Dashboard examples
Dashboard examples, and the question each one answers
In short
What a dashboard is
A dashboard is one screen that answers a single question about how something is performing, and keeps answering it as the data behind it changes. The ones that survive carry a handful of numbers rather than everything available, give each number something to compare against, and end on where the exception is rather than on a total. What separates a good one from a pretty one is almost never the chart library: it is whether the number is current, and whether anyone had to touch it to make it so.
| Dashboards for | What is on the page | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Executive dashboards | Finance, sales, people and portfolio scorecards — plus the written quarter, the board pack and the programme review. | 7 |
| Financial dashboards | Performance, budget vs actual and a KPI scorecard, plus AR ageing, cash collection and vendor spend — and the same P&L as a report, a summary and a board pack. | 9 |
| Sales dashboards | Pipeline, sales performance and a KPI scorecard — plus the written review and the QBR deck. | 5 |
| Marketing dashboards | Channel performance, campaign performance and channel ROI — plus the monthly write-up and the recap deck. | 5 |
| HR dashboards | Headcount and attrition, an HR scorecard, HR analytics and a compensation review — plus the written people update. | 5 |
| Inventory dashboards | Stock on hand and what it is worth, reorder points, aged stock, and intake against despatch by site. | 5 |
| Retail dashboards | Store margin, like-for-like comparison, sell-through, stock and stockouts, promotions and fulfilment. | 6 |
| Project dashboards | Status across every workstream, overdue work by priority, and portfolio budget against actual — plus the steering-committee deck. | 3 |
By team
Dashboard examples by team
- Executive dashboardsFinance, sales, people and portfolio scorecards — plus the written quarter, the board pack and the programme review.7 examples
- Financial dashboardsPerformance, budget vs actual and a KPI scorecard, plus AR ageing, cash collection and vendor spend — and the same P&L as a report, a summary and a board pack.9 examples
- Sales dashboardsPipeline, sales performance and a KPI scorecard — plus the written review and the QBR deck.5 examples
- Marketing dashboardsChannel performance, campaign performance and channel ROI — plus the monthly write-up and the recap deck.5 examples
- HR dashboardsHeadcount and attrition, an HR scorecard, HR analytics and a compensation review — plus the written people update.5 examples
- Inventory dashboardsStock on hand and what it is worth, reorder points, aged stock, and intake against despatch by site.5 examples
- Retail dashboardsStore margin, like-for-like comparison, sell-through, stock and stockouts, promotions and fulfilment.6 examples
- Project dashboardsStatus across every workstream, overdue work by priority, and portfolio budget against actual — plus the steering-committee deck.3 examples
The examples
Nine dashboard examples, one from every function
Each captured as it renders on the sample dataset it ships with, so every figure on them is illustrative rather than a business result. The last one is deliberately not a dashboard — the same finance data as the first, rendered as a board pack instead.
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Financial Performance
Where is the money coming from, and what survives the trip to operating income?
Revenue, margin and operating income by business unit and region, month by month.
Finance · Dashboard
More financial examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Sales Pipeline
Is the pipeline worth what the raw number says?
What is still open, which stage it sits in, and what it is worth weighted.
Sales · Dashboard
More sales examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Marketing Performance
Which channels are worth the money, week by week?
Spend, conversions and return across every channel, week by week.
Marketing · Dashboard
More marketing examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Headcount & Attrition
Is that attrition rate real, or is it one leaver on a small team?
Who is here, who left, and how long people stay — by department and level.
People · Dashboard
More HR examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Project Status
What is actually stuck, before the status meeting starts?
What is done, in flight, blocked or late — across every workstream.
Project · Dashboard
More project examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Inventory Management
Which of this stock is working, and which is money sitting still?
Stock on hand, what it is worth and how fast it moves, by category and site.
Inventory · Dashboard
More inventory examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Store-Level Margin
Two stores on the same margin rate — what is different about them?
Which stores make money, and what is moving their margin.
Operations · Dashboard
More retail examples →
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. SEO Performance
Which queries are climbing, and which are quietly slipping?
Clicks, impressions and average position, and which queries are climbing.
SEO · Dashboard
Sample data — illustrative figures, not business results. Board Pack
And what if the answer is not a dashboard at all?
The quarter for a board audience: revenue, margin, plan and what is next.
Finance · Presentation
More executive examples →
Design notes
What goes on a dashboard worth keeping
Four things, and none of them is the chart library. They are the difference between a dashboard that survives a quarter and one that gets replaced by a screenshot in a message.
It answers one question
The dashboards people keep open have a single question at the top and nothing on them that does not help answer it.
The ones that get abandoned are an inventory of every metric the data happened to contain.
Every number carries a comparison
A figure on its own is unreadable.
Against plan, against last period, against the same week last year — the comparison is what turns a number into a decision.
It resolves to something to do
Totals say there is a problem.
The ranked list of exceptions — the deals that stalled, the stores below plan, the invoices in dispute — says what to do about it on Monday.
It is current without anyone maintaining it
A dashboard rebuilt by hand each week is a report with extra steps.
The preparation behind these is recorded once and re-run on a schedule, so the dashboard reflects the source rather than the last export.
From example to live dashboard
Pretty is easy. Current and true is the hard part.
Any of these can be drawn in a slide. What makes one worth keeping is the five steps underneath it, and they are the same five whichever example you start from.
- 01
Connect the source
The dashboard reads the system, not an export somebody saved to their desktop. 100+ tested connectors, plus anything with a REST API.
- 02
Prepare it once
Cleaning, joining and reshaping are recorded as steps you can read, change and re-run — not a formula buried three sheets deep.
- 03
Check it before anyone sees it
Data checks run with the refresh and flag the rows that fail, so a broken upstream file shows up as an alert rather than as a wrong number in a meeting.
- 04
Put it on a schedule
Refresh on a schedule and the dashboard stays current on its own. Starter schedules daily runs; Pro adds hourly refresh and event triggers.
- 05
Publish it and send the link
Public, password-protected or sign-in only. Every sharing mode is available on every plan, including the free one.
Sharing
Everyone can see it.
Nobody pays to look.
Most dashboard tools charge for every person who opens one, which is why so many dashboards end up as a screenshot pasted into a message. Mammoth charges for the people who build. Viewers are unlimited and free on every plan, including the free one.
You pay for
The people who build
Anyone connecting a source, preparing data or publishing a dashboard counts as a platform user.
You never pay for
The people who look
Viewers are unlimited and free on every plan, including the free one. A board, a client list or a whole company: the number does not change the bill.
Plans differ in how many builders and published dashboards a workspace gets. Drafts, viewers and every sharing mode are unlimited and free on all four. Full pricing.
Dashboard questions
What counts as a good dashboard example?
Are these real dashboards or mock-ups?
Where does the data come from?
How often can a dashboard refresh?
Does everyone who looks at a dashboard need a licence?
Last reviewed against the template catalogue.
Build the one you came here looking for.
Connect a source, prepare it once, publish it. Everyone who needs to see it can, at no per-viewer cost.
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