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Sales Dashboards – Visualizing Sales Data – 32 Dashboard Examples & Implementations

  • Last updated on June 10, 2011
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Sales Dashboards - 32 Examples, Vote for your option now [Visualization Challenge #2]Sales reports and dashboards are very common in any company. There are several ways in which you can visualize sales data to understand the trends and sales performance. So in November, I have asked you to visualize sales data using sample data. The visualization challenge #2, sponsored by Zoho Reports generated a huge buzz around the community and fetched 32 incredible entries. The response was so overwhelming that it took me almost 24 hours to write this post.

Thanks everyone for participating and making this a huge learning experience for everyone. Personally I have learned several useful dashboard and charting tricks. I will be sharing some of these lessons with all of you in the coming weeks.

How read this post?
This post is HUGE, I mean 2600 words huge. So you may want to maximize your browser window and fill up your coffee mug. Each of the 32 entries start with a title including authors name and tools used. Each entry includes a small image of the dashboard along with a link to see bigger version. All dashboards have links to original source files for you to download and play with.

Please note that these files are copyrighted to original authors and you cannot use them for commercial purposes.

I have included 3 comments against each entry based on my understanding of dashboard. Please share your opinions and reviews using the comments section of this post.

Javascript based Sales Dashboard by Ahmad (Option 01)

Javascript based Sales Dashboard by Ahmad
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard, lets user choose the dimensions of data and shows sales performance immediately.
  • Easy to compare performance of various criteria, can get too cluttered if you add several dimensions.
  • Uses Javascript, thus runs in most web browsers

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Aires (Option 02)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Aires
larger version
My Comments:

  • Shows analysis of “selected month” along with next 23 months.
  • Includes a tweetboard for easy interpretation and key messages.
  • Shows the growth rate of sales (derived metric)

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Ajay (Option 03)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Ajay
larger version
My Comments:

  • Analysis of sales data by “sales person” shown very clearly.
  • Aesthetically pleasing design, fewer colors and options to reduce confusion. Good use of sparklines.
  • Stacked charts could use some improvement as they are difficult to read or compare.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 [Ajay’s website]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Alex Kerin (Option 04)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Alex Kerin
larger version
My Comments:

  • Very good use of incell charts and sparklines (addin from Fabrice).
  • Shows derived metrics like 3 months rolling sales. Also, uses a real map to show region-wise performance.
  • Good use of tables with conditional formatting (also, headlines clearly call for attention).

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3 [Alex Kerin’s website]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Arti (Option 05)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Arti
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard, lets you compare sales by customer type or region or sales person. Also, compares values with averages.
  • Good mix of charts for selected data along with big-picture. Also, includes clear headlines and messages (like “2008 sales person of the year is Chewbacca”).
  • Fewer colors and objects, easy to read the dashboard.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 [Arti’s website]

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Excel Dashboard Training
My Comments:

  • Learn how to make Excel Dashboards using this 1 hour training video
  • Instantly download video, excel workbooks, bonus material.

Click here to try Excel Dashboard Training

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Cole Burdette (Option 06)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Cole Burdette
larger version
My Comments:

  • Lets you compare one combination of sales data like Sales in North region for product light sabres to the customer “galaxy” by sales person “hansolo” with all other possible values.
  • Fewer charts thus easy to read without getting lost.
  • Could use some formatting better color choices. Also, shows only trends, not much on current month’s data.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel-Palo based Sales Dashboard by Cuboo (Option 07)

Excel-Palo based Sales Dashboard by Cuboo
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with option to select month and sales person. Shows historic data for last 12 months.
  • Clever use of incell sparklines and bullet charts to show performance of product by sales person.
  • Includes clear comments (headlines). Fewer objects, so easy to read. Also, has data labels and other chart elements to help us read the findings.

Download Source Files: Link 1 [Cuboo’s website]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Duezzz (Option 08)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Duezzz
larger version
My Comments:

  • Shows overall sales trend along with 2009 summary
  • Analysis by customer type and product.
  • Uses pie charts to show product composition in sales.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Jmp based Sales Dashboard by Erin Vang (Option 09)

Jmp based Sales Dashboard by Erin Vang
larger version
My Comments:

  • Very rich dashboard presentation – thanks to JMP. Shows trends using panel charts (of lines).
  • Includes 3 summary charts to prove points (like Luke sells more than others etc.)
  • Interesting treemap style of visualization.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3 | Link 4 [Erin Vang’s website]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Esteban (Option 10)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Esteban
larger version
My Comments:

  • Very good placement of charts – uses the natural positions of regions (north, east, south and west)
  • Cleve use of incell charts (using REPT formula)
  • Dynamic dashboard – user can select one of the products.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Hernan (Option 11)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Hernan
larger version
My Comments:

