​Do we really need anything? Sure we do...but why the Excel Dashboard Toolbox.

​Here's the thing.

​Learning dashboard techniques by scouring the web can be a time consuming feat. Buying Excel Dashboard courses is usually a great way to learn the theory and steps in creating a dashboard but often times you're left with having to extract your favorite lessons and concepts on your own.

That's where the Excel Dashboard Toolbox fits in. The Toolbox is all about being able to use the dashboard, review the calculations used and then learn exactly how to implement that technique all bundled into one neat workbook. In my first and most recent Excel Dashboard Toolbox my goal is to train you with 5 Data Transformation Techniques that you can apply immediately in your own dashboards.

The concept is simple. You've got a workbook with the best Excel dashboard creation techniques at the click of a workbook (stored nicely on your local hard drive).

In this article I go over 6 different reasons why the Excel Dashboard Toolbox is what you need.

Like I said in the previous section, the whole reason for building the Excel Dashboard Toolbox in the first place was to give the learner the ability to get a clear view of what it's like to build a dashboard in Excel and then to interact with it.

At first glance, you might wonder, why the heck do I even care about the calculations sheet in the worbook but this is where all of the magic happens and it's also what typically brings the dashboard to life. Thankfully, Excel has built in some pretty slick formula auditing tools that allow you to get a fast and quick look at how all of the formulas interact and also how they work.  Use the formula auditing section of the Formula tab on the quick access ribbon if you're interested in fast learning and dive into the calculations sheets of each of the Excel Dashboard Toolbox techniques.

​SOME FORMULA AUDITING RESOURCES

​​The #1 Tricks of Formula Auditing in Excel - [Video by Yoda Learning]

Advanced Excel Formula Auditing - [Blog Post by Yoda Learning]

One of the best ways to learn is to summarize the information in easily consumable (step by step in this case) chunks of information. This allows you to quickly remember how to apply a technique or even remember how to either perform or tasks or restate it again later on paper (if you had to).  For us, we're only concerned with being able to re-apply a certain technique without having to get bogged down in the details.

This is why I created the summary section at the top of the how to section of each Excel Dashboard Toolbox technique.  This allows you to walk through the process of using this dashboard technique quickly without having to go through the details.  In each summary step however, I have provided you with a link to each detail section in case you've only forgotten how to perform a portion of the technique.

Copying and repurposing any of the Excel Dashboard Toolbox techniques is a quick way to build a new dashboard outside of the Excel Dashboard Toolbox workbook.  You can easily select the dashboard and calculations worksheet of any of the techniques and then right click on the worksheet tab and click on move or copy.  

From there you can then use some of the formula auditing tools you learned in # 2 to get an idea of how the calculations are interacting and how you can repurpose them to fit your needs.

SOME RESOURCES ON COPYING WORKSHEETS INTO A NEW WORKBOOK IN EXCEL

5 Ways to Duplicate Worksheets in Excel - [Accounting Web - By David Ringstrom]

How to Move and Copy Worksheets to Other Workbooks - [Excel Jet - By Dave Bruns]

How to Copy Charts and Change References to a New Worksheet - [Excel Dashboard Templates]

When I first started working and creating dashboards in Excel, I spent an extravagant amount of time Googling techniques all over the web trying to get an idea of what the best dashboards techniques/tricks were. I had to work hard to reverse engineer a lot of these techniques because nobody was willingly giving out the step by step process used to re-create these dashboards.

Even with the products that I did spend money on learning, the focus was mostly on the theoretical aspects of the dashboard creation process and nothing was truly and solely focussed on the individual implementation of the technique.  The Excel Dashboard Toolbox does exactly that. You can learn to use the dashboard technique, review the calculations and then use the how to tab to follow the step by step process to re-create the dashboard for yourself.

One of my favorite things about the Excel Dashboard Toolbox is that I've created a step by step detailed guide of what you need to do to re-create the dashboard technique. This was definitely the most time consuming part about building the toolbox but it was well worth the effort.  

The detailed how to section is likely the most valuable part of the workbook.  It's where I go right down to the details on which formulas are being used and how. As you can see in the screenshot below, I use detailed numbers under the steps to help associate the visual to the how to step.

​Like I said. Learning what dashboard techniques are available to you and then remembering how to use them and what they are can become super annoying. That's why I've created the Excel Dashboard Toolbox.  

I want you to have a simple and easy way to pick and choose a technique and implement it immediately in your work. For you this means you aren't left scouring the web or fighting your way through 70 videos in your newest course purchase trying to find the best Excel dashboard tool for the job at hand. 

​If you're still curious and need more details, click the link below.

​WHAT IS THE EXCEL DASHBOARD TOOLBOX?

​​​​​​​Also, feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions about the Excel Dashboard Toolbox.  I'd be more than willing to help you out.​​​