What Is a Dashboard? 5 Dashboard Examples

A project is like a car; it starts somewhere and moves somewhere else. No one would think of taking that trip without a dashboard to monitor their speed, gas levels and other important data. The same is true with a project, which is why we’re going to write about dashboard examples.

First, we’ll answer the question: What is a dashboard? Then we’ll move on to what is typically included in a dashboard and illustrate some dashboard examples. For each, we’ll list the type of metrics that they monitor. We’ll end with a few free downloadable dashboard templates for a hands-on idea of how they work.

What Is a Dashboard?

A dashboard in project management is a visual tool that provides a real-time overview of key project data, metrics and performance indicators. Think of it as a control center—it brings together important information about a project’s progress, schedule, budget, risks and resources into a single, easy-to-read interface.

Dashboards are designed to help project managers, teams and stakeholders quickly assess the health and status of a project and make informed decisions without digging through lengthy reports. This leads to better decision making, improved communication and delivers real-time data that replaces the old, manual reporting style. Dashboards are ubiquitous in project management software, but not all are the same.

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What Should Be Included in a Dashboard?

A well-designed project dashboard provides a clear, real-time snapshot of a project’s performance and progress. To be truly effective, a dashboard should include the most relevant and actionable data, presented in a way that’s easy to interpret. It should help teams and stakeholders make quick decisions, identify issues early and stay aligned throughout the project lifecycle.

Here’s a breakdown of the essential elements every dashboard should include.

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): These core metrics show how well the project is performing against its goals. KPIs can vary depending on the project, but common ones include the task completion rate, budget vs. actual cost, schedule adherence, resource utilization and risk status.
• Data Visualization Charts: Visuals make complex data easier to understand. Dashboards should include: bar and pie charts for task status or resource allocation, Gantt charts for project timelines and dependencies and burn-down charts for tracking remaining work in agile projects.
• Comparisons and Trends: It’s important to not just see current data, but understand how it’s changed over time. Dashboards should show planned vs. actual timelines or costs, performance over weeks or sprints and historical trends in risk or workload.
• Filters and Drill-Down Features: Dashboards become even more powerful when users can customize their view. Filters allow users to sort by team member, department, task type or time. Drill-downs let users click into metrics to explore more detailed data.

5 Dashboard Examples

Now that we understand what is a dashboard and the various widgets that make it up, the next step is to explore the different dashboard examples. Let’s look at some of the more common ones and define them, as well as list the various things they usually track.

Project Dashboard

A project dashboard is a centralized tool that provides a real-time visual overview of a project’s progress, performance and key metrics. It helps project managers, teams and stakeholders track tasks, budgets, resources and potential risks in one place. By consolidating important project data, a project dashboard enhances decision-making, accountability and efficiency throughout the project lifecycle.

Here are the key components of a project dashboard.

• Project Timeline (Gantt Chart or Milestones): Displays the project schedule, critical deadlines and key milestones
• Task Progress and Completion Rates: Tracks task statuses to show what’s completed, in progress or delayed
• Budget vs. Actual Costs: Compares planned costs with real-time spending to prevent budget overruns
• Resource Allocation and Workload: Shows how team members and resources are distributed across tasks
• Risk and Issue Tracking: Identifies potential risks, bottlenecks and unresolved issues
• Key Deliverables and Deadlines: Highlights major project outputs and their due dates
• Status by Project Phase or Team: Breaks down progress by phase or department for better tracking

Business KPIs Dashboard

Another one of the dashboard examples we’d like to highlight is a business KPIs dashboard. It is a data-driven tool that provides a real-time snapshot of an organization’s performance based on KPIs. It helps business leaders and teams monitor progress toward financial, operational and strategic goals. By visualizing essential metrics in one place, this dashboard enables informed decision-making, efficiency improvements and growth tracking.

Here are the key metrics commonly included in a business KPIs dashboard.

• Revenue Growth and Profit Margins: Tracks sales performance and overall profitability
• Customer Acquisition and Retention: Measures how well the business attracts and keeps customers
• Operating Expenses: Monitors costs related to running the business
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Gauges customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Return on Investment (ROI): Assesses the profitability of investments and business initiatives
• Employee Productivity Metrics: Evaluates workforce efficiency and output
• Strategic Goal Tracking: Aligns business operations with long-term objectives

Marketing Dashboard

A marketing dashboard is another one of the commonly used dashboard examples. It’s a centralized tool that provides a real-time view of marketing performance across various channels. It helps marketing teams track key metrics, analyze campaign effectiveness and optimize strategies to maximize ROI. By visualizing data from multiple sources, a marketing dashboard enables data-driven decision-making, improved targeting and better allocation of marketing budgets.

Here are the key metrics commonly included in a marketing dashboard.

• Website Traffic and Bounce Rate: Measures the number of visitors and how many leave without engagement
• Conversion Rate by Channel: Tracks the percentage of visitors who take desired actions (e.g., sign-ups, purchases) across different marketing channels
• Cost per Lead (CPL) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Calculates how much is spent to acquire a lead or customer
• Email Campaign Metrics (Open Rate, Click-Through Rate): Analyzes email engagement and effectiveness
• Social Media Engagement: Measures interactions such as likes, shares and comments on social platforms
• SEO Keyword Rankings: Tracks website ranking positions for targeted search terms
• Lead Funnel Performance: Evaluates how leads move through the sales pipeline from awareness to conversion

Sales Dashboard

Another dashboard example is a sales dashboard. This real-time visual tool tracks and displays key sales metrics, helping teams monitor performance, identify trends and optimize the sales process. It gives sales managers, reps and stakeholders a clear view of how well targets are being met and where improvements can be made. With a well-designed dashboard, teams can make data-driven decisions, improve forecasting and boost revenue.

