About the Waterfall Chart Type

Waterfall charts display a running total of positive and negative values, which is helpful in showing how you arrived at a net value from an initial value.

Waterfall charts are used to portray how an initial value is affected by a series of intermediate positive or negative values. Usually the initial and the final values (end points) are represented by whole columns, while the intermediate values are shown as floating columns that begin based on the value of the previous column. The columns can be color-coded to distinguish between positive and negative values.

Example Waterfall Chart - Inventory Analysis

This example visualizes changes in a single account over time.

Example Waterfall Chart - P & L Statement

This example has expense accounts that are shown as a negative change to Total Revenue, and income accounts that are shown as a positive change, for a final Net Income value.

Dashboard designers can set these waterfall chart properties:

Table 10-8 Waterfall Chart Properties

Setting	Description
Value Scale	Especially useful for large numbers, you can scale how a value is displayed. For example, if the value is 1,689,000 and you select K - Thousand as the scaling option, the chart displays the value as 1,689K. Your scaling options: None: No scaling is applied. Auto: The value is displayed based on its range. For example, 1,500 displays as 1.5K, 1,689,000 displays as 1.69M, 42,314,531,211 displays as 42.31B, and 1,234,567,891,234 displays as 1.23T. K - Thousand: The value is displayed as thousands units. For example, 1,689,000 displays as 1689K. M - Million: The value is displayed as millions units. For example, 123,456,789 displays as 123M. B - Billion: The value is displayed as billions units. For example, 12,345,678,912 displays as 12B. T - Trillion: The value is displayed as trillions units. For example, 1,234,567,891,234,567 displays as 1,234T.
Grid Lines	Select Hide or Show to display the x-axis lines of the grid.
Connecting Lines	Select Hide or Show to display the lines connecting the end of each column to the beginning of the next column. This helps visualize the flow of the data in the chart.
Plot Deltas	Select Yes to automatically calculate and plot the common start and end points from one bar to the next based on the values provided. This is useful for showing the trend for balance type of accounts. Otherwise, select No to manually set increase and decrease points. When No is selected, you can manually set these increase/decrease options on a bar-by-bar basis: Bar Direction: Select a bar to manually set the bar direction to increase/decrease. All bars: Display a list of all bars in the chart to manually set bar directions to increase/decrease. The manual options you can set for each bar are Auto, Reverse, and Total. Auto will consider the positive/negative values from the data source and plot accordingly. Reverse will change the sign, and Total will make the chart restart at the corresponding bar.
Increase Decrease Total	Select a color for each property.
End Bar	Select whether to Hide or Show the end bar on the chart. In the preceding example, the end bar is shown. If the end bar is shown, you can specify a label.
Axes	Select a Custom Range for the X-Axis and the Y-Axis, or select Off.

Videos

Your Goal	Watch This Video
Learn how to create waterfall charts to track the changes in a single account over time and to track how multiple accounts interact to produce a final total.	Creating Waterfall Charts in Dashboards 2.0