Using Waterfall Charts

A waterfall chart is useful for understanding how an initial value is affected by a series of additions and subtractions. Each positive or negative change that the initial value goes through is represented as a bar. The last bar represents the final total.

Waterfall chart

For example, waterfall charts are often used to show change within one time period or from one time period to another and to identify the factors responsible for this change.

To create a waterfall chart:
  1. Click Dashboards tab, the Dashboards tab.
  2. Click Dashboard Designer, in the bottom-left corner.
  3. On the Analyses dialog, click New analysis or click Options button, the Options button, next to an existing analysis and select Edit.
  4. On the analysis page, click , the Add visual button, on the toolbar.
    Analysis page - Create a visual
  5. Click the Waterfall chart icon.
    Waterfall chart icon
  6. Add data to the visual by dragging fields from the Data panel to the appropriate field wells in the Visuals panel:
    1. Drag at least one field to the Category or the Value field well.
    2. Drag a dimension to the Breakdown field well.
    3. Add drill-down layers by dragging one or more additional fields to the Category or the Breakdown field well.
  7. Customize the appearance of the visual in the Properties panel on the right.
    1. Under Display Settings, format the title and subtitle.
      For more information, see Formatting Titles and Subtitles in Visuals.
    2. Under Waterfall chart, set the label displayed for totals.
    3. Under X-axis and Y-axis, configure the axes, the grid lines, and the range and scale.
      For more information, see Formatting Axes and Grid Lines in Visuals and Configuring Range and Scale in Visuals.
    4. Under Breakdown, enter the maximum number of bar groups to include in the waterfall chart.
    5. Under Legend, format the legend.
      For more information, see Formatting Legends in Visuals.
    6. Under Data labels, format the labels.
      For more information, see Formatting Data Labels in Visuals.
Parent topic: Creating Visuals