The best dashboards to optimize your business performance
Written by Tony Demeulemeester, Co-founder & COO @ Eli
February 10, 2026 · Updated February 10, 2026 · 12 min read
Ready to engage your teams?
Create custom challenges that connect employees to your mission and drive real behavioral change.
A dashboard is an essential tool for any company that wants to optimize its project management and improve its performance. It centralizes key data at a glance, enabling better decision‑making and effective steering of projects and activities.
Whether it’s to track revenue trends, manage resources, or ensure process maintenance, a well‑designed dashboard makes it easier to visualize results and implement a structured action plan. Each dashboard must be updated regularly to ensure an accurate view of the company’s situation and its strategic objectives.
In this article, we will explore the most effective types of dashboards, methods for creating them, as well as concrete examples of how they are used. We will also look at how platforms such as Bpifrance Création and other specialized sites can provide you with templates tailored to your needs.
Whether you are a team leader, project manager, or executive, these dashboards will help you structure your communication, organize your tasks, and optimize your day‑to‑day management. You will discover clear steps for designing an effective dashboard, along with a list of key questions to ask yourself in order to choose the right indicators.
By providing a well‑structured dashboard, you make it easier for your team members to collaborate and you optimize the management of your project portfolio. So, ready to take action and transform your management with a high‑performance dashboard?
What is a dashboard?
A dashboard is a single screen. It brings together the most important indicators for a company. It is an essential tool that centralizes performance indicators and makes it possible to monitor alignment between the actions taken and the objectives set. By making it easier to track indicators, the dashboard also simplifies report creation, which makes it an indispensable tool for executives and managers.
The main objective of a dashboard is to provide an overview of the company’s performance. By gathering all relevant information in one place, it enables better decision‑making and allows actions to be adjusted based on the results observed. Thus, a good dashboard becomes a true ally in the day‑to‑day and strategic management of the company.
In short, creating an effective dashboard requires a solid understanding of key performance indicators and careful organization of data. Although this process is complex, it is essential to ensure that the information presented is relevant and actionable.
We will now explore the different types of dashboards used in businesses and how each of them can meet specific needs.
Types of dashboards used in businesses
Dashboards provide an overview of a company’s performance by summarizing key indicators. They are essential for anticipating potential difficulties and guiding the company’s strategy by flagging the corrective actions that need to be taken.
There are three main categories of dashboards used in businesses: strategic, analytical, and operational. The choice of dashboard type depends on its purpose and on the elements that need to be highlighted.
Whether it is to track long-term actions, analyze complex data, or manage day-to-day operations, each type of dashboard has a specific role to play. Dashboards thus enable precise monitoring of actions and performance across different business areas.
Let’s now take a closer look at each of these types.
Strategic dashboards
Strategic dashboards are mainly designed to track performance and progress toward the company’s long-term objectives. They are intended for top management and the executive committee, and are used to assess the implementation of medium- and long-term strategies. These dashboards provide an overall view of activities and make it possible to manage strategic objectives effectively.
A good strategic dashboard includes key indicators such as revenue, market share, and financial results. It helps make informed decisions by providing essential data on the company’s situation and enabling strategies to be adjusted accordingly.
Regular updates of these dashboards are crucial to reflect market developments and the company’s performance.
Analytical dashboards
Analytical dashboards are used by analysts and department heads to process and visualize large volumes of data. Their purpose is to help measure performance across multiple dimensions, such as financial results, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. These dashboards enable detailed data analysis and facilitate decision-making based on in-depth insights.
These management tools are essential for companies that want to explore and visualize large datasets. By integrating various performance indicators, analytical dashboards provide a comprehensive overview of the company’s performance. They also make it possible to answer specific questions and to visualize results in a clear and understandable way.
Operational dashboards
Operational dashboards are designed to monitor tasks, deadlines, resources, and KPIs on a daily basis. They focus on a specific department or campaign, enabling efficient management of day-to-day operations. A common example is the call tracking report, which allows real-time monitoring of the performance of sales and support teams.
These dashboards are particularly useful for project managers and department managers. By providing quickly actionable information, they help ensure that day-to-day activities are aligned with the company’s objectives, while respecting the boundaries of established processes.
Clear visualization of milestones, resources, and performance enables proactive and reactive management of operations.
Examples of effective dashboard templates
Dashboards are grouped into three main categories: strategic, budgetary, and operational. They can also be classified according to their purpose and target audience. The main objective of corporate dashboard templates is to help manage large volumes of data and to visualize performance in a clear and concise way.
Executive dashboard template
The executive dashboard template is designed to provide an overview of the company’s activity. Mainly intended for top management, this dashboard makes it possible to assess the implementation of medium- and long-term strategies. By bringing together key indicators such as revenue, market share, and financial results, it helps support fast, well-informed decision-making.
These dashboards also include elements for tracking strategic projects and key initiatives. They enable executives to visualize the company’s overall performance and to adjust strategies based on the results observed. Regularly updating these dashboards is crucial to maintain their relevance and usefulness.
E-commerce dashboard template
The e-commerce dashboard is essential for evaluating the e-commerce strategy and making adjustments to increase revenue.
The main objectives of this dashboard include:
monitoring sales performance
improving the marketing strategy
tracking key indicators such as conversion rate, profits, and lead quality.
By monitoring these indicators, the e-commerce dashboard helps refine online sales strategies and optimize marketing efforts. It provides a comprehensive view of sales performance and makes it possible to adjust actions based on the results obtained. This template is particularly useful for companies that rely heavily on online sales.
Digital marketing dashboard template
The digital marketing dashboard template is designed for tracking the performance of digital marketing campaigns. It displays real-time email marketing indicators, enabling detailed analysis of campaign performance. The integrated charts and visualizations make it easier to understand how the indicators and results are evolving.
