Dashboards vs. Reports: When to Use Each

Dashboards and Reports Serve Different Purposes

Dashboards show real-time status. Reports provide analysis and recommendations. Using the wrong format for the wrong purpose wastes everyone time.

When to Use Dashboards

Monitoring ongoing KPIs

Tracking against targets

Identifying anomalies quickly

Daily operational decisions

Team visibility into performance

Dashboard Best Practices

Maximum 6-8 metrics per view

Include comparison context (vs. target, vs. last period)

Auto-refresh or near-real-time data

Visual hierarchy emphasizing the most important metrics

Accessible to all team members

When to Use Reports

Monthly or quarterly performance analysis

Campaign post-mortems

Strategic recommendations

Executive updates requiring context

Budget justification

Report Best Practices

Start with an executive summary

Include insights, not just data

Provide recommendations with each section

Compare to goals and benchmarks

Keep under 5 pages for executive audiences

Common Mistakes

Building dashboards nobody checks

Writing reports with data but no analysis

Using dashboards for strategic decisions

Using reports for operational monitoring

Creating new dashboards instead of fixing existing ones

Tools

Dashboards: Looker Studio, Databox, Klipfolio

Reports: Google Slides, Notion, custom PDFs

Both: PowerBI, Tableau