How to Create a Supply Chain Dashboard in Excel with ChatGPT

Using ChatGPT to help build a powerful supply chain dashboard in Excel is a fantastic way to turn complex operational data into clear, actionable insights. No advanced formulas or VLOOKUP mastery is required. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from identifying the right metrics to using simple prompts to generate the exact formulas and charts you need.

Graphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Build Your First Agent

What is a Supply Chain Dashboard and Why Do You Need One?

A supply chain dashboard is a visual, centralized hub for tracking your most important supply chain key performance indicators (KPIs). Instead of combing through dense spreadsheets and multiple reports, a dashboard gives you an at-a-glance overview of your entire operation's health.

Think of it as the command center for your logistics. With a well-built dashboard, you can:

• Improve Visibility: See what’s happening in real-time across inventory, shipping, and order fulfillment.
• Reduce Costs: Spot inefficiencies like high carrying costs or expensive shipping routes that are eating into your profits.
• Manage Risks: Proactively identify potential disruptions, like low stock levels for a bestselling item or delays with a specific carrier.
• Enhance Performance: See which suppliers and carriers are meeting their targets and which are falling behind.

Step 1: Identify Your Core Supply Chain KPIs

Before you even open Excel, you need to decide what you’re going to measure. A dashboard cluttered with dozens of metrics is just as useless as a 50-page spreadsheet. Focus on a handful of KPIs that align with your business goals. ChatGPT can even help you brainstorm these.

Here are some of the most common supply chain KPIs across different functions:

Procurement KPIs

• Purchase Order Cycle Time: The time it takes from placing an order with a supplier to receiving the goods. A shorter cycle means a more responsive supply chain.
• Supplier On-Time Delivery: Did your supplier deliver when they said they would? This is usually measured as a percentage.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The direct costs of producing the goods you sell. Tracking this helps you monitor profitability.

Inventory Management KPIs

• Inventory Turnover: How many times you sell and replace your entire inventory over a specific period. A higher number is usually better.
• Carrying Cost of Inventory: The cost of holding unsold inventory (storage fees, insurance, obsolescence). This is a percentage of your total inventory value.
• Inventory Accuracy: How well does the inventory in your system match the physical inventory on your shelves?

Logistics and Shipping KPIs

• Shipping Time to Customer: The average time from when an order ships to when it reaches the customer’s doorstep.
• On-Time Delivery Rate: The percentage of orders delivered to the customer by the promised date. This is crucial for customer satisfaction.
• Transportation Costs: Analyzes total shipping costs, average cost per shipment, or cost by carrier.

Order Management KPIs

• Order Fulfillment Cycle Time: The average time from when a customer places an order to when they receive it.
• Perfect Order Rate: The percentage of orders that are delivered on time, complete, and damage-free with an accurate invoice. This is a great overall indicator of supply chain health.

AI Agents for Marketing

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Download the PDF

Step 2: Collect and Structure Your Data in Excel

Now it’s time to gather the raw data. This is often the most time-consuming step. You’ll likely need to export data from a few different systems, such as:

• Your ERP or accounting software (for purchasing and sales data)
• Your warehouse management system (WMS) (for inventory levels and shipments)
• Your e-commerce platform like Shopify (for order details)
• Data directly from your shipping carriers (for delivery statuses)

Export this data as a CSV or Excel file. Your goal is to get it all into one central Excel workbook. Create a tab called “Raw Data” and format your data as an official Excel Table by selecting any cell in your data and pressing Ctrl + T (or Cmd + T on Mac). This is a crucial step that makes formulas and PivotTables much easier to manage.

Your table should be clean and well-structured, with clear column headers like:

• Order ID
• Product Name
• Order Date
• Ship Date
• Delivery Date
• Supplier
• Shipping Carrier
• Shipping Cost
• Stock on Hand
• Unit Cost

Step 3: Use ChatGPT to Analyze Data and Create Formulas

This is where the magic happens. Instead of trying to remember complex Excel formulas, you’ll simply ask ChatGPT for what you need. Think of it as your on-demand data analyst.

Open ChatGPT in your browser and get ready to write some prompts. The key is to be specific and provide context about your Excel sheet.

Graphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Build Your First Agent

Generating Formulas for KPIs

Let's calculate a few key metrics. Create a new tab in your Excel workbook called “Calculations” or “Metrics.” This will house your overarching KPIs.

Example Prompt: Calculating Order Fulfillment Cycle Time

You can ask ChatGPT for a direct formula.

I have an Excel sheet with a table named 'Orders.' This table has a column 'Order Date' (column D) and 'Delivery Date' (column G). I need a formula to calculate the average difference in days between these two dates. Ignore any blank cells.

