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Tableau | Data visualisation | Tool strategy

Metric Updates: New in Tableau 2021.4

Tableau 2021.4 metrics get a serious upgrade with custom comparison periods and colour-coded status indicators.

Tim Ngwena •8 December 2021 •1 min read •5 min watch •2.4K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2021.4

Watch on YouTube

Metrics track a specific data point you select, not the sum total of a measure, so you choose the exact mark when creating them
The new comparison period lets you compare against a rolling window such as the last 12 months and optionally show the previous period as a comparison line
You can compare a metric against a constant target value rather than a historic period, setting a threshold like 40,000
Status indicators colour the metric as good, neutral or bad depending on whether it is above, at or below your target
Created metrics publish into a specific project folder where you can sort by content type to see old-style and new-style metrics

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In 21.4 Tableau have

0:02now enabled the ability to customize the

0:04comparison

0:04periods for metrics and also update how

0:07they are created. You can also add things

0:09like

0:09status indicators with color. And then in

0:11another video after this one I'll show you

0:13how you can actually embed metrics in an

0:15embedded view. But for this video we're

0:16just going

0:16to stick to how to create the updated items

0:19in metrics. Here I'm in a view, I'm on a

0:22standard

0:22Superstore dashboard here and in essence to

0:25create a metric you just need to make sure

0:28that you head to this menu up here on the

0:29top right hand side. If you can't see this

0:31it's probably because the permissions have

0:33been disabled or you don't have the right

0:35license level. Just get in touch with

0:37whoever manages Tableau and your

0:38organization and

0:39they should be able to switch this on for

0:41you. If you select metrics you get this

0:43little

0:43sort of area here on the right and you can

0:45see that I already have a metric here. It's

0:47actually based on this furniture metric

0:49here on the left hand side so you can see

0:51that

0:51it says 22.83 thousand and it's essentially

0:54tracking that final value. It's important

0:57to note that it's tracking a specific data

0:59point, it's not tracking sort of the sum

1:02total

1:02of this. So you can see here it says

1:04furniture 22,830 and that's exactly what we

1:07're seeing

1:07here. To create a new metric all we need to

1:09do is select create and when we do that it

1:12does ask us to select a data point. So if I

1:13go here and select this one for office

1:15supplies

1:15you'll see this value actually changes to

1:1834.7k. That is the value that's just there,

1:2234.7k. Now one of the new things here if I

1:24just move my face to the left is you've got

1:27this ability to customize the comparison

1:29period. What I'm talking about specifically

1:31here is

1:31this little window here. This section here

1:34is new in 21.4. We can actually say that

1:37look

1:37you wanted to compare it not just via

1:39versus the previous month but we can

1:41actually say

1:41look at the last rolling 12 months and it

1:45will show us how the performance is doing

1:47compared to the previous 12 months. So of

1:50course if you look at this data everything

1:52up until here is essentially sort of part

1:54of that comparison. So it's basically

1:56saying

1:57look over the last 12 months how much has

1:58this grown? And that's essentially what

2:00this

2:01metric is doing. You can also show the

2:02comparison line so you can actually see the

2:04previous

2:0512 months as a line and it's basically

2:08going to show that which is not quite nice.

