts, we need some knowledge about creating and formatting special charts with Microsoft Excel. In my humble opinion, the by far best resource on charts with Microsoft Excel is Jon Peltier’s excel charts pages. All you have to know for our dashboard charts is brilliantly described on Jon’s website (follow the links below).
- Prepare the workbook for the new features (5 extra columns on the dashboard for the bar charts, additional rows on the data worksheet to define the targets and new columns on the calculation sheet).
- Insert 5 conditional formatted bar charts. Read Jon’s method to create a conditional formatted chart.
Use the table on the dashboard as the data source for the chart and use the targets defined on the sheet “data” as the threshold whether a value is formatted red (below target) or grey (larger than or equal target).
- Calculate the total average on the calculation sheet for each KPI and add an average line to each of the bar charts by using an XY-scatter chart type. Read more on Bar line combo.The necessary calculations for the steps 2 and 3 can be found in columns Q to AQ of the sheet “calculation”.
- Format the charts to make only the bars and the average line visible (no axes, no grid lines, no data labels, no caption, no border or fill color of chart area and plot area). Like Albert Einstein said: “as simple as possible, but not any simpler.“
- Adjust the charts on the dashboard to make them fit exactly to the corresponding cell ranges. One tip for this: Holding the ALT key pressed when resizing a chart will make the chart size auto-fit to the size of the cell range beneath it. That makes it easier to position the charts correctly.The bar charts already look exactly the way we want them to. But there is one undesirable effect: when scrolling up or down the table, the maximum scale of the horizontal axis changes and the bars seem to “jump” up or down.
To avoid this, add two additional XY-scatter-series to the chart, representing the minimum and the maximum of the total data and assign them to the secondary axis. Furthermore add 2 additional bar series to the chart, again representing the minimum and the maximum of the total data and assign them to the primary axis. We thereby “force” both horizontal axes to be identical and stay the same when scrolling up or down. Since we do not want to display these dummy-series, format them with no line and invisible markers (XY-scatters) respectively with no fill color and no border.
- Finally update the caption beneath the table to explain the meaning of the line and the bar colors.
What is next?
- Download the excel KPI dashboard final workbook
- Bookmark Dashboards using Excel pages for future reference.
- Drop a lovely note of thanks to Robert if you have benefited from this series.
Read the next part: Part 5: Compare 2 Decision Parameters in the Dashboards Using Form Controls
Also, Checkout our Excel Dashboards Page for more examples and resources.
24 Responses to “Free Excel Risk Map Template”
Why didn't you include the mitigation or risk IDs in the chart?
You can easily add such detail by modifying the TEXTJOIN function. Another way to use them is to add a slicer to highlight all risks that have a specific mitigation strategy or team member assigned to them. I left out those bits fto keep the article short.
I tried adding a slicer filter for the mitigation step but the TEXTJOIN is not affected by it. I added a helper column called "Visible" using the AGGREGATE function but I am unable to think of a method to pass that on to the map.
Could you please help, Chandoo?
Thanks
Never mind. I got it working. 🙂
Apologies, I didn't thank you for the file to begin with.
Great concept. thanks!
Awesome.. good to hear that Rajesh and of course you are welcome 🙂
Hello everyone,
Another amazing tutorial, great content and tips! My question is about slicers. How do you add slicers to this matrix? I've added 2 columns in my workbook table (Work Stream and Project Name) and I want to be able to filter (slice) the matrix on Project Name, but having some trouble with this. The slicer works fine in the data table, but how do I connect it to the risk matrix, so that only risk titles show up for the selected project?
Many thanks in advance for your guidance,
MyvJ
Can you create a sheet in live stock market data price change with profit and loss graph with time. which could indicate live profit and loss in each time frame 5minute, 10 minute, 15 minute, 30minute, hourly with some modifications
Hi
I've tried to get your formula to work, but likelihood / impact 1/1 does not seem to work.
Hi Chandoo
Awesome instructions! Thank you so much, this really helped me.
I was wondering if it would be possible to list the Risk ID number along with the Risk Title with a dash in between, rather than a bullet point? I have had a try at this but I keep getting a #VALUE error. I can see it's wrong but can't figure out what it should be instead. If you have time do you mind letting me know what I'm doing wrong?
