Dashboards consist of financial and non financial data using graphics and charts to illustrate trends and highlights events that impact the company. Dashboards varies from a company to another due to it contains key performance indicators selected by the executives to monitor the company's operations. Dashboards are not limited to the executive level. A mid level manager can creates her/his own dashboard to monitor her/his department(s).
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The key to a great dashboard is to create a dashboard that is well organized, well structured and is interactive. If the dashboard is note well prepared, you might not see the whole picture and miss the important events affecting your business, thus you will not be able to prevent the issue or repeat the wins in the future.
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To create a well balanced dashboard, you need a solid financial reporting system from your technologies and the cooperation of the entire company. No matter the department or business unit, you need a solid reporting structure to pull accurate data. This is why most companies will opt for an Enterprise Resource Planning system, mostly known as an ERP, to maintain it's transactions. See ERP, in Technology implementation for more detail as to what an ERP can assist you with. ERPs will segregate the information using it's database to pull different type of information from all it's recourses, that's if all the system communicates well with each other.