This dashboard helps marketing teams adjust their strategies based on observed performance. By providing clear, actionable data, it makes it possible to optimize campaigns and improve marketing results.
Regularly updating these indicators is essential to ensure their relevance and effectiveness.
How to create an effective dashboard
A high-performing dashboard must enable its creator to make informed decisions and communicate effectively with their team. It should provide an overview of the company’s performance while still allowing access to more detailed data. Dashboard creation tools vary in complexity, ranging from simple spreadsheet software to advanced analytics solutions.
Choosing the right tool depends on the project’s specific needs and the resources available. An effective dashboard must be reviewed regularly to ensure that it reflects current performance and supports decision-making.
Let’s now look at the key steps to creating a high-performing dashboard.
Define the dashboard’s objectives
Defining the dashboard’s objectives is a crucial step. Management dashboards help establish realistic financial forecasts and adjust targets based on market realities. It is important to customize the dashboard according to operational needs and to involve the various stakeholders in its creation.
Involving teams in defining indicators strengthens their engagement and the relevance of the data used. Co-constructing dashboards with end users makes them easier to adopt and ensures that the information is relevant. It also helps avoid wasting time and energy by addressing specific needs right from the start.
Choosing the right performance indicators
Performance indicators (KPIs) must be aligned with the company’s strategic and operational objectives. It is essential that the indicators are clear and contextualized so that they are meaningful and actionable. This makes dashboards easier to understand and ensures effective use of data to improve decision-making.
By integrating various economic and operational indicators, dashboards provide a comprehensive overview of the company’s performance. This diversity makes it possible to better assess performance and adjust actions according to the observed results.
Collecting and organizing data
Collecting and organizing data is a crucial step in creating an effective dashboard. It is essential to structure the data in a way that makes it easy for users to access and understand. Identifying where the data is located, organizing its automatic retrieval, and ensuring that it is up to date are key elements in guaranteeing the dashboard’s effectiveness.
To present the data in an optimal way, it is important to work on colors, legends, and instructional comments. Using reliable data sources, such as those publicly available from Insee, also helps provide the audience with a complete and relevant view.
Good data organization ensures that the dashboard remains a useful and actionable tool for all stakeholders.
Tools for creating dashboards
There are many tools for creating dashboards, ranging from simple spreadsheet software like Excel to advanced analytics solutions like Tableau or Power BI. The choice of tool will depend on the specific needs of the project and the resources available.
Popular tools for creating dashboards include:
Excel
Tableau
Power BI
Google Data Studio
Each of these tools has its own features and advantages, so it is important to choose the one that best suits your project.
With tools like DashThis, you can start creating a dashboard in just a few minutes. These performance management tools make it possible to integrate data from various sources, offering clear visualization and advanced interaction with the data.
Let’s now take a closer look at two categories of tools: Excel for simple dashboards and specialized software for complex dashboards.
Using Excel for simple dashboards
Excel is an affordable and flexible tool for creating dashboards. Thanks to its charting and calculation features, it allows you to visualize data in a clear and understandable way. Excel’s flexibility also makes it easy to adjust data according to users’ needs.
For small businesses or simple projects, Excel is an ideal solution. It allows you to create customized dashboards without requiring a significant investment in specialized software. In addition, users’ familiarity with Excel makes adoption quick and intuitive.
Specialized software for complex dashboards
For more complex needs, specialized software such as Tableau or Power BI is recommended. These tools offer advanced features for data interaction and visualization, allowing you to integrate data from various sources and improve decision-making.
These software solutions are particularly useful for large companies or projects that require in-depth analysis. They provide sophisticated visualization capabilities and interaction options that make it easier to understand complex data.
Investing in these tools can greatly improve the efficiency of dashboards and the quality of the decisions made.
Updating and optimizing dashboards
Regularly updating dashboards is crucial to ensure they reflect current performance and support decision-making. Operational dashboards, for example, are often updated daily or weekly to track the performance of ongoing actions. When updating, it is important to integrate new indicators or adjust existing ones to maintain the relevance of the dashboard.
Optimizing dashboards helps anticipate future needs and involve the team in performance monitoring. By continuously incorporating improvements, dashboards remain aligned with strategic objectives and market realities.
Regular maintenance ensures that dashboards remain effective and relevant management tools.
In summary
Dashboards are essential tools for optimizing business performance. They make it possible to centralize key indicators, monitor performance, and make informed decisions. Whether they are strategic, analytical, or operational dashboards, each plays a crucial role in managing actions and results.
By using the right tools and following proven methods, it is possible to create high‑performance dashboards that meet the specific needs of each company. Regular updates and continuous optimization of these dashboards ensure their relevance and effectiveness. Ultimately, dashboards are valuable allies for any company seeking to improve its performance and achieve its strategic objectives.
Frequently asked questions
What is a dashboard?
A dashboard is an essential visual tool that brings together key indicators used to track a company’s performance and objectives. It facilitates informed decision‑making and effective resource management.
What types of dashboards are used in companies?
Companies mainly use strategic, analytical, and operational dashboards, each tailored to distinct objectives. These tools make decision‑making and performance tracking easier.
How do I choose the right performance indicators for a dashboard?
To choose the right performance indicators for a dashboard, make sure they are aligned with the company’s strategic objectives and that they are clear and actionable. This will ensure their relevance and usefulness.
What tools can I use to create dashboards?
To create dashboards, you can use Excel for simple solutions or specialized software such as Tableau and Power BI for more advanced analyses. These tools will help you visualize your data effectively.
Why is it important to update a dashboard regularly?
It is essential to update a dashboard regularly to ensure that it reflects changing performance and incorporates new indicators, thereby maintaining its relevance and effectiveness. This practice makes it possible to make informed decisions based on current data.