Sales Dashboard Example with Microsoft SQL Server Database Using Bold BI

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system widely used by top industries. It has a large user base across different industries such as IT, healthcare, retail, insurance, finance, education, management, sales, and marketing for their storage and data processing operations. In this article, we learn how to prepare a dashboard to analyze product sales and prioritize products in production with the Contoso BI demo database using Bold BI Dashboards.

If you are new to the Bold BI Dashboards, sign up for a free 30-day trial on our website. At the end of the registration process, you will reach the following page view.

Defining metrics to analyze product sales

Let’s consider the following metrics to analyze product sales:

• The total sales and total return amounts.
• Difference in return amounts among product categories.
• Return quantities by product category during each sales year.
• Top 10 products with lowest production cost.
• Top 10 products with good returns.
• Distribution of return amount by year and month.

Installing Microsoft SQL Server and configuring Contoso BI demo database

Install the SQL Server in your local machine or in a remote accessible server by referring to the Microsoft documentation.

Furthermore, Download, extract, and restore the Contoso BI demo database by referring to the Install Instructions.

Creating a dashboard and data source

Firstly, select the New Dashboard tile in the homepage and click Start from Scratch of the Bold BI Dashboard Platform. The Dashboard Designer page will open with a new blank dashboard created like in the following.

Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server database

1. Select the data source icon on the right. The data source panel will expand as shown in the following.

   

2. Similarly, select CREATE NEW in the previous panel.
3. Furthermore, choose the category SQL in the Categories drop-down list. As a result, this list shows the data connectors available under this category like in the following.

   

4. Finally, choose the Microsoft SQL connector. The Microsoft SQL data connection window will display in the DATA SOURCES panel like in the following.

   

Creating a data source

1. Firstly, name the data source as ContosoBIDataSource at Name field in the NEW DATA SOURCE window.
2. Furthermore, fill the SQL Server name where your database resides in Server name field. For example, remotemachine(or)ipaddress,1433 where, 1433 is the port number. In addition, the SQL Server running at remote machine should be reachable for Bold BI Dashboard’s site. 
3. Likewise, fill the login details at User name and Password fields.
4. Finally, choose the database in Database field for Contoso BI demo data. For example, the database name is ContosoRetailDW.

Editing the data source

1. Firstly, navigate to the dashboard design page and expand the DATA SOURCES panel on the right.
2. Furthermore, click the Edit icon near the ContosoBIDataSource data source. As a result, the data source window will open like in the following.

   

3. Likewise, drag and drop the FactSales table and related dimension tables such as DimProduct, DimProductSubcategory, and DimProductCategory by using INNER JOIN with their respective keys.

   

   Most importantly, the actual relationship among these tables is like in the following image.

   

4. As a result, the data source editing view is like in the following image.

   

5. Finally, save the data source.

Configuring widgets in dashboard

Select the widget to configure and click the Widget Settings icon at the top-right corner of the focused border like in the following.

As a result, the panel on the right side expands toward the left. Choose the ASSIGN DATA tab and start configuring the mentioned fields in corresponding sections as described in the following table.

Finally, the sales dashboard is ready.

Sharing dashboard

Now, share this dashboard with your sales team to analyze the sales and make wise decisions about product(s) to improve them.

Conclusion

We hope this article helps you build a sales analysis dashboard with Microsoft SQL Server data using the Bold BI Dashboards. If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free 30-day trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.