Trend lines in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Trend lines

Dashboard Goal

Understand sales trends over months and see how sales are increasing or decreasing over time using trend lines.

Sample Data

Month	Sales
January	100
February	120
March	130
April	150
May	170
June	160
July	180
August	200

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: SUM([Sales])
  Result: 1210
• Line Chart: Monthly Sales Trend
  Shows sales by month as points connected by lines.
  Trend Line: Added linear trend line to show overall sales direction over months.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+--------------------+
|      Total Sales      |  Monthly Sales     |
|       (KPI Card)      |    Trend Line      |
|                      |   (Line Chart)     |
+----------------------+--------------------+

Interactivity

A filter for selecting months allows users to focus on specific periods. When months are filtered, both the Total Sales KPI and the Monthly Sales Trend chart update to reflect only the selected months.

Self Check

If you add a filter to show only months from April to August, which components update and what changes do you see?

• Both the Total Sales KPI and the Monthly Sales Trend chart update.
• Total Sales will sum sales from April to August (150 + 170 + 160 + 180 + 200 = 860).
• The trend line will adjust to show the sales trend only for these months.

Key Result

Dashboard shows total sales and monthly sales trend with a linear trend line to understand sales direction over time.