Most dashboards fail before they
Geethasree Naguboina
Most dashboards fail before they are even built.
Not because of bad charts.
Not because of wrong formulas.
Because the data underneath is structurally broken.
Here’s what I see often in small businesses:
• Dates stored as text
• Multiple columns for the same metric
• Inconsistent naming (Revenue / Sales / Total Sales)
• Manual copy-paste every week
• No clear data flow
Then they ask:
“Why doesn’t this dashboard update properly?”
A dashboard is just a mirror.
If the data structure is messy, the reflection will be distorted.
Before I build any report, I focus on 3 things:
Standardized column logic
Single source of truth
Repeatable data flow (no manual dependency)
Clean structure → Reliable metrics → Better decisions.
If your reporting feels fragile, the issue usually isn’t Excel.
It’s the foundation.
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Posted Feb 22, 2026
Most dashboards fail before they are even built. Not because of bad charts. Not because of wrong formulas. Because the data underneath is structurally broke...
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