Spreadsheet to dashboard
Turn an Excel workbook into a dashboard without writing a formula.
Drop a workbook here and the first sheet is read, columns are typed, and a dashboard is drawn: totals, a trend if there is a date, breakdowns for every categorical column and a distribution for every numeric one. Multi-sheet files get a picker. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no pivot table to configure first.
Looking for your own tool by name? The dashboard directory has a page for each export.
Why the workbook you have is not the table a chart needs
Almost every spreadsheet that circulates inside a company has been shaped for a human reader rather than for a chart. There is a title in A1, a blank row, then the header, then the data, then a total row at the bottom in bold. Merged cells span two columns to make a group label. Numbers that came from another system are left-aligned because they are text. None of that is a mistake, it is just what a document looks like when the audience has eyes.
A charting tool needs the opposite: a rectangle where row one is the header and every row below it is one observation. The gap between those two shapes is where most people give up, usually after twenty minutes of deleting rows and unmerging cells. This page closes as much of that gap as it can automatically. It looks past leading title rows to find the real header, treats a bold total row at the bottom as a total rather than as another observation, and reads numbers that were stored as text.
What you get, from any reasonably tidy sheet
The dashboard is generated from what the columns actually contain rather than from a template you pick in advance. A column of dates becomes a time axis. A column with a handful of repeated values becomes a breakdown you can click. A column of numbers becomes a metric with a total, an average, a distribution and an outlier check. Text that is mostly unique, like a description or an id, is kept in the grid but stays out of the charts, because a bar chart with four hundred bars is not information.
- A KPI strip with row count, the totals of every numeric column, and the range of any date column.
- A trend line if there is a date, resampled to days, weeks or months depending on how much history you have.
- Ranked breakdowns for the categorical columns, each one clickable so it cross-filters everything else.
- A distribution for every numeric column, which is where mis-typed data usually reveals itself.
- A sortable, filterable grid underneath, so you can go back to the rows behind any bar.
- Export back out to CSV, Excel, JSON, Parquet or SQL once you have filtered it down.
The parts of a workbook that still need your help
Some spreadsheet habits cannot be undone by a reader. A sheet where each month has its own set of three columns is a pivot table already, and it has to be unpivoted before a trend chart means anything. Formulas that reference other workbooks come through as their last cached value or as an error string. Cells colored to mean something carry no data at all, since color is not exported. And a sheet where two logical tables sit side by side with a gap between them will be read as one wide table with a lot of empty space.
When any of those apply, the fastest route is usually to make one clean rectangle first and then come back. The reshape and cleaning tools linked below exist for exactly that, and they run in the same browser tab with the same privacy story.
From workbook to dashboard in five steps
- Save or download the workbook Any .xlsx or .xls file works, including one exported from Google Sheets, Numbers, or a reporting system that emits Excel rather than CSV.
- Drop it on this page Or use the file picker. The file is read in the tab. Nothing is transmitted, so a workbook full of salaries or customer records is as safe here as it is on your disk.
- Pick the sheet If the workbook has more than one tab you get a picker with row counts, so you can tell the summary tab from the data tab before committing.
- Check the column types The detected type sits under each column name in the grid. A date read as text or an id read as a number is a one-click fix, and it is worth thirty seconds before you trust a chart.
- Read the dashboard, then filter Click a bar or a slice to cross-filter every other panel. Drag on the time chart to zoom into a period. Export what you narrowed down if someone else needs it.
Frequently asked questions
Does my workbook get uploaded?
No. The file is parsed by JavaScript inside your browser tab using a spreadsheet library that runs locally. There is no upload endpoint on this page. That matters more for Excel than for most formats, because the workbooks people want to chart are usually the ones full of salaries, customer lists or unreleased numbers.
What if my file has several sheets?
You get a picker listing each sheet with its row and column count, so you can choose the data tab rather than the cover sheet. Only the sheet you pick is loaded into the dashboard. You can switch sheets afterwards without re-dropping the file, which is useful when a workbook has one tab per month.
Why are my numbers being treated as text?
Usually because they arrived from another system with a currency symbol, a thousands separator or a trailing space inside the cell, which makes Excel store them as text. The parser here strips common formatting and reads the digits, and it tells you in the column header when it had to. If a column still looks wrong, changing its type is one click.
Can it handle merged cells and title rows?
Mostly. A title row or two above the real header is detected and skipped, and merged header cells are unmerged with the label repeated across the columns they covered. What it cannot fix is a sheet where merging carries meaning that only makes sense visually, such as a group label sitting above four columns with no repetition. Flatten those first.
How big a workbook can I open?
Comfortably up to the 1,048,576 row limit that Excel itself imposes, and the real ceiling is how much memory your browser tab will give up. Very wide sheets cost more than very long ones. If a file will not open, converting it to CSV first almost always helps, because the xlsx format is compressed XML and expands substantially in memory.
Can I get the result back out as a file?
Yes. Once you have filtered or reshaped, export to CSV, Excel, JSON, Parquet or a SQL script. The export respects the filters you applied, so sending someone the three hundred rows that matter is one click rather than a copy and paste. Exports are generated locally too.
Related tools
Try it before you go looking for your file
The sample is a store export with dates, money, categories and countries in it, which is roughly the shape of most business spreadsheets.
Open the sample dashboard