Trend analysis in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

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

📋 Request: Your manager wants to understand how monthly sales have changed over the past year to identify any upward or downward trends.

📊 Data: You have a dataset with monthly sales data for the last 12 months. The data includes columns for Month, Year, and Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a line chart in Tableau showing monthly sales trends over the past year with clear labels and a trend line.

Sample Data

Year	Month	Sales Amount
2023	January	12000
2023	February	15000
2023	March	13000
2023	April	17000
2023	May	16000
2023	June	18000
2023	July	19000
2023	August	21000
2023	September	20000
2023	October	22000
2023	November	23000
2023	December	25000

1

Step 1: Connect your Tableau workbook to the sales data source containing Year, Month, and Sales Amount columns.

No formula needed; just connect the data source.

Expected Result

Data is loaded and visible in Tableau's Data pane.

2

Step 2: Create a calculated field to combine Year and Month into a single date field for proper time series ordering.

DATE(DATEPARSE('yyyy MMMM', STR([Year]) + ' ' + [Month]))

Expected Result

A new date field is created representing the first day of each month.

3

Step 3: Drag the new date field to the Columns shelf to set the timeline.

Use the calculated date field on Columns.

Expected Result

Months appear in order from January to December on the horizontal axis.

4

Step 4: Drag Sales Amount to the Rows shelf to plot sales values.

SUM([Sales Amount]) on Rows.

Expected Result

A line chart starts to form showing sales values over months.

5

Step 5: Change the Marks type to Line to visualize the trend clearly.

Select 'Line' from the Marks dropdown.

Expected Result

A smooth line connects monthly sales points.

6

Step 6: Add a trend line to the chart to highlight the overall sales trend.

Right-click on the chart > Trend Lines > Show Trend Lines.

Expected Result

A trend line appears showing the general direction of sales over the year.

7

Step 7: Add clear axis titles and chart title for accessibility and clarity.

Edit axis titles to 'Month' and 'Sales Amount'; add chart title 'Monthly Sales Trend for 2023'.

Expected Result

Chart is clearly labeled for easy understanding.

Final Result

Monthly Sales Trend for 2023

Month ->
Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec
|
|       *
|      *  *
|     *     *
|    *        *
|   *           *
|  *              *
| *                 *
|*                    *
+----------------------------------------------> Sales Amount

✓Sales generally increased from January to December 2023.

✓There is a steady upward trend with minor dips in March and September.

✓The highest sales occurred in December, indicating strong year-end performance.

Bonus Challenge

Create a dashboard that compares monthly sales trends for 2022 and 2023 side by side.

Show Hint

Use the Year field to filter or separate the data, and create two line charts on the same dashboard for comparison.