How to Create an Inventory Dashboard in Looker with AI

Wrestling with spreadsheets to track inventory is a headache that can lead to costly mistakes like stockouts or overstocked warehouses. Building a dynamic inventory dashboard helps you see everything at a glance, so you can make smarter purchasing decisions instantly. This tutorial will walk you through creating a powerful inventory dashboard in Looker Studio and show you how to use AI as an assistant to speed up the process.

Why You Need a Dedicated Inventory Dashboard

An organized inventory dashboard does more than just show you what you have in stock, it's a strategic tool for managing cash flow and meeting customer demand. When built correctly, your dashboard visualizes your entire inventory ecosystem, helping you avoid common pitfalls.

Here’s what a good dashboard helps you accomplish:

• Prevent Stockouts: Get automatic alerts when popular items are running low so you can reorder before you disappoint customers.

• Avoid Overstocking: Identify slow-moving products that are tying up your capital and shelf space, allowing you to run promotions or adjust purchasing.

• Improve Cash Flow: By optimizing stock levels, you ensure money isn't locked into excess inventory that isn't selling.

• Forecast with Confidence: Track sales velocity and inventory turnover to make data-backed predictions about future demand.

• Strengthen Supplier Relationships: Monitor supplier lead times and performance to build a more resilient supply chain.

Essentially, you move from reactively managing inventory emergencies to proactively optimizing one of your business's most critical assets.

Step 1: Get Your Inventory Data Organized

Before you can build anything in Looker Studio (formerly known as Google Data Studio), you need a clean, structured data source. While you can connect directly to databases like BigQuery or MySQL, the simplest and most accessible starting point for many businesses is a well-organized Google Sheet.

Your dashboard is only as good as the information you feed it. Make sure your inventory sheet includes these essential data points:

• Product SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique identifier for each product.

• Product Name: The customer-facing name of the item.

• Product Category: Helps with filtering and high-level analysis (e.g., "T-Shirts," "Hats," "Accessories").

• Current Stock Level: The number of units currently on hand.

• Unit Cost: How much you pay for one unit of the product.

• Unit Price: How much you sell one unit for.

• Inventory Value: A calculated field (Current Stock Level * Unit Cost).

• Reorder Point: The stock level at which you need to reorder.

• Sales Velocity (Units/Day): The average number of units sold per day. This helps you calculate how many days of stock you have left.

• Supplier Name: Who you order the product from.

Your Google Sheet should look something like this, with each row representing a unique SKU:

Step 2: Build Your Dashboard in Looker Studio

Once your data is clean and ready in Google Sheets, it’s time to build the dashboard. Follow these steps to bring your inventory data to life.

1. Connect Your Data Source

Open Looker Studio and create a new Blank Report. You'll immediately be prompted to add a data source. Select Google Sheets, find the sheet you prepared, and make sure to check the option to "Use the first row as headers." Click Add to connect it.

2. Create Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs, or Scorecards in Looker Studio, give you a high-level overview of your most important metrics. Start by adding a few at the top of your report.

Go to Add a chart > Scorecard. For your first scorecard, set the Metric to SKU, and rename the field to "Total Unique Products" by clicking on the metric and selecting Count Distinct from the aggregation options. This tells you how many different products you stock.

Create two more scorecards for:

• Total Inventory Value: You'll need a calculated field for this. Click Add a field in your data source panel and create a new field named InventoryValue with this formula:

  Set the field type to Currency. Now you can use InventoryValue as the metric for this scorecard.

• Items Below Reorder Point: This requires another calculated field to count how many SKUs are running low. Create a field called Low Stock Alert with this formula:

  Now, use Low Stock Alert as your metric on a scorecard and rename it Items Requiring Reorder.

3. Visualize Your Data with Charts and Tables

Scorecards are great for the big picture, but charts help you spot trends and outliers.

Total Inventory Table

The most important part of your dashboard will be a detailed table showing all your products. Go to Add a chart > Table and configure it with these dimensions and metrics:

• Dimensions: Product Name, Category

• Metrics: Current_Stock, Reorder_Point, InventoryValue

To make it even more useful, add conditional formatting. Select the table, go to the Style tab, and click Add conditional formatting. Create a rule that highlights any row in red where Current_Stock is less than or equal to Reorder_Point. Now, low-stock items will immediately stand out.

Inventory Value by Category

A pie chart or bar chart is perfect for showing how your inventory value is distributed. Go to Add a chart > Pie chart. Use Category as your Dimension and InventoryValue as your Metric. This helps you quickly see which product categories represent the biggest investment.

4. Add Interactive Controls

To make your dashboard truly interactive, add filters. Go to Add a control and select Drop-down list. Set the Control field to Category. Now, users can filter the entire dashboard to see data for just T-Shirts, Hats, etc. Add another control for Supplier to monitor performance on a per-supplier basis.

Step 3: Using AI to Make Your Dashboard Build Faster and Smarter

While Looker Studio doesn't (yet) have a native AI chatbot that builds dashboards for you from a natural language prompt, you can use external AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to act as a data analysis assistant. This helps you move much faster, especially if you're not a spreadsheet wizard.

Brainstorm KPIs with AI

Not sure which metrics matter most? Ask an AI for ideas. It can give you a solid foundation for what to track.

Example Prompt: "I'm building an inventory dashboard for my e-commerce store. What are the most important KPIs I should include to manage stock levels and avoid stockouts?"

The AI will likely suggest metrics like Inventory Turnover Rate, Stock-to-Sales Ratio, and Sell-Through Rate, giving you ideas for new charts and scorecards to build.

Write Calculated Field Formulas

Struggling with Looker Studio's formula syntax? Describe what you want to achieve in plain English and ask an AI to write the formula for you.

Example Prompt: "I have fields named 'Current_Stock' and 'Reorder_Point'. Write me a formula for a Looker Studio calculated field that categorizes products as 'OK', 'Low Stock', or 'Overstocked'. 'Low Stock' is when 'Current_Stock' is below 'Reorder_Point'. 'Overstocked' is when 'Current_Stock' is more than double the 'Reorder_Point'."

The AI would generate a CASE statement formula you can copy and paste directly into Looker Studio:

This accelerates the technical part of the build, helping you focus on the insights rather than the syntax.

This manual approach of using a separate AI assistant demonstrates the power of AI in data analysis, but it also highlights the friction of switching between tools. For a truly seamless experience, the AI needs to be integrated directly into the dashboard platform itself.

Final Thoughts

By connecting your data to Looker Studio and building out the right visualizations, you transform a static spreadsheet into an interactive command center for your inventory. You are now equipped to make faster, more informed decisions that protect your revenue and optimize your cash flow.

While using an outside AI as a co-pilot for brainstorming and writing formulas can definitely speed things up, we built Graphed because we believe the entire process should feel like a simple conversation. With Graphed, you connect your data sources - like Shopify, Google Sheets, or your CRM - and then just ask questions in natural language. Instead of manually building charts and wrestling with formulas, you can say, "Show me a table of products where stock is below the reorder point, sorted by sales velocity," and the dashboard builds it for you in seconds. We automate the manual work so you can get directly to the insights.