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Phase 1 Project — Sales Analysis Dashboard Cheat Sheet

Tableau

In one line: You've just been hired as a Data Analyst at Northgate Retail Co., a US-based retail company selling Office Supplies, Furniture, and Technology products across four regions. The ...

Key Ideas

1The Scenario. You've just been hired as a Data Analyst at Northgate Retail Co., a US-based retail company selling Office Supplies, Furniture, and Technology products across four reg...

2Connect the Dataset. The Superstore Sales dataset comes pre-installed with every Tableau Desktop installation. It contains ~10,000 retail orders with fields including Order Date, Ship Date...

3Sales by Category — Bar Chart SHEET 1 · BAR CHART Sales & Profit by Category 1Right-click the Sheet 1 tab at the bottom → Rename → type Sales by Category 2Drag Category to the Columns shelf 3Drag Sales to the Rows shelf — Tableau shows SUM(Sales) as bars 4Drag Profit to the Rows shelf (alongside Sales). Right-click Profit's axis → Dual Axis. Right-click again → Synchronize Axis 5On the Marks card for SUM(Sales), change mark type to Bar. On Marks for SUM(Profit), change to Line — this creates a combo chart 6Sort bars by Sales descending: right-click the Sales axis → Sort → Descending 7Add labels: drag SUM(Sales) to the Label mark for Sales bars. Format as currency ($) by right-clicking → Format → Numbers → Currency 8Title the sheet: double-click the title area → type Sales & Profit by Category 📈 Sheet 2 of 4 Monthly Sales Trend — Line Chart SHEET 2 · LINE CHART Monthly Revenue Trend 1Click the + icon to create a new sheet. Rename it Monthly Trend 2Right-click Order Date in the Data pane → drag to Columns. In the pop-up, choose MONTH(Order Date) — select the continuous green option (bottom half of popup) 3Drag Sales to Rows. Tableau renders a line chart 4Right-click anywhere on the chart → Trend Lines → Show Trend Lines. A linear trend line appears 5Add a reference line: right-click the Sales axis → Add Reference Line → Line → Average of Table. This shows the average monthly sales as a dashed line 6Drag Category to the Color mark. The line splits into three colored lines — one per category 7Title: Monthly Sales Trend by Category 🗺️ Sheet 3 of 4 Regional Map — Symbol Map SHEET 3 · SYMBOL MAP Sales by US State 1Create a new sheet, rename to Sales Map 2Double-click State in the Data pane. Tableau auto-generates Latitude and Longitude and renders a US map with dots 3Drag SUM(Sales) to the Size mark. Bubble sizes now represent sales volume 4Drag SUM(Profit) to the Color mark. Click Color → Edit Colors → choose a diverging palette (Red-Green or Orange-Blue). Set the center to 0 so negative profit = red, positive = green 5Drag State and SUM(Sales) to the Tooltip mark. Edit tooltip text to read: <State> — Sales: <SUM(Sales)> | Profit: <SUM(Profit)> 6Map style: Map → Background Layers → uncheck borders you don't need. Map → Map Layers → select a clean style (Light) 7Title: Sales & Profit by State 🏆 Sheet 4 of 4 Top 10 Products — Horizontal Bar Chart SHEET 4 · TOP N BAR CHART Top 10 Products by Revenue 1Create a new sheet, rename to Top 10 Products 2Drag Product Name to Rows. Drag SUM(Sales) to Columns 3Sort by Sales descending: right-click the Sales axis → Sort → Descending by Field → SUM Sales 4Filter to Top 10: drag Product Name to the Filters shelf → Top tab → By Field → Top 10 by SUM(Sales). Click OK 5Drag SUM(Sales) to the Color mark. Apply a single-color gradient (orange to dark orange) 6Drag SUM(Sales) to the Label mark. Format as currency 7Title: Top 10 Products by Sales Revenue 🖼️ Dashboard Assembly Build the Final Dashboard. With four sheets ready, it's time to assemble the dashboard. The goal: a single, clean view that answers all four business questions at once, with an interactive filte...