  • Clear layout with charts at yearly level and qtrly level. Fewer colors and easy to read.
  • Includes headlines (key messages) by sales person. Very useful to understand the performance of sales persons.
  • Provides analysis only from sales person point of view.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo (Option 12)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with option to select dimension and metrics along with time frame for reporting.
  • Shows overall distribution along with chart for selected option. Easy to compare how the selection is doing wrt others.
  • Could use some more charts.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo (Option 13)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with option to select dimension and metrics along with time frame for reporting.
  • Has additional filtering options.
  • Could use some more charts.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo (Option 14)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with option to select dimension and metrics along with time frame for reporting.
  • Has additional filtering options.
  • Could use some more charts.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo (Option 15)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with option to select dimension and metrics along with time frame for reporting.
  • Has additional filtering options and shows additional charts on demand. Provides instant comparison of selected option against other data.
  • Very cleaver use of form controls.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo (Option 16)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Karimmo
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with option to select dimension and metrics along with time frame for reporting.
  • Has additional filtering options and shows additional charts on demand. Provides instant comparison of selected option against other data.
  • Very cleaver use of form controls.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Leandro (Option 17)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Leandro
larger version
My Comments:

  • Very good use of pivot charts to make dynamic chart
  • One chart to rule them all.
  • Could use some variety and trickery.

Download Source Files: Link 1 [Leandro on twitter]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Lee (Option 18)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Lee
larger version
My Comments:

  • Simple and intuitive dashboard design. Fewer colors and better formatting. Very easy to read.
  • Includes average lines to provide instant comparison.
  • Could include some messages so that it is easy to scan the report to establish them.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excelcius based Sales Dashboard by Mahesh (Option 19)

Excelcius based Sales Dashboard by Mahesh
larger version
My Comments:

  • Uses Excelcius to show chart by selected options.
  • Simple chart options, easy to read and understand.
  • Could use some more charts.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Mahesh (Option 20)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Mahesh
larger version
My Comments:

  • Uses Excel to show chart by selected options.
  • Simple chart options, easy to read and understand.
  • Could use some more charts.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Mahesh (Option 21)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Mahesh
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with ability to select a sales person to see their performance.
  • Uses combo charts to show sales along with growth rates.
  • Could use better formatting and chart choices

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Martin (Option 22)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Martin
larger version
My Comments:

  • Simple design with dynamic charts. Very good use of form controls and pivot charts to show data based on user selection.
  • Very easily provides analysis on how sales person are doing in regions etc.
  • Could include some messages.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Matt Cloves (Option 23)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Matt Cloves
larger version
My Comments:

  • Clever use of form controls. Very elegant design with clear colors and fewer charts.
  • Good implementation of panel charts with ability to rotate so that comparison is easy.
  • Focus on analysis from sales person point of view with overall trends and key messages. Very good design.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Miguel (Option 24)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Miguel
larger version
My Comments:

  • Very intricate design with ability to select date ranges, dynamic filters and powerful drill-down of data.
  • Tables show performance of sales persons clearly while key KPIs are highlighted.
  • Fewer colors and charts. Easy to read and compare without loosing attention.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Nick (Option 25)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Nick
larger version
My Comments:

  • Cleaver use of pivot tables and pivot charts.
  • Relies on excel pivot features to provide required dynamic filtering of data.
  • Pivot charts can be cluttered when all filters are reset.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Project Management Dashboards (recommended product)

Project Management Templates for Excel
My Comments:

  • Using My Excel Project Management Templates you can make dynamic project status dashboards from your data in few minutes.
  • These templates make you better at project management and reporting.

Click here to try Excel Project Management Templates

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Pawel (Option 26)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Pawel
larger version
My Comments:

  • Fewer colors and charts, elegant design with ability to filter based on region, product or customer. Also has the ability to select a date range to generate charts.
  • Answers 2 key questions: (1) how are sales persons doing based on selected criteria (2) How are sales persons doing for the entire timeframe on selected criteria.
  • Could include some messages.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Pompadour (Option 27)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Pompadour
larger version
My Comments:

  • Only 2 colors and just one chart type (lines on a panel chart).
  • Provides comparison by region, product and customer type very easily.
  • Could include some messages.

