How to Create an Accounts Payable Dashboard in Google Analytics

Tracking accounts payable is crucial for managing your business's cash flow, but building a clear dashboard of what you owe can feel like a chore. While Google Analytics is a powerhouse for understanding website traffic, it isn't designed for financial reporting like AP. This guide will walk you through how to create a powerful accounts payable dashboard using a much more suitable tool - Google Sheets - giving you a clear, actionable view of your financial obligations.

Why Google Analytics Isn't Built for Accounts Payable

Google Analytics excels at telling you the story of your website visitors: where they came from, what pages they view, and what actions they take. Its entire structure is built around concepts like users, sessions, pageviews, and events. An accounts payable ledger, however, is built on completely different data.

AP reporting requires you to track specific financial information that simply doesn't have a place in Google Analytics, such as:

• Vendor Names: The companies you owe money to.

• Invoice Dates: When you received a bill.

• Due Dates: The deadline for payment.

• Invoice Amounts: The specific monetary value of each bill.

• Payment Status: Whether an invoice is unpaid, paid, or overdue.

Trying to force this structured financial data into a web analytics platform is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Furthermore, it raises serious data privacy red flags. Your financial records are sensitive information and should be managed in secure accounting or spreadsheet software, not a marketing analytics tool.

The Right Tool for the Job: Using Google Sheets for Your AP Dashboard

While dedicated accounting software like QuickBooks is the gold standard, not everyone has it or needs its complexity for basic tracking. For a flexible, free, and accessible solution, Google Sheets is the perfect choice. You can structure your data however you like, build custom formulas, create visual charts, and easily share it with your team.

Let's build a comprehensive AP Dashboard in Google Sheets from scratch.

Step-by-Step: How to Create an AP Dashboard in Google Sheets

Follow these steps to turn a blank spreadsheet into a dynamic financial dashboard that gives you full visibility into your accounts payable.

Step 1: Set Up a Sheet for Your Raw Data

Your dashboard needs a clean source of data to work. The first step is to create a dedicated tab for logging every invoice you receive. Think of this as your master accounts payable ledger.

1. Create a new Google Sheet. Rename the first tab "AP Raw Data".

2. Set up the following columns to track each invoice as a separate row:

   • Invoice ID: A unique identifier for each bill.

   • Vendor Name: Who the invoice is from.

   • Invoice Date: The day you received the bill.

   • Due Date: When the payment is due.

   • Invoice Amount: The total amount owed.

   • Status: The current state of the invoice.

   • Payment Date: The date you paid the bill (leave blank if unpaid).

Step 2: Add Smart Formulas to Automate Tracking

Manually updating the "Status" column for every invoice is time-consuming and prone to errors. Instead, we can use formulas to automate it based on the dates. You can also add a column to calculate how many days an invoice is overdue.

Automate the "Status" Column

This formula checks if a payment date exists. If not, it checks if the due date has passed. Click on cell F2 (the first cell under "Status") and paste this formula:

=IF(G2<>"","Paid", IF(D2<TODAY(), "Overdue","Unpaid"))

Drag the small blue square at the corner of the cell down to apply this formula to all your rows. Now, the status will automatically update to "Paid" when you enter a payment date, or switch to "Overdue" as soon as the due date passes.

Calculate "Days Overdue"

Add a new column in H called "Days Overdue". This helps you prioritize which vendors to pay first. In cell H2, use this formula:

=IF(F2="Overdue", TODAY()-D2, 0)

This formula checks if the status is "Overdue." If it is, it calculates the difference between today's date and the due date. Otherwise, a 0 will appear. After applying these formulas, your data sheet is now an automated ledger.

Step 3: Build Your Dashboard Tab with Key Metrics

Now for the fun part. Create a new tab and name it "Dashboard". This is where we'll summarize all the data into easily digestible metrics and charts. We’ll design a clean layout to see the most important information at a glance.

Let's start by calculating three crucial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

1. Total Payables Outstanding: The total amount of money you currently owe.

2. Total Payables Overdue: The portion of that outstanding amount that is past its due date.

3. Number of Overdue Invoices: How many separate bills require immediate attention.

On your Dashboard tab, set up labels for these KPIs. Next to each label, you'll use a formula to pull the relevant data from your "AP Raw Data" sheet.

• For Total Payables Outstanding, use the SUMIF function to add up amounts for all invoices that aren't "Paid":

=SUMIF('AP Raw Data'!F:F,"<>Paid",'AP Raw Data'!E:E)

• For Total Payables Overdue, use SUMIF to add up amounts only where the status is "Overdue":

=SUMIF('AP Raw Data'!F:F,"Overdue",'AP Raw Data'!E:E)

• For Number of Overdue Invoices, use COUNTIF to count the number of rows marked "Overdue":

=COUNTIF('AP Raw Data'!F:F,"Overdue")

Format these numbers as currency and use bold fonts to make them stand out. You’ve now got a high-level summary of your financial health.

Step 4: Visualize Your Data with Charts

Charts transform raw numbers into immediate insights. Let’s add a couple of essential visuals to our dashboard.

Chart 1: Top 5 Vendors by Amount Owed

This chart helps you see who you owe the most money to. To create it, we first need to summarize the data with a Pivot Table.

1. Go to your "AP Raw Data" sheet, select all your data, and click Insert > Pivot table. Choose to place it on a new sheet.

2. In the Pivot table editor on the right:

   • For Rows, add "Vendor Name".

   • For Values, add "Invoice Amount" (summarized by SUM).

   • For Filters, add "Status" and uncheck "Paid", so you're only looking at outstanding bills.

3. Now, select your pivot table data, go to Insert > Chart, and choose a Bar Chart. Customize the colors and title to your liking.

4. Finally, copy this chart (click the three-dot menu and select Copy chart) and paste it into your “Dashboard” tab.

Chart 2: AP Aging Report

An AP Aging report is a finance staple. It buckets your outstanding payables by how old they are (e.g., current, 1-30 days overdue, 31-60 days overdue). This visualization is excellent for assessing a company's financial health.

To create the buckets, add a new column in your 'AP Raw Data' sheet called "Aging Bucket". Paste this formula into the first cell and drag it down:

=IF(F2<>"Paid", IF(D2>TODAY(), "Current", IF(TODAY()-D2<=30, "1-30 Days", IF(TODAY()-D2<=60, "31-60 Days", "60+ Days"))), "")

Just like before, you can use these buckets to create another Pivot Table summarizing the Invoice Amount for each bucket. Turn that pivot table into a column or bar chart and add it to your dashboard. Your final dashboard might look like this:

Final Thoughts

While using Google Analytics for financial reporting isn’t practical, a well-organized Google Sheet can serve as a powerful free tool for creating an Accounts Payable dashboard. By separating your data, using formulas to automate status updates, and visualizing the results, you gain full control and clarity over your company's obligations so you can manage cash flow effectively.

This spreadsheet method is effective, but it still requires manual setup and maintenance. We built Graphed because we believe getting insights shouldn't be that complicated. Instead of wrestling with formulas, you can connect your accounting tools (like QuickBooks) or even that same Google Sheet, and use simple language to ask what you need. A prompt like, "Create a dashboard showing my overdue payables by vendor and an AP aging report," turns minutes of work into a few seconds, letting our AI build an interactive, always-up-to-date dashboard for you instantly.