ChatGPT will likely give you a formula like this one:

=AVERAGE(IF(Orders[Delivery Date] <>"", Orders[Delivery Date] - Orders[Order Date], FALSE))

Just copy the formula, paste it into your “Calculations” sheet, and label it clearly.

Example Prompt: Calculating On-Time Delivery Rate

For more complex logic, describe what you need.

I want to calculate my On-Time Delivery Rate in Excel. I have a table 'ShippingData'. One column is 'Promised Delivery Date' and another is 'Actual Delivery Date.' Give me a formula to calculate the percentage of orders where the 'Actual Delivery Date' is on or before the 'Promised Delivery Date.'

ChatGPT would return something similar to:

=COUNTIF(ShippingData[Actual Delivery Date], "<="&ShippingData[Promised Delivery Date])/COUNTA(ShippingData[Order ID])

Using ChatGPT to Build PivotTables

PivotTables are one of the most powerful tools in Excel for summarizing large datasets. But figuring out how to set one up can be confusing. ChatGPT can guide you step-by-step.

Example Prompt: Summarize Inventory Value by Category

I have an Excel table named 'Inventory'. It has columns for 'Product Category', 'Stock on Hand', and 'Unit Cost.' I want to create a column called 'Stock Value' that multiplies 'Stock on Hand' by 'Unit Cost'. Then, I want to create a PivotTable that shows the total 'Stock Value' for each 'Product Category.'

ChatGPT will guide you:

1. First, add a new column 'Stock Value' to your 'Inventory' table with the formula =[@[Stock on Hand]] * [@[Unit Cost]].
2. Then, it will give you the steps to create a PivotTable: "Click anywhere in your table, go to Insert > PivotTable. In the PivotTable Fields, drag 'Product Category' to the Rows area and 'Stock Value' to the Values area."

Step 4: Visualize Your Data on the Dashboard

Once you have your KPIs and PivotTables, it’s time to build the visual dashboard. Create a new sheet named “Dashboard.” This page should only contain charts, KPI cards, and slicers - no raw data.

ChatGPT can also help you choose the right visualizations.

AI Agents for Marketing

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Download the PDF

Example Prompt: Choosing the Best Chart

In Excel, I have a PivotTable that shows my monthly 'On-Time Delivery Rate' (%) for the last 12 months. What is the best chart type to visualize this trend, and how do I create it?

ChatGPT will advise using a line chart for time-series data and will provide the simple steps:

1. Click on any cell inside your PivotTable.
2. Go to the "Insert" tab on the ribbon.
3. In the "Charts" group, select "Line" and choose a style you like.

Building the Dashboard Elements

• KPI Cards: For single, important numbers like "Overall Inventory Value" or "Average Fulfillment Time," you can create simple "cards." Just insert a standard text box (Insert > Text Box), and in the formula bar, type "=" and click on the cell in your "Calculations" sheet that holds the value. The text box will now display that number dynamically.
• Bar Charts: Use these for comparisons. For example, a bar chart can compare the 'Transportation Costs' for each 'Shipping Carrier'.
• Slicers for Interactivity: Slicers are user-friendly filtering buttons. Select any of your PivotCharts, go to the “PivotChart Analyze” tab, and click “Insert Slicer.” You can add slicers for fields like ‘Supplier,’ ‘Product Category,’ or ‘Shipping Carrier.’ Link the same slicer to multiple charts so that when a user filters by one carrier, all relevant charts on the dashboard update instantly.

Designing an Effective Layout

Arrangement matters. Follow a few simple design principles:

• Top-Left is Prime Real Estate: Place your most important, high-level KPIs in the top-left corner.
• Use Gridlines: Lightly use Excel's gridlines or a clean background to align your charts and cards neatly.
• Consistent Colors: Use your brand's colors or a consistent palette. This makes the dashboard look professional and easy to read.
• Don’t Overcrowd: White space is your friend. It’s better to have a clean dashboard with fewer items than one that’s packed with information and impossible to interpret.

With these steps, your once-static Excel file is transformed into an interactive and insightful supply chain command center, all with a little help from your AI assistant.

Final Thoughts

By pairing the universal accessibility of Excel with the intelligent assistance of ChatGPT, you can build a powerful supply chain dashboard that brings your most important metrics to life. You no longer need to be a spreadsheet expert to uncover valuable trends and insights hiding within your operational data.

While building dashboards in Excel is an amazing skill, we realized that the cycle of downloading CSVs, cleaning data, and pasting it into a template every week was taking up too much time. That’s why we built Graphed. We connect directly to your data sources — like Shopify, Google Analytics, or your warehouse data via Google Sheets — and turn your questions into live dashboards automatically. Instead of writing prompts for formulas, you just ask what you want to see, and a real-time dashboard is built for you in seconds.