2:10And

2:10you can define the measure, you can look at

2:12profit or you can look at sales and of

2:14course

2:14the measure here is again coming from this

2:17visualization. So if I look at this little

2:20white area this is actually the profit that

2:22's being displayed here and it's essentially

2:25just comparing the profit over that time

2:27period as well. So it's a really sort of

2:29nice thing

2:30to have here being able to sort of

2:32customize it to this level of detail. And

2:34once you're

2:34pretty much done you can hit create and

2:35then you're pretty much done you could you

2:37've got

2:38a metric ready to go. So that's the first

2:40change in 21.4. You can sort of see this

2:43metrics

2:43just here now should have two. The other

2:46type of metric you can create in 21.4. Let

2:49's just

2:49go over to technology and let's track

2:51technology as a metric. As we can actually

2:53instead of

2:54doing historic comparison we can compare it

2:56against a constant. So the constant here

2:58can

2:58be a value that we've set. Let's say our

3:00target is to be over 40,000. So let's just

3:03type that

3:03in. You can see the 40,000 line is created

3:06here at the top. You can just see it dotted

3:08all the way across and we're just above it

3:112240 above and you can see that it sets

3:14that

3:14value. Now what we can do is we can say if

3:17it's above the target then it's good. If it

3:21's

3:21at the value it's neutral and if it's below

3:24then it's bad. And so now that we've done

3:26that let me show you how the different

3:28values look like. So if I just type in 42,

3:30000 let's

3:31get this exact value 42,238. So 42,238 and

3:37if we just set that value there it should

3:40be right on the line. That's 47,000 hence

3:44above. So 0.47. Now that should be at

3:46target.

3:47You'll see that it says at target exactly

3:49there which is sort of interesting. And

3:51then

3:51if we just say the constant value let's say

3:53is 50,000 then we should see that it goes

3:56red here at the top to sort of show that it

3:58's not at target. So there's a whole range

4:00of

4:01different sort of options you can sort of

4:02go through. If I just undo these you can

4:04see

4:04this is at target, this is above target and

4:07if we go forward that's at target and that

4:09's

4:09below target. So this is a really nice sort

4:12of feature. These metrics start to become

4:14really more vibrant and again you hit

4:16create. And when you create these of course

4:18the metrics

4:19do get published into a specific project

4:21folder. We'll go to this now and take a

4:23look at these

4:23metrics so you can see that this is the one

4:25that I created earlier on. And if I

4:27actually

4:28just go back to the 21.2 folder where these

4:30are being created you can see here they are

4:33.

4:33We can actually sort by the specific

4:35content type so let's just look at the

4:37three metrics

4:38and here you are you can see the different

4:39sort of metrics running there. So this was

4:41actually an old style metric that was

4:42already there. This is one of the new ones

4:44with the

4:44comparison period and this one is one of

4:46the new ones with the status indicator

4:48either

4:49way. So that's pretty much it for this

4:51feature. I think this is really nice these

4:53are becoming

4:53more portable and in the next video I'll

4:55show you how this can now be embedded

4:57alongside

4:58Tableau dashboards in an embedded platform.

5:00I'm going to do a basic embed we don't have

5:02time here to go into the mechanics of embed

5:03ding. I'm just going to do a simple copy and

5:05paste

5:06of the embed code in that video so be sure

5:08to check that out. Catch you in the next

5:09video.

5:10.

Rollup

Tableau 2021.4 upgrades metrics so you can create them from a specific data point, customise the comparison period against a rolling window, and colour-code status against a fixed target rather than just a historic comparison.

Tim works from a standard dashboard with existing measures, showing how metric creation and comparison options have changed compared to the older-style metrics.

The Breakdown

Metrics track a single data point 0:20

When you create a metric you select a specific mark on the view, not the overall sum of a measure — the metric tracks exactly that value going forward, so pick the data point carefully.
Customise the comparison period 1:25

Instead of only comparing to the previous period, you can set a rolling window (such as the last 12 months) and optionally show a comparison line for the prior period, using whichever measure the underlying view is built on.
Compare against a constant target instead 2:47

As an alternative to a historic comparison, you can set a fixed constant value as the target — useful when you're tracking towards a specific goal rather than trend.
Colour-coded status indicators 3:15

Once you have a constant target, you can define status as good, neutral or bad depending on whether the value is above, at, or below that target — the metric line and colour update live as the value changes relative to the threshold.
Metrics publish to a specific project folder 4:16

Created metrics land in a dedicated project folder where you can sort by content type to distinguish old-style metrics from the new comparison-period and status-indicator versions.

Worth Knowing

If the metrics menu isn't visible, it's likely a permissions or license restriction rather than a bug — check with whoever administers Tableau in your organisation.
A metric tracks the exact data point you selected, not a total, so it's easy to misread what it's actually measuring if you're not careful when creating it.

Use It When

Reach for this when you need a lightweight, portable indicator of a single value's progress — either trending over a rolling period or measured against a fixed goal with clear good/bad status.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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