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Creating an automated dashboard in Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a practical approach to streamline monthly reporting with minimal manual intervention. By configuring your data sources and report settings appropriately, you can ensure that your dashboard updates automatically to reflect the previous month's data.

 

Steps to Build an Automated Monthly Dashboard in Looker Studio:

 

Connect to Your Data Source:

• Ensure your data is stored in a platform that Looker Studio can access, such as Google BigQuery, Google Sheets, or other supported databases.

• Establish a connection between Looker Studio and your data source.

 

Automate Data Refresh:

 

Set up your data source to update automatically. For instance, if you're using Google Sheets, you can use scripts or third-party tools to pull data into the sheet at regular intervals. For databases like BigQuery, ensure that your data tables are updated as per your reporting schedule.

 

Design the Dashboard:

 

Create a new report in Looker Studio and add the necessary charts, tables, and visualizations to display your data.

 

Implement Date Filtering:

 

Add a date filter to your dashboard to allow dynamic viewing of data for different time periods. To focus on the previous month's data automatically, you can set a default date range. While Looker Studio doesn't have a built-in "previous month" filter, you can achieve this by creating a custom date range or using calculated fields to display data for the last month.

 

Schedule Email Delivery (Optional):

 

Looker Studio allows you to schedule automated email deliveries of your reports. You can set this up to send the dashboard to stakeholders at the beginning of each month, ensuring they receive the latest data without manual intervention.

 

Additional Considerations:

 

• Data Granularity: Ensure your data includes a date field that allows for monthly aggregation. This will facilitate accurate filtering and reporting for specific time periods.

• Data Source Management: If your data is in BigQuery, you can write SQL queries to filter data for the previous month directly within your data source, reducing the amount of data processed in Looker Studio.

• Community Insights: Engaging with communities like Reddit's r/GoogleDataStudio can provide practical advice and solutions from other users who have implemented similar dashboards.

 

By following these steps, you can create a dynamic and automated dashboard in Looker Studio that minimizes manual effort and provides up-to-date insights for your monthly reporting needs.