Here are some of the core elements commonly found in a sales dashboard.

• Monthly and Quarterly Sales Revenue: Total income generated over a specific period
• Sales Pipeline and Opportunity Stages: Tracks deals as they move through each phase of the sales cycle
• Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate: Measures the percentage of leads that successfully become customers
• Top-Performing Sales Reps: Highlights sales team members with the highest results or closed deals
• Deal Win Rate: The percentage of total deals that are successfully closed
• Average Deal Size: The typical revenue amount brought in per closed deal
• Sales Forecast vs. Actual: Compares projected sales with real outcomes to assess

Operational Management Dashboard

An operational management dashboard is one of the dashboard examples that is a powerful tool that provides a real-time overview of an organization’s core operations. It consolidates key metrics related to production, logistics, workforce performance and customer service into one centralized view. This type of dashboard helps operations managers monitor efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, maintain quality standards and ensure smooth day-to-day functioning across departments.

Here are the key components typically included in an operational management dashboard.

• Production Volume and Efficiency: Tracks output levels and how effectively resources are used during production
• Supply Chain and Inventory Levels: Monitors stock availability and supply chain performance to avoid shortages or overstock
• Order Fulfillment Times: Measures how quickly and accurately customer orders are processed and delivered
• Downtime and Maintenance Metrics: Captures machine or system downtime and scheduled maintenance to prevent disruptions
• Quality Control (Defect Rates): Tracks product defects or errors to ensure consistent quality standards
• Workforce Utilization: Shows how effectively employee time and skills are being used in operations
• Customer Support Response Times: Measures how quickly support teams respond to customer inquiries or issues

Benefits of Using Dashboards in Project and Business Management

The previous dashboard examples should make it clear that these are critical tools for managing projects and business. Dashboards provide a centralized view of critical data, allowing project managers and business leaders to monitor performance, track progress and make informed decisions with ease.

By consolidating key metrics—such as timelines, budgets, resources and KPIs—into one visual platform, dashboards eliminate the need to sift through multiple spreadsheets or reports. This streamlined access to information not only saves time but also enhances visibility, enabling teams to stay aligned and proactive throughout the project or business lifecycle.

Another significant benefit of using dashboards is their ability to highlight trends, identify risks early and track goals in real time. With dynamic charts, progress bars and comparison tools, users can quickly spot variances between planned and actual performance.

Whether it’s catching a cost overrun, recognizing a delay in task completion or seeing a dip in customer engagement, dashboards provide timely insights that help mitigate issues before they escalate. This level of responsiveness is crucial for maintaining control and achieving successful outcomes.

Dashboards also foster transparency and accountability across teams and stakeholders. By making project and business performance visible to everyone involved, they encourage collaboration, promote shared responsibility and support data-driven conversations.

When each team member can see how their work contributes to the bigger picture, engagement and motivation improve. At the same time, stakeholders gain confidence in the process, knowing they have a clear, real-time understanding of progress, risks and results.

Free Dashboard Templates

As promised, below are three free dashboard templates, which users can play with to execute the features showcased in our dashboard examples. These are only some of the over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that can be downloaded from our site. They cover all aspects of managing a project across multiple industries.

Business KPI Dashboard

Download this free business KPI dashboard for Excel to provide insight into how well the business is performing across various departments. The goal is to help leaders and teams monitor progress, spot trends and make informed decisions that align with strategic goals.

Project Dashboard Template

Use this project dashboard template for Excel to visually track and manage key aspects of a project in one centralized view. It helps project managers and teams monitor progress, performance and potential risks by displaying important metrics.

Budget Dashboard Template

A budget dashboard is a visual tool designed to help individuals or organizations track income, expenses and overall financial performance against a budget. This free budget dashboard template for Excel provides an overview of financial health by consolidating key budget data into interactive charts, graphs and summaries—all in one place.

ProjectManager Is the Best Dashboard Tool for Project Management

Using a template as a dashboard is going to be frustrating. Templates are status documents. That means all the project data must be manually entered. Therefore, one isn’t viewing real-time data, but is always looking in the rearview mirror. It takes online project management software to deliver the most accurate and current information about the project.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that has real-time dashboards for one or multiple projects. But that’s only the start of the tracking features available from our software.

Use Multiple Project Management Views

Data displayed on dashboards comes from team members updating their status. Gantt charts help schedule tasks, resources and costs. Then, set a baseline to track those metrics in real time. From there, teams have a choice of tools to execute their work. They can use kanban boards or task lists, both of which can record status updates that feed into the dashboard automatically. There’s even a calendar view for a monthly overview that stakeholders can use to stay updated.

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Robust Resource Management and Cost Tracking Features

Other tools monitor progress and performance to help keep projects on track. When onboarding teams, their availability can be set, which helps streamline assignments. Project managers can view resource allocation across one or more projects on the color-coded workload chart. This makes it quick and easy to see who is overallocated or underutilized and balances the team’s workload without leaving the page to keep everyone working at capacity without threatening burnout.

A team page provides a daily or weekly snapshot of team activity, which can be filtered by progress or priority. Tasks can also be updated from this page. Customizable reports can focus on key data points or more general information to share with stakeholders, while secure timesheets track labor costs to help projects stay on budget.

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Related Dashboard Content

For those still curious about how dashboards help manage projects, below are free links to recently published pieces on our blog that compare the dashboards of various project management software, construction dashboards and more.

• Free Excel Dashboard Templates
• Monday.com Dashboard: Key Features, Pros and Cons
• Notion Dashboard: Key Features, Pros and Cons
• Asana Dashboard: Key Features, Pros and Cons
• Why Use a Construction Project Dashboard?
• Trello Dashboard: Key Features, Pros and Cons

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

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