Creating a dashboard in Tableau - Dashboard Building Guide

Dashboard Mode - Creating a dashboard

Dashboard Goal

Understand monthly sales performance and product category trends to help the sales team focus on top products and months.

Sample Data

Month	Product Category	Sales	Quantity Sold
January	Electronics	12000	30
January	Furniture	8000	20
February	Electronics	15000	35
February	Furniture	7000	18
March	Electronics	13000	32
March	Furniture	9000	22
March	Office Supplies	4000	15

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: SUM([Sales])
  Result: 66000
• KPI Card: Total Quantity Sold
  Formula: SUM([Quantity Sold])
  Result: 172
• Bar Chart: Sales by Month
  Formula: SUM([Sales]) grouped by [Month]
  Result: January=20000, February=22000, March=26000
• Pie Chart: Sales by Product Category
  Formula: SUM([Sales]) grouped by [Product Category]
  Result: Electronics=40000, Furniture=24000, Office Supplies=4000
• Table: Detailed Sales Data
  Columns: Month, Product Category, Sales, Quantity Sold

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|   KPI: Total Sales   | KPI: Total Quantity   |
|        66000         |         172          |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|           Bar Chart: Sales by Month           |
|        (Jan, Feb, Mar bars with sales)        |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| Pie Chart: Sales by Product Category | Details |
|  (Electronics, Furniture, Office)    | Table   |
+-----------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

A filter for Month allows users to select one or multiple months. When applied, all components update to show data only for the selected months.

A filter for Product Category lets users focus on specific categories. All charts and tables refresh accordingly.

Self Check

If you add a filter to select only February, which components update and what changes occur?

• Both KPI cards update to show sales and quantity sold only for February.
• The Bar Chart shows only February's sales bar.
• The Pie Chart updates to show sales distribution by product category for February.
• The Detailed Sales Table shows only rows for February.

Key Result

A sales dashboard showing total sales, quantity sold, monthly sales trends, product category sales distribution, and detailed sales data with interactive filters for month and product category.