Excel dashboards are the answer to everything. Or are they really?

Excel dashboards

You wanna know how to create the best, slickest Excel dashboards possible. That’s most likely what brought you to conduct this search in the first place. You were probably hoping to land upon a page in the likes of this one, weren’t you?

 

Makes sense; Excel is pretty much the first marketing reporting tool that comes to mind. After all, it is all about data, graphs, and charts, and it does provide quite a few features to help you through your tedious reporting task.

 

However, it doesn’t matter how early you wake up, how much black coffee you ingest, or how motivated (or not) you are, there always seems to be so much data and so little time to complete your reports, as opposed to your colleague Steve. We all know a Steve, don’t we? While you’re pouring your heart into these never-ending spreadsheets, he’s the last one at the office, the first one to leave, and yet the most praised marketer at the agency. Steve is awesome and happy and fit and you just hate his guts, don’t you? What in the world is Steve’s secret to living such an amazing life?

 


Well, kale might actually have something to do with it, but more importantly, Steve has figured out that Excel dashboards weren’t the answer to everything. And as much as you might hate to admit it, Steve’s right.

 

Wait, what?


You heard it. Even though Excel is a powerful and flexible tool which does have its perks, it’s simply not fit for your marketing reporting purposes. Here’s why:

 

1. Ain’t nobody got time for Excel dashboards.

 

Of course you know that, as you experience it on a monthly basis. However, you probably don’t fully realise how time-sucking it actually is, since building Excel dashboards until the end of times is just the way the end of your month is meant to be, or so it seems.

 

2. It costs an arm, a leg, and your employee-of-the-year title.

 

Wait, how can it be expensive when Excel only costs a few bucks? Here, let’s do the math together to figure out how much YOUR use of Excel costs your boss.

 

Let’s say you have 5 monthly reports to produce, each of them taking 5 hours of your time, and your wage is 30$/h.

 

5 reports x 5 hours x 30$ = 750$ every month, or 9,000$ on a yearly basis.

 

Now, it’s no wonder Steve, who doesn’t use Excel, gets a bi-annual invitation to the boss’ yacht, is it?

 

3. It’s breathtakingly frigid.

 

Let’s be honest, Excel dashboards are a lot of things, but sexy isn’t one of them. Nobody likes a cold, impersonal, cluttered report. And of course, the more data you have, the worse it gets. Although Excel does have a couple of options on that level, it still doesn’t generate the most eye-appealing, Steve’s-attention-worthy reports.

 

4. At least if it were scalable…

 

After hours of copying and pasting all the data, seeing your first Excel dashboard coming to life has got to be one of the most pride-inducing feelings, isn’t it? But what about the third, tenth, twentieth time you put the same tremendous effort into yet another dashboard that’ll look exactly the same as the others in the end? Let’s face it: just like any other love story, when the routine takes over, the magic fades.

 

5. It doesn’t keep track.

 

An important part of reporting is actually tracking the evolution of your data through time. Now, what does this mean for your Excel dashboards? You know it, Steve knows it: it means even more back and forth, and copy-pasting your life away.

 

6. It’s as reliable as your Friday-afternoon, eye-closing self.

 

Everyone knows how much dedication you put into your dashboard creation, no matter how much you hate it. The thing is, important decisions may come from these reports and copying and pasting data by hand, especially after 8 hours of repetitively doing so, is error-prone.

 

So basically, I’m doomed?


No, my dear friend, fear not, for I have come with the solution Steve has long known of. It’s time these endless, cringe-inducing Excel dashboards days come to an end. Let me introduce you to your new life: it’s called DashThis and it’s a total game-changer.

 

See, DashThis is the reporting tool you’re about to fall in love with. Not only can you connect all of your digital marketing platforms to it, you can also import any custom data you usually would’ve been copying into your good ol’ Excel report and see it displayed into nice, user-friendly, intuitive dashboards, which your clients or your boss will understand at a glance.

 

Still not convinced? Here’s why you should give DashThis a try:

 

1. It’s your one-way ticket to a free-time-filled life.

 

Open DashThis, enter your credentials to connect the sources you want, export to PDF, and go home. Really, it’s that simple.

 

2. It’s cheaper than doing everything by hand.

 

Remember that 9,000$ your boss spends every year for you to build these endless Excel dashboards? Well, there you go. Hear that? It’s the sound of your bi-annual yacht invitation.

 

3. It’s way slicker than Excel dashboards.

 

Everything about our tool has been thought-out and crafted in terms of user-friendliness and intuitive usage.

 

executive client report template

 

 

4. If only it were scalable… Oh wait!

 

No need to start anew for every report; save your preferences and get the same awesome-looking results every time.

 

5. It easily tracks way back.

 

It’s all automated. No need to copy and paste the old data until your eyes bleed; track your data evolution for any given time period.

 

6. It’s as reliable as your Tuesday-morning, up-and-about self.

 

The constant fear of copy-pasting into the wrong cells of your Excel dashboards and messing your whole results up is now a thing of the past. Let us do the dirty work, we totally got this.

 

7. BONUS: The team at DashThis is beyond awesome.

 

Our customer service is amazing, but don’t just take our word for it. See for yourself here.

 

Wow, DashThis sounds like the best damn thing that’s about to happen to me!


Right? Let’s face it, you have been missing out, but it’s never too late to say goodbye to Excel dashboards and take back what’s yours: extra free time and your own share of the boss’ praise.

 

Go ahead, give DashThis a try, it’s got everything you need to live the life even Steve has always dreamed of. Except maybe for kale. Guess you’ll have to take care of that yourself.

 

DashThis The Team at DashThis

DashThis is the power behind thousands of reporting dashboards created by and delivered for agencies and digital marketers every month. Try it out for yourself!

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