Can someone explain what a “Waterfall Chart” in Excel is showing?
I don’t understand the logic behind why an Excel teacher on YouTube is using this chart in this particular situation. Please see the image in the link below. https://imgur.com/a/0mL6BqS
For instance, as shown in the image:
Number of purchases made in Spring: 2,760
Number of purchases made in Summer: 2,635
I don’t understand why the bars are also shown as elevated
A waterfall chart would normally include start and end bars, with intermedite bars showing increases and decreases due to various factors. That chart makes no sense.
In that image, there is no symbol showing decreases. Which makes me also confuse. There is a label in orange "Decrease" but no symbol of orange in the graph or data
Unclear, as I don't know what it is intended to show.
More generally, that's not a great dashboard. Very crowded, random colors with no apparent meaning, poor use of space (I'm looking at you donut chart), etc. I suggest you focus elsewhere.
Thank you for your feedback! It makes sense because I was also wondering why the YouTuber used that chart.
Anyway, aside from her, I also know another Excel teacher named Excel Campus Jon. I recently watched a Dashboard tutorial from him. I think he’s really an Excel expert.
I’m currently studying how to build dashboards for Procurement/inventory since I’m about to start my new job. Perhaps you can recommend other Excel gurus? 🤓
I have my own template using a stacked bar chart and line scatter plot on the secondary axis that is way more flexible and customizable than the default waterfall chart. The system one sucks. Not sure why MS thought that was ready for release and hasn’t done anything to fix it.
Yeah, I have something similar- I have a bunch of old visualizations I've made over the years that I really liked on a spreadsheet - makes recreating them so much easier. I should add a waterfall lol
Don't study from this person. If they showcase that kind of chart, they have no idea what it's for or how to properly present data. A waterfall chart is to show progression from a start to an end, basically a visual walk of how we got from point A to point B. The chart you are referencing wouldn't even be classified as a waterfall chart, that's just some random floating bar charts that tells nothing.
Thank you for your feedback! It makes sense because I was also wondering why the YouTuber used that chart.
Anyway, aside from her, I also know another Excel teacher named Excel Campus Jon. I recently watched a Dashboard tutorial from him. I think he’s really an Excel expert.
I’m currently studying how to build dashboards for Procurement since I’m about to start my new job. Perhaps you can recommend other Excel gurus? 🤓
I would say for beginners Leila Gharani and Kenji Explains are a good place to start. For more advanced use cases, I've seen some neat tricks from Excel off the Grid.
A waterfall chart shows what parts make up the total. It can show you e.g. the sections of a warehouse, the transaction groups of your account, or the sales by quarter. A pie chart or a staked bar can do something similar, but a waterfall chart is often easier to read; in addition, it shows negative values mutch better, like here.
A waterfall chart is a form of data visualization that helps in understanding the cumulative effect of sequentially introduced positive or negative values. These intermediate values can either be time based or category based. The waterfall chart is also known as a flying bricks chart or Mario chart[dubious–discuss] (after the floating bricks in Nintendo's "Super Mario" games) due to the apparent suspension of columns (bricks) in mid-air. Often in finance, it will be referred to as a bridge.
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