Column charts, also referred to as vertical bar charts are used in most cases to show KPIs and Metrics that need to be conveyed by value. Column charts are also good comparative charts when KPIs go into negative values.
Present your KPIs: Choose appropriate charts/graphs and tabular data to present the information in the simplest possible way. Keep the charts relevant, focused, and in context. Present your KPIs in a logical order to keep the flow of information or the 'story' from getting disjointed.
KPI Charts are the key performance indicators in a dashboard where the performance is measured and presented in the form of KPIs. Use these charts to display the KPI value, the difference between the actual and target values, and their difference percentage as well.
Line Chart
Line charts are best used to express changes in a metric across time, or progress across a series of stages.
The four most common are probably line graphs, bar graphs and histograms, pie charts, and Cartesian graphs.
Bar charts are good for comparisons, while line charts work better for trends. Scatter plot charts are good for relationships and distributions, but pie charts should be used only for simple compositions — never for comparisons or distributions.
Bar charts and pie charts are very common chart types with some overlap in use cases.
These are the key performance indicators or the most important business objectives that are going to help you achieve the goals and perform tasks that you are looking for. They're the core business targets. Now, KPI's also need to be as specific as possible and they need to be something that is measurable.
In short, the optimal number of KPIs in an executive dashboard should be between three and ten. It's not the place for irrelevant KPIs to the managers like bounce rate or average time spent.
A KPI presentation should include minimal text and be about showing your progress with visualizations and data. A common rule of thumb for a KPI presentation in PowerPoint or Google Slides is five words per line and five lines per slide. For this reason, images are important to include for a good KPI presentation.
Types of KPIs include: Quantitative indicators that can be presented with a number. Qualitative indicators that can't be presented as a number. Leading indicators that can predict the outcome of a process.
Bar charts are one of the most common data visualizations. You can use them to quickly compare data across categories, highlight differences, show trends and outliers, and reveal historical highs and lows at a glance. Bar charts are especially effective when you have data that can be split into multiple categories.
Arguably the most popular type of chart, a pie chart is a circular graph that visualizes a part-to-whole relationship. It shows how the data is divided into categories with a certain value (the slices), but it always keeps the link between the value of one category and the total sum of those categories (the pie).
If you want to show trends and patterns in your data, use a line chart, bar chart, or scatter plot.
Following are the most popular Excel charts and graphs:
Line chart. Clustered column chart. Combination chart. Stacked column chart.
A KPI dashboard displays key performance indicators in interactive charts and graphs, allowing for quick, organized review and analysis. Key performance indicators are quantifiable measures of performance over time for specific strategic objectives.
To calculate the KPI use the equation: Total Sales ÷ Accounts Receivable. This simple currency metric is the total amount owed to the company at the current point in time. Another simple KPI, this time to look at the amount of money owed by the company.
Key Performance indicators (KPIs) are individual metrics that can be displayed on a dashboard to track key measurements. You can think of them as a single important number that is displayed in large text. Dashboards are a collection of Insights and KPIs put together on a page.