Download Source Files: Link 1 [Pompadour’s website]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Stephane (Option 28)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Stephane
larger version
My Comments:

  • Dynamic dashboard with ability to select region, customer and product.
  • Uses tables and conditional formatting provide key data. Includes derived metrics like qtrly performance, comparison with previous year etc.
  • Has only one chart to show overall sales person trend for the selected options.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 [Stephane’s website]

Flot-Jquery-Ajax based Sales Dashboard by Steven Ng (Option 29)

Flot-Jquery-Ajax based Sales Dashboard by Steven Ng
larger version
My Comments:

  • Uses AJAX and Flot to generate the dashboard. Fewer objects and colors, so very easy to understand.
  • Includes key messages (like rankings of regions, products etc. totals)
  • Includes a dynamic chart to select sales person, region, product and customer. Also compares the selection against baseline (total sales by month etc.)

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3 | Link 4 [Steven Ng’s website]

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Tessaes (Option 30)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Tessaes
larger version
My Comments:

  • Fewer colors (just 2) and clever use of line charts. Includes key messages and data tables to compare values against each other.
  • Dynamic chart to show the performance of selected dimension by various filters like region, sales person, product or customer.
  • The top and bottom performers table is very interesting. Cleaver design with attention grabbing colors.

Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2

Tableau based Sales Dashboard by Edouard (Option 31)

Tableau based Sales Dashboard by Edouard
larger version
My Comments:

  • Uses Tableau to generate a sales dashboard (requires tableau reader if you want to view this)
  • Includes filters to choose date range, products, customers, regions and sales person. Includes several heatmaps to compare values instantly.
  • Some charts can be improved (for eg. Growth by sales person has year 2008 with blanks, this is not required) Also heatmaps take sometime to understand.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Faseeh (Option 32)

Excel based Sales Dashboard by Faseeh
larger version
My Comments:

  • Uses excel pivot charts to show product, customer type and region-wise sales by sales person.
  • Reader can easily filter values wanted using pivot features.
  • Could use some more charts and messages.

Download Source Files: Link 1

Excel Dashboard Toolkit (recommended product)

Excel Dashboard Kit
My Comments:

  • Using Charley’s Excel Dashboard kit you can quickly and easily make excel dashboards from your data.
  • I have personally tested and used this product and I find it extremely simple to use and can boost your productivity.

Click here to try Excel Dashboard Kit

Thank you everyone

Thanks everyone once again for participating. All these entries are truly world class. Such beautiful display of skill. Thank you so much for teaching me how to make better dashboards.

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8 Responses to “Pivot Tables from large data-sets – 5 examples”

  1. Ron S says:
    August 2, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    Do you have links to any sites that can provide free, large, test data sets. Both large in diversity and large in total number of rows.

    Reply
    • Chandoo says:
      August 3, 2019 at 5:10 am

      Good question Ron. I suggest checking out kaggle.com, data.world or create your own with randbetween(). You can also get a complex business data-set from Microsoft Power BI website. It is contoso retail data.

      Reply
  2. Steve J says:
    February 5, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    Hi Chandoo,
    I work with large data sets all the time (80-200MB files with 100Ks of rows and 20-40 columns) and I've taken a few steps to reduce the size (20-60MB) so they can better shared and work more quickly. These steps include: creating custom calculations in the pivot instead of having additional data columns, deleting the data tab and saving as an xlsb. I've even tried indexmatch instead of vlookup--although I'm not sure that saved much. Are there any other tricks to further reduce the file size? thanks, Steve

    Reply
    • Chandoo says:
      February 5, 2020 at 8:23 pm

      Hi Steve,

      Good tips on how to reduce the file size and / or process time. Another thing I would definitely try is to use Data Model to load the data rather than keep it in the file. You would be,
      1. connect to source data file thru Power Query
      2. filter away any columns / rows that are not needed
      3. load the data to model
      4. make pivots from it

      This would reduce the file size while providing all the answers you need.

      Give it a try. See this video for some help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u7bpysO3FQ

      Reply
  3. John Price says:
    February 7, 2020 at 11:01 pm

    Normally when Excel processes data it utilizes all four cores on a processor. Is it true that Excel reduces to only using two cores When calculating tables? Same issue if there were two cores present, it would reduce to one in a table?
    I ask because, I have personally noticed when i use tables the data is much slower than if I would have filtered it. I like tables for obvious reasons when working with datasets. Is this true.

    Reply
    • Ron MVP says:
      February 8, 2020 at 3:38 am

      John:
      I don't know if it is true that Excel Table processing only uses 2 threads/cores, but it is entirely possible. The program has to be enabled to handle multiple parallel threads. Excel Lists/Tables were added long ago, at a time when 2 processes was a reasonable upper limit. And, it could be that there simply is no way to program table processing to use more than 2 threads at a time...

      Reply
  4. Jen says:
    July 21, 2020 at 7:17 pm

    When I've got a large data set, I will set my Excel priority to High thru Task Manager to allow it to use more available processing. Never use RealTime priority or you're completely locked up until Excel finishes.

    Reply

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