Author: Oscar Cronquist Article last updated on September 30, 2018

 

The waterfall chart allows you to plot values as bars, however, depending on whether they are negative or positive numbers the total is added or subtracted. The columns have different colors based on if the value is less than 0 (zero) or larger than 0 (zero) and they are connected with lines to make it easier for the reader to follow.

The waterfall chart is great for displaying financial information like income statements. It shows the cumulative effect for each activity and the outcome.

How to build

  1. Select data.
  2. Go to tab "Insert" on the ribbon.
  3. Press with left mouse button on "Insert Waterfall, Funnel, Stock, Surface or Radar chart" button
  4. Press with left mouse button on "Waterfall chart" button.
  5. The chart now looks like this.
  6. Double press with left mouse button on on chart column "Costs of goods sold" to open the task pane.
  7. Press with mouse on chart column "Costs of goods sold" until only the column is selected  The other columns are faded out if only one column is selected.
  8. Press with left mouse button on checkbox "Set as total".
  9. Repeat step 7 - 8 with remaining columns containing positive values.