# Build a monthly performance tracker in Excel

Designs a reusable monthly tracker with KPIs, targets, month-over-month and year-to-date comparisons, and red/amber/green status.

- Topic: Data & Analysis
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Advanced
- Tags: Data & Analytics, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/build-a-monthly-performance-tracker-in-excel

## Prompt

```text
Help me build a monthly performance tracker in Excel that I can update in a few minutes each month.

**What I'm tracking:** [e.g. "team sales performance", "customer service KPIs", "project portfolio", "marketing results"]
**Metrics I report today, with definitions:** [LIST - e.g. "revenue, new customers, average handle time, NPS"]
**Targets:** [monthly or annual targets per metric - or "none yet"]
**Data I have:** [PASTE a sample of the source data or last few months of numbers]
**Breakdowns needed:** [e.g. "by person", "by region", "none"]
**Who reads it:** [e.g. "my manager in the monthly review"]

Design:
1. **Layout:** metrics as rows, months as columns (Jan-Dec), with Target, Actual, Variance, and YTD blocks. Explain where raw data lives and how it feeds the tracker.
2. **Formulas:** month actuals (SUMIFS on the date column), variance in value and %, YTD actual vs. YTD target, month-over-month change, and a rolling 3-month average. Handle months not yet reported so they show blank, not zero or #DIV/0!.
3. **Direction of good:** for each metric, whether higher or lower is better, so variance signs and colors are right (e.g. lower cost is favorable).
4. **Status rules:** red/amber/green thresholds per metric with conditional formatting formulas.
5. **A comment column** for one line explaining each red or amber.
6. **Monthly update routine** in 5 steps or fewer.

Return the layout sketch, a metric table (Metric | Definition | Source | Formula | Higher is better? | RAG thresholds), and the build steps. Mark any target or definition you had to assume as [CONFIRM].
```

## What to fill in

- monthly or annual targets per metric - or "none yet"
- e.g. "by person", "by region", "none"
- e.g. "my manager in the monthly review"
- CONFIRM

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.