Build a dashboard with Excel 2010 Sparklines

In this article, Simon Hurst draws on recent advice in ExcelZone about creating KPI dashboards, and demonstrates how to create a dashboard component using Excel 2010 Sparklines and an external data range table.

The first we’ll need to do is create the data that our dashboard will display using the Crosstab Query Wizard in the Microsoft Access sample database ‘Northwind’. The Wizard will ask for a 'real' initial value for our [Year] parameter – we'll use 2006. Click the Add button, then close the query and 'Return Data to Microsoft Excel' as a table starting in cell A1 in an existing empty sheet. The data should look something like this:

 
Excel 2010 automatically creates our External Data Range as a table. The next steps in the tutorial will be to add a totals column immediately to the right of the existing table and then insert a Column chart option from the Sparklines group menu to get something that looks like this:

Other ExcelZone articles that deal in more detail with some of these techniques and features include:

• New Excel 2010 features: Sparklines
• Presenting financial figures with Excel Part 1 - an introduction
• Presenting financial figures with Excel Part 2 - charting choices
• Presenting financial figures with Excel Part 3 – delivery techniques
• ExcelZone Compendium: Working with accounts data (Excel 2007 update)

Continued...