How to Create a Quarterly Sales Report in Tableau

Creating a quarterly sales report in Tableau allows you to see beyond the raw numbers in a spreadsheet, turning rows of data into performance trends and actionable insights. This guide is a step-by-step walkthrough of exactly how to do that, from connecting your data to building essential charts and combining them into an interactive dashboard.

Getting Started: Connect Your Sales Data

Before you can build anything, you need to bring your data into Tableau. Your sales data might live in an Excel file exported from your CRM, a Google Sheet your team updates, or a direct database connection. For this tutorial, we'll assume you have a sales report in a spreadsheet format with common columns like Order Date, Product Category, Region (or State/Country), Sales Rep, and of course, Sales Revenue.

The first step an analyst always takes is ensuring the data is clean. Messy or inconsistent data will lead to confusing charts. Before connecting, take a minute to check for:

Consistent Date Formats: Make sure all your dates are in the same format (e.g., MM/DD/YYYY).
No Empty Cells: Key fields like Sales Revenue or Order Date shouldn't have missing values.
Uniform Naming: Check that product categories or sales reps are spelled the same way every time ("John Smith" vs. "J. Smith").

Connecting Your Data Source

Once your file is ready, connecting it to Tableau takes just a few clicks.

Open Tableau Desktop and look at the Connect pane on the left side of the screen.
Under "To a File," select the appropriate connector. If your data is in Excel, choose Microsoft Excel. If it's a CSV, select Text file.
Locate your sales data file on your computer and open it.

Tableau will now load the data and show you a preview on the Data Source screen. Here, Tableau will automatically interpret your columns. You can see the small icons above each column header telling you what Tableau thinks it is: a calendar for dates, a "#" for numbers, and "Abc" for text. If any of these are wrong, you can click the icon and change the data type.

Building the Core Visualizations for Your Sales Report

With your data loaded, you're ready to start building the "sheets" or individual charts that will make up your report. We'll create four fundamental charts that tell a clear story about your quarterly performance.

Chart 1: Quarterly Sales Revenue Over Time

The first and most important view is your overall sales trend. Is revenue growing, declining, or staying flat?

Navigate to a new worksheet (it will be labeled "Sheet 1" at the bottom).
From the Data pane on the left, find your date field (e.g., Order Date) and drag it onto the Columns shelf at the top of the canvas.
Next, find your sales revenue field (e.g., Sales) and drag it onto the Rows shelf.

Tableau will instantly generate a line chart. By default, it will probably show you the data by Year. We need to drill down to the quarter.

Right-click the blue YEAR(Order Date) pill in the Columns shelf.
In the menu that appears, select Quarter. It will likely be the second option in the first section.

And that's it! You now have a line chart showing your total sales for each quarter. This is the bedrock of your report, instantly communicating top-level performance trends.

Chart 2: Sales Performance by Product Category

Which product lines are driving the most revenue? A bar chart is the perfect way to visualize this.

Create a new worksheet by clicking the icon next to "Sheet 1."
Drag your Product Category field from the Data pane onto the Rows shelf.
Drag your Sales field onto the Columns shelf.

Tableau will create a horizontal bar chart displaying total sales for each product category. To make it even easier to read, you can sort it and add color.

To sort: Hover near the "Sales" axis label until a small sort icon appears, and click it to sort high to low.
To add color: Drag the Sales field again, but this time, drop it onto the Color tile on the Marks card. Tableau will apply a color gradient, making your top sellers visually pop.

Chart 3: Regional Sales Performance (Using a Map)

Maps are incredibly effective at showing where your sales are coming from. As long as you have geographic data like Country, State, or City, this is easy to build.

Create a new worksheet.
In the Data pane, find your geographic field (we'll use State) and double-click it. Tableau recognizes this is geographic data and will automatically generate a map with a dot for each state where you've made a sale.
To make this map tell a story about revenue, drag the Sales field onto the Color tile on the Marks card.

Now, instead of just dots, you have a "heat map" or choropleth map. The states where you have higher sales will be colored more darkly, giving you an immediate visual cue about your strongest and weakest markets. This can be invaluable for directing marketing spend or assigning sales territories.

Chart 4: Individual Sales Rep Leaderboard

Finally, let's look at team performance. A simple bar chart can function as a leaderboard showing who your top-performing reps are for the quarter.

Open another new worksheet.
Drag your Sales Rep Name field to the Rows shelf.
Drag the Sales field to the Columns shelf.
Just like with the product category chart, sort this from highest to lowest sales to create a clear ranking.

You now have a simple, effective leaderboard showing which reps are driving the most revenue.

Bringing It All Together: Creating an Interactive Dashboard

Now that you have your individual charts, it's time to assemble them into a single, cohesive dashboard that lets you see the whole picture at once.

Create a new dashboard by clicking the "New Dashboard" icon at the bottom (it looks like a grid).
The dashboard canvas will be blank. On the left side, you'll see a list of the sheets you've just created.
Simply drag and drop each sheet onto the canvas. As you drag, Tableau will show you where the chart will be placed. You can arrange them however you like, but a good practice is placing the headline trend (Quarterly Sales) at the top.

Adding Interactivity with Filters

This is where Tableau really shines. You can make it so that clicking on an item in one chart automatically filters all the other charts on your dashboard. For example, if you click on the "Office Supplies" category in your product chart, the map and sales rep leaderboard should update to show data for only office supplies.

Find the product category chart on your dashboard.
Click on it to highlight it, and then click the small funnel icon that appears in the top right corner of its container. The label for the icon is "Use as Filter".

That's it! Now, try clicking on a bar in your product category chart. You'll see the line chart, map, and sales rep leaderboard all update instantly. This turns your static report into a dynamic analysis tool, allowing anyone who views it to answer their own follow-up questions.

Adding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Every good dashboard has "big numbers" at the top for at-a-glance viewing. We can add KPIs for total sales, profit, and the number of orders.

Create one final new worksheet and name it "Total Sales KPI."
Drag your Sales metric onto the Text tile on the Marks card. You'll just see a number.
Click on the Text tile again to open the editor. Here you can format the text to make it larger, bold, and add descriptive text like "Total Sales:" above the number.
Repeat this process on new sheets to create KPIs for Total Profit or Count of Orders.
Return to your dashboard and drag these new KPI sheets onto the top of the canvas. You now have a clear, executive-level summary right at the top of your report.

Final Thoughts

By following these steps, you've gone from a static spreadsheet to a powerful, interactive quarterly sales report in Tableau. You have the tools to analyze sales trends, identify top products and regions, and measure team performance, all in one consolidated view.

Building meaningful reports in tools like Tableau is a fantastic skill, but as you've seen, it can involve a steep learning curve and a lot of manual steps. At Graphed, we've simplified this process dramatically. You simply connect your Salesforce, Shopify, or other data sources, then describe what you want to see. For instance, you could ask, "show me a quarterly sales report comparing performance by product category and sales rep," and our AI builds the live, interactive dashboard for you in seconds - no dragging and dropping required.