How to Build a Dashboard: Track KPIs, Projects, and Data Easily

Building a clear, actionable view of your business shouldn’t require a BI team. In this guide, you’ll learn how to make a dashboard—from choosing data sources to adding charts, filters, and user‑specific views—plus why a no‑code, point‑and‑click approach with Noloco helps SMBs replace spreadsheets with live insights.

Why Every Business Needs a Custom Dashboard

Dashboards turn scattered spreadsheets and status meetings into a single source of truth. Knowledge workers still spend a big chunk of their week searching for information; improving how teams access and share data can lift productivity meaningfully. 

Spreadsheets are great for analysis but risky as “live dashboards.” A study reported by phys.org highlights how error-prone business spreadsheets can be, which is exactly why controlled interfaces and governed permissions matter for day-to-day decision-making.

Noloco’s mission is to democratize custom software so SMBs can build internal tools and client portals with secure access, automation, and intuitive interfaces.

Common Dashboard Use Cases for SMBs

Dashboards should answer real, everyday questions for teams, not just look good. Below are practical views SMBs implement to replace spreadsheet reporting with live, secure insights their people can act on. This approach aligns with Noloco’s mission to give small businesses custom software that scales without developers.

Sales & CRM Dashboards

Give leadership and reps a single view of pipeline health, stage conversion, win rates, and forecast accuracy. Combine opportunity funnels, activity heatmaps, and rep scorecards in one place. Build it as part of your sales workspace using Noloco’s CRM solution and charting functionality.

Operations and Order Tracking

Track orders, SLAs (service-level agreements), fulfillment steps, and exceptions in real time. A back office dashboard shows WIP (works in progress), cycle times, and bottlenecks with drill‑downs to underlying records. Start with a custom back office solution and add process automations with smart workflows.

Employee or Client Portals

Expose role‑appropriate metrics to staff or customers with secure self‑service. For example, a client portal can surface project status, invoices due, and ticket SLAs next to charts. Noloco empowers you to build custom client portals that work for your business and your staff. 

Project Management Views

Roll up milestones, burn‑down charts, blocked tasks, and team capacity. Switch between board, timeline, and dashboard views to align PMs and execs. Start with a template and tailor it to your workflow.

Key Features of a Great Business Dashboard

When you evaluate how to make a dashboard your team will actually use, focus on freshness, usability, and governance. The features below help you standardize metrics, protect sensitive data, and keep everything no‑code‑friendly for non‑technical users.

Live Data Sync

Your dashboard should refresh from the source without having to resort to copy-pasting. With Noloco, you can connect Google Sheets, Airtable and other popular data solutions for live, governed access, or move to Noloco Tables when you’re ready to scale.

Filters and Visualizations

Not every user needs the same view. Noloco lets users filter by:

• Team
  
• Client
  
• Date range
  
• Status

And visualize data through charts, tables, kanban boards, and calendars.

Permissions and Access Levels

Protect sensitive metrics while democratizing insight. With Noloco’s permissions, define granular rules and role‑based pages so execs, managers, reps, suppliers, and clients only see what they should.

Cross-Source Integrations

Your “one view” should pull from the tools you already use without brittle scripts. Centralize systems via Noloco's integrations, webhooks, or APIs; then surface unified charts and lists.

How to Build a Dashboard Without Coding

Here’s a fast, repeatable workflow for how to build a dashboard with no developers. You’ll connect your data, define KPIs, then use Noloco’s point‑and‑click builder to add charts, filters, and role‑specific views that ship in hours, not months. If you’re starting fresh, Noloco Tables makes it easy to model clean data from day one.

Step 1: Choose Your Data Source

Pick where your truth lives today:

• Keep simple lists in Sheets? Connect via Google Sheets.
  
• Already on Airtable? Sync through Airtable.
  
• Want to move off spreadsheets? Start with Noloco Tables to create a structured database inside your app.
  
• Use multiple sources? With Noloco, you can centralize them all in one app.
  
  

Step 2: Define Your Metrics and KPIs

Make the dashboard answer specific questions:

• Sales: Pipeline value by stage; win rate; days‑to‑close
  
• Operations: On‑time fulfillment; cycle time; backorders
  
• Support/CS: First response time; CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Scores); backlog trend
  
• Finance: MRR/ARR (monthly/annual recurring revenue); invoice aging; gross margin

Tip: Limit the first version to 5–7 KPIs. Add drill‑downs rather than new tiles.

Step 3: Use Noloco’s Point-and-Click Builder

Spin up a secure app with Noloco’s intuitive app builder.

1. Create your app and connect data.
   
2. Let Noloco AI suggest pages, collections, and fields from your data in seconds.
   
3. Organize pages for execs, managers, and frontline users.
   
4. Define permissions early so test users see exactly what they should.
   
   

Step 4: Add Charts, Filters, and User Views

Drop in KPI tiles and charts. Add filters (date ranges, owners, regions). Use visibility rules to show different blocks per role, and views for common slices (e.g., “This Quarter,” “My Accounts”). Noloco even empowers you to automate alerts intelligently. 

Why Noloco Is the Best Platform for No-Code Dashboards

Noloco gives IT/ops teams several solutions for production‑grade dashboards and internal tools:

• Database: Use Noloco Tables or connect external sources to create a single source of truth.
  
• Interface Builder: A point‑and‑click app builder for pages, lists, dashboards, and portals, no developers required.
  
• Permissions Editor: Granular, role‑based access control.
  
• Workflow Builder: Workflow automation for alerts, escalations, and scheduled reports.

Add powerful visualization with our charts, work on the go with mobile-ready apps, and expand as you scale, from internal back office apps to client portals and much more. 

Start Visualizing Your Data with Noloco Today

You don’t need expensive BI software or a dev team to stay on top of your business. Noloco helps you build real-time dashboards that connect to your data and reflect your operations without writing a single line of code.

Explore our templates or try Noloco today to start building dashboards your team will actually use.

FAQs about Building Dashboards

How long does it take to build a dashboard?‍

With Noloco, you can build a basic dashboard in under 30 minutes. More advanced dashboards with charts, filters, and permissions may take 1–2 hours depending on complexity.

What kinds of dashboards can I build with Noloco?‍

You can create dashboards for sales, operations, HR, projects, client communication, and more. Whether it’s a CRM dashboard or a team-wide project tracker, Noloco is flexible enough to support it.

Can I connect Noloco to Google Sheets or Airtable for live data?‍

Yes! Noloco supports real-time connections to Google Sheets, Airtable, and more. Your dashboards will update automatically as the data changes.

What visualizations and filters does Noloco offer?‍

Noloco supports multiple visualizations like line, bar, pie, and donut charts. You can also filter data by user, role, date, or custom fields using our chart builder and interface tools.

What are some other resources related to building custom dashboards?