{=" - " & TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10)&" - ",TRUE,
IF(RiskRegister[Likelihood]=$A17,IF(RiskRegister[Consequence]=F$3,CONCAT(RiskRegister[ID],RiskRegister[Risk Title]),""),""))}
Thank you!
Sally
Hey Sally, You are welcome.
I think the CONCAT inside TEXTJOIN is the culprit. Try this and hopefully you should see the ID too.
{=" - " & TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10)&" - ",TRUE,
IF(RiskRegister[Likelihood]=$A17,IF(RiskRegister[Consequence]=F$3,RiskRegister[ID]&RiskRegister[Risk Title],""),""))}
Hi Chandoo
You're a legend! Thank you so much! I had to make a minor tweak but otherwise it worked perfectly. Here is the tweaked version in case it helps anyone else:
=TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10),TRUE,
IF(RiskRegister[Likelihood]=$A8,IF(RiskRegister[Consequence]=C$3,RiskRegister[ID]&" - "&RiskRegister[Risk Title],""),""))
Thank you again!
Hi, Im not able to change the formula when trying to add risk Id instead of bullet point.
trying this: ="• "&TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10)&"• ";TRUE;IF(risks[Probability of Occurance *]=$C5;IF(risks[Severity of potential Impact *]=H$8;risks[Risk ID]&". "[Title *];"");""))
Cant see any solution on this.
thankful for help
Hi Chandoo,
This is perfect - One quick question, How can I add a hyperlink to the risks - So that I can click on the particular risk and it takes me to the actual row of that item.
Many thanks in advance.
HI Chandoo,
Is there a way to only display filtered item. Once the list gets big, it's hard to see all risk.
Kind regards,
SinYen
Hi Chandoo,
Quick question
1) Is there a way to remove duplicates within each risk block?
2) Is there a way to have the results in the chart update based on a filter or slicer?
Thanks a lot
Hi Chandoo,
The risk map is a brilliant tool, and I wanted to the risk map to only show Open risks. How can I do that?
Just found this today as I am making a risk matrix as well. I got the formula to work with this, where a risk score is above 30. Risk score = probability*impact*modifier.
So this works flawlessly, ="- "&TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10)&"- ",TRUE,IF('Risk tracker'!G4:G27>=30,IF(Table1[Urgency]="Now",'Risk tracker'!A4:A27,""),""))
I am trying to find a range now. Risk score in between 21-29. I tried using the AND function, but I couldnt get it to work. Is there anyway to get this formula to work with a range as mentioned above?
Thanks Eric.
You can't use AND() as it is not able to return arrays. You can try below formula.
="- "&TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10)&"- ",TRUE,IF(('Risk tracker'!G4:G27>=21)*('Risk tracker'!G4:G27<=29),IF(Table1[Urgency]="Now",'Risk tracker'!A4:A27,""),""))
Hello, this template is nice, thank you but im facing a problem when I need to find a range of impact. I cant figure out how..
My actual form is "="• "&TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10)&"• ";TRUE;IF(Table1[Impact]=A8;Table1[Title];"");"")"
Where A8 is number "1" so this formula finds everything with impact 1 and shows the titles.
What I need to get is a range so,
A8 is "1" and A9 is "2" and I need the formula to find all titles which impact is between 1 and 2.
I tried the AND function and so on, nothing worked..
Can you help me please?
i tried everything in your video in the end i only get the bullet... please guide me through
Sorted it... i was flash filling the other cells and it took other columns...
i do have another question though... how can i use slicers to filter the content of the matrix, so that it'll show only the departments i select?
slicer is working fine with the table, but the matrix still shows all the results
Just want to thank you for this.
It is awesome.
Hello everyone,
I think I accidentally nested my question in another thread. Apologies!
This is another amazing Excel tutorial, with great content and tips! My question is about slicers. How do you add slicers to this matrix? I've added 2 columns in my workbook table (Work Stream and Project Name) and I want to be able to filter (slice) the matrix on Project Name, but having some trouble with this. The slicer works fine for the data table, but how do I connect it to the risk matrix, so that only risk titles show up for the selected project?
Many thanks in advance for your guidance,
MyvJ
This is another amazing Excel tutorial! My question is about slicers. How do you add slicers to this matrix? Please advise