The good news? Excel is a powerful tool that lets you turn raw data into meaningful, actionable insights and you don’t have to be a math expert to make it work.

In this easy, step-by-step guide, we’ll show you how to build an Excel dashboard without any stress or confusion.

What is an Excel Dashboard?

First, let’s start with the basics. The simplest way to think of a dashboard is as a visual representation of data.

Raw data can be hard to look at. Sure, the need-to-know digits are there. But, all of those rows and columns are often impossible to process and understand.

This is where dashboards come into play. They turn data into information (yes, those are two different things!) by creating different charts, tables, and other visual elements that give you a high-level overview of that data.