Percent of total in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants to understand what percentage each product category contributes to the total sales for the last quarter.

📊 Data: You have sales data with columns: Order Date, Product Category, Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard showing sales by product category and the percent of total sales each category represents.

Sample Data

Order Date	Product Category	Sales Amount
2024-01-15	Electronics	1200
2024-01-20	Furniture	800
2024-02-05	Electronics	1500
2024-02-18	Office Supplies	400
2024-03-10	Furniture	700
2024-03-15	Office Supplies	600
2024-03-20	Electronics	1300
2024-03-25	Furniture	900

1

Step 1: Connect your Tableau workbook to the sales data source containing Order Date, Product Category, and Sales Amount.

No formula needed; just connect the data source.

Expected Result

Data source is connected and visible in Tableau.

2

Step 2: Filter the data to include only sales from the last quarter (January to March 2024).

Create a filter on Order Date: Order Date >= '2024-01-01' AND Order Date <= '2024-03-31'.

Expected Result

Only sales records from Jan 1, 2024 to Mar 31, 2024 are included.

3

Step 3: Create a bar chart with Product Category on Rows and SUM(Sales Amount) on Columns.

Drag Product Category to Rows, drag Sales Amount to Columns, aggregation set to SUM.

Expected Result

Bar chart shows total sales for each product category.

4

Step 4: Create a calculated field to compute the percent of total sales for each product category.

Percent of Total = SUM([Sales Amount]) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales Amount]))

Expected Result

Calculated field 'Percent of Total' is created.

5

Step 5: Add the 'Percent of Total' calculated field to the Label shelf to show percentage on each bar.

Drag 'Percent of Total' to Label, format as percentage with one decimal place.

Expected Result

Each bar shows the percent of total sales for that category.

6

Step 6: Format the chart with a clear title: 'Sales by Product Category and Percent of Total - Q1 2024'.

Add title and adjust colors for clarity and accessibility.

Expected Result

Dashboard is clear, readable, and visually accessible.

Final Result

Sales by Product Category and Percent of Total - Q1 2024

Electronics  | ██████████████  54.1%
Furniture    | ████████        32.4%
Office Supplies | ████          13.5%

✓Electronics contributed the highest sales at 54.1% of total sales.

✓Furniture made up 32.4% of total sales.

✓Office Supplies accounted for 13.5% of total sales.

Bonus Challenge

Create a trend line showing how the percent of total sales for each product category changes month by month in the quarter.

Show Hint

Use a line chart with Month on Columns, Product Category on Color, and the Percent of Total calculated field on Rows.