Reference lines in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Reference lines

Business Question

How can we quickly see sales performance compared to average and target sales using reference lines in Tableau?

Sample Data

Region	Month	Sales	Target Sales
East	Jan	120	150
East	Feb	180	150
West	Jan	200	180
West	Feb	160	180
South	Jan	140	130
South	Feb	170	130

Dashboard Components

• Bar Chart: Sales by Month and Region
  - X-axis: Month
  - Y-axis: Sales
  - Color: Region
  - Reference Line 1: Average Sales (calculated as AVG([Sales]) across all data)
  - Reference Line 2: Target Sales (using [Target Sales] field as a constant line per month)
• KPI Card: Total Sales
  - Formula: SUM([Sales])
  - Result: 970 (120+180+200+160+140+170)
• KPI Card: Average Sales
  - Formula: AVG([Sales])
  - Result: 161.67 (970/6)

Dashboard Layout

+---------------------------+-----------------+
|        KPI Cards          |   Bar Chart     |
|  Total Sales | Avg Sales  |                 |
+---------------------------+-----------------+

Interactivity

A filter for Region allows users to select one or multiple regions. When a region is selected, the bar chart updates to show sales only for that region, and the KPI cards recalculate total and average sales accordingly. The reference lines adjust dynamically based on the filtered data.

Self Check

If you add a filter to show only the East region, which components update and how?

• The bar chart updates to show sales bars only for East region months.
• The Total Sales KPI updates to 300 (120+180).
• The Average Sales KPI updates to 150 (300/2).
• Reference lines recalculate average sales line to 150 and target sales lines remain per month.

Key Result

Dashboard shows sales by month and region with reference lines for average and target sales, plus total and average sales KPIs.