College Athletics Budget Dashboard
July 2025
In a world full of data, the primary challenge is harnessing the correct data and telling a story with it. When collaborating with various departments and organizations, data must be translated in the most straightforward way possible. There is a fine line between simplifying data and losing the power of the story. Below, I will walk you through a sample Power BI dashboard that illustrates the budget and spending of a college athletics program.
The Goal
Like all data projects, the most crucial step is identifying the question or solution you are being asked to find. In this scenario, the goal would be to perform an analysis of the University's softball team and identify gaps in the budget and spending. In budget-to-actual reports, various visualizations can be compelling; however, the most popular options typically feature direct side-by-side comparisons across various budget features.
The Features
Both of these visualizations represent the budget versus the actual report for each spending category. The left-hand visual easily highlights which categories are in the positive and negative. This is valuable for leaders because they can instantly identify areas that need attention. Then, the right-hand visual complements it by visualizing the magnitude of spending in each category. We can see there are multiple categories when almost no expenditure occurred. The values at the top represent the exact values for each category when the corresponding option is selected. The automatic updating of these values is very helpful for meetings, as it enables a quick review of the data. Finally, I have included a brief recap of key areas of focus. This answers the initial question of where attention should be directed and quickly highlights actions needed moving forward.
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