Dashboards are visual representations of key metrics and actionable insights to be primarily consumed by decision makers. Many self-acclaimed dashboard experts say it should always be set to fit within a screen view, and the reason for this is a very valid one. Imagine needing to scroll down to see the fuel gauge on your car’s dashboard; seeing everything in one ever-present view is a much better user experience than having to scroll. The trouble, however, lies with whose screen. Screen resolution, monitor size, and Excel zoom settings are never the same for all parties concerned – the dashboard builder and the dashboard users. So it can be a very tricky clause to include in the dashboard definition, but knowing this, it is always good to aim to avoid the need for your dashboard users to scroll right or down when viewing your dashboard.

Reports are well-formatted presentations of data and are often the outcome of all data analysis...

Modern businesses are drowning in data as technology has made it both easy and cheap to gather data around every aspect of business operations. Even a company’s website can generate thousands of data points monthly, and this is data the business often does not do much to set up the collection of. Now imagine how much more data is being collected from the more intentionally set up accounting tool, customer relationship management tool, distribution management tool, sales management tool, vendor management, procurement tool, and HR management tool.

Increasingly, business managers are getting frustrated with fragmented reports that show activities but have no meaningful or actionable insights. What is now on every modern business manager’s lips to their subordinates is give me dashboards. It is no longer acceptable to just create hundreds of reports covering every single aspect of business operations. An analyst is now expected to build a...

Search for the word dashboard online, and you will be presented with a list of articles about dashboards that seem to have little in common. The reason is that most online articles that are at the top of search results are by professional content writers and not data analysts, and many were hired to promote a specific tool. For data analysts, a dashboard has some clear characteristics that set it apart from other types of reports.

A dashboard has the following definitive characteristics:

• It is designed to be very visually engaging
• It must be easy to read and understand
• It must present actionable insights, using the key business metrics decision makers need to be on top of
• It must be interactive, allowing users to dynamically view dimensions or aspects of the analysis (this is often achieved with slicers and filters in Excel)
• It must be in its own dedicated sheet and occupy as close to a one-screen view as possible
• It...

Since the first Excel, Excel 1.0 for Apple Macintosh, in 1985, there have been over 25 versions of Excel by Microsoft, but 99% of Excel users today are spread across the following versions:

• Excel 365, which is a subscription-based version with constantly updated features and can be referred to as the most recent version.
• Excel 2021, which came out in October 2021, is the most recent non-subscription-based version of Excel. Unlike the subscription-based Excel 365, it only gets security updates after its initial release, while Excel 365 gets additional monthly features.
• Excel 2019, which came out in October 2019.
• Excel 2016, which was released in September 2015.
• Excel 2010, which was released in June 2010.
• Excel 2007, which was released in November 2006.

To know what version of Excel you are on, go to File, Account, and in the upper right section, you will see your Excel version. See Figure 1.3 to Figure 1.5...

In this chapter, we have covered the key foundational things to know as we progress into building modern dashboards. Just to reiterate, the major learning highlights from this chapter are as follows: we started with the difference between dashboards and reports. We then learned about why dashboards are important for modern businesses. We then learned about the definitive characteristics of dashboards. Next, we went through the different Excel versions and why Excel 365 and Excel 2021 are the recommended versions for building dashboards.

And that’s it for this chapter; in the next chapter, we will dive into the common dashboards required by most modern companies.

You can read more on the Excel features mentioned in this chapter at this official Microsoft documentation pages:

• What’s new in Excel 2021 for Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-excel-2021-for-windows-f953fe71-8f85-4423-bef9-8a195c7a1100
• What’s new in Office 2021: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-office-2021-43848c29-665d-4b1b-bc12-acd2bfb3910a
• What’s the difference between Microsoft 365 and Office 2021?: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-the-difference-between-microsoft-365-and-office-2021-ed447ebf-6060-46f9-9e90-a239bd27eb96