The availability of free, downloadable Excel dashboard templates provides a valuable resource for UK-based businesses, project managers, and individuals seeking to visualise and analyse data without incurring software costs. These templates, often created by experts in Excel design, offer a foundation for corporate reporting, financial analysis, operational monitoring, and project tracking. By providing pre-structured workbooks with built-in formulas and visualisations, they can significantly reduce the time and effort required to build a dashboard from scratch. This article details the types of free Excel dashboard templates available, their typical features, and how to access them, based on information from dedicated template providers.
Understanding Free Excel Dashboard Templates
A free Excel dashboard template is a pre-built Microsoft Excel file (.xlsx) that includes a structured layout for data visualisation. These templates are designed to transform raw data into a single-page, interactive report. Users can typically input their own data into designated data entry sheets, and the dashboard will automatically update to reflect the new information. The goal is to present key metrics and trends in a clear, easily readable format, often using a mix of charts, tables, and infographics.
According to one source, effective Excel dashboards should be readable and easily understood, with the meaning of each statistic clear to all users. The calculations should be separate from the output to maintain clarity. A well-designed dashboard should also be interactive, allowing it to be modified to represent various organisational divisions, and should focus on the primary measurements that matter to the business. Generous use of "white space" is also recommended to avoid a cluttered appearance.
Categories and Examples of Free Templates
The smallman.com website, a primary source for this information, offers a collection of over 35 free Excel dashboards for download. These templates span a range of business functions and are updated periodically. Below are some notable examples described in the source material.
Corporate and Financial Reporting Dashboards
These templates are designed for high-level business overview and financial analysis. * Corporate Dashboard Report: This is described as the most popular template on thesmallman.com. It is a simple dashboard that uses very few colours, focusing on clarity and functionality. * EBIT Excel Dashboard: An updated version of an original dashboard, this template uses infographic elements to present the financial story of a company. It is functional and allows users to split the dashboard by reporting metric and group using two combo boxes. * Traffic Light Excel Dashboard: One of the first dashboards published on the site, this updated template uses a traffic light effect (red, amber, green) to indicate progress against plan for different areas of an organisation. It displays EBIT, revenue, and expenses graphically and includes a combo box to select which area's financials to view. * Banking Highlights Excel Dashboard: This template is designed for the banking sector and uses a spinner button to generate projections. These projected figures are highlighted in blue to distinguish them from actual budget figures. * Revenue, Expense and Staffing KPI Report: An update to an original dashboard, this template provides key performance indicators (KPIs) for revenue, expenses, and staffing.
Operational and Departmental Dashboards
These templates focus on specific operational areas or departments within an organisation. * Operational Dashboard Report: This template uses a mix of three colours (blue, red, and green) and is designed to tell a story in a small space. It shows a range of metrics from an operations perspective, primarily for banking, but the underlying data set can be adapted for other businesses. * Department Dashboard in Excel: A mixture of financial and non-financial metrics presented on a single page. It features a map to display the region in focus. * Restructure Excel Dashboard: Predominantly designed for workforce planning, this clean and clear dashboard helps trap savings from changing an organisation's size, shape, and nature. It has no spinner controls and is updated with new raw data.
Specialised and Niche Dashboards
These templates address specific business needs or data types. * Key Measures Excel Report: A minimalist dashboard that uses infographics and relevant pictures to enhance the data story. It includes a heat map with key metrics and an EBIT trend chart. * Top 10 Excel Dashboard: This template depicts the top 10 US corporations, highlighting common key metrics. The dashboard's core design remains consistent while the logo and data change based on a company selection from a dropdown menu. * Gauge Excel Dashboard: This template features a gauge chart. While some consider gauges space-inefficient, they can be effective for displaying a single, critical piece of information on a dashboard. * Demographic Dashboard: A template focused on showing demographic information for the USA. * KPI Dashboard (Premium Example): While part of a premium selection, this example is described as having a combo box that allows the dashboard to "spin" on a monthly basis, displaying a range of organisational and operational metrics that change with the selected month.
Sourcing and Accessing Free Templates
The primary method for accessing these free templates is through websites that specialise in Excel resources. The source material indicates that thesmallman.com provides a direct download link for each of its 35+ free dashboards. Typically, a user would visit the specific page for a dashboard, find a link or picture, and download the associated Excel file. The source notes that an Excel file is on every page with a brief description of the dashboard.
Other websites, as listed in a comparison table from datanumen.com, also offer free Excel dashboard templates. This table evaluates several sites based on template count, features, price, and customer support. It is important to note that while some sites offer templates entirely for free (such as TheSmallman’s, ExcelFind, and Biz Infograph), others provide templates for free only with a subscription to their main service (such as Smartsheet and ProjectManager). Some sites, like Chandoo and Excel Dashboard School, offer both free and paid options.
Customisation and Usage Guidelines
The free templates are designed to be user-friendly and adaptable. The source material from thesmallman.com explains that users can "simply insert your very own information into the data entry pages, alter the calculation pages to mirror your requirements, and your information can be displayed in the output pages (dashboard)." This flexibility allows the templates to be applied to a wide variety of businesses and data sets, not just the examples provided.
When creating or modifying a dashboard, the source recommends several key principles: use colours simply and consistently, ensure a clean design that is easily read, and keep Excel formula calculations separate from the output to maintain clarity. The primary purpose of a dashboard is to show what matters most, so it is important to determine the key measurements before designing the layout.
Conclusion
Free Excel dashboard templates are a practical tool for UK consumers and businesses looking to analyse data without significant investment. Websites like thesmallman.com provide a substantial library of free, downloadable templates covering corporate finance, operations, and specialised reporting. These templates are built with user customisation in mind, allowing individuals to input their own data to generate tailored reports. When selecting a template, it is advisable to consider the specific business needs—whether for high-level corporate reporting, departmental operations, or specific KPI tracking—and to choose a design that is clear, readable, and focused on the most critical metrics. By leveraging these free resources, users can create professional-looking dashboards that support better data-driven decision-making.