Thread by @YourCFOGuy

Charts are one of the most powerful features that Excel offers…

and each one has their own time & place for when you should use them.

Here's Every Excel Chart, and When to Use it

Let’s do a walk through of each chart:

𝟭. 📊Bar charts → helps you understand trends over time.

• Bar chart → single series

• Stacked bar chart → multiple series grouped together

• Clustered bar chart → multiple series side by side

• Horizontal → alternate orientation

𝟮. 📈 Line chart → helps you understand trends over time, with a line

• Line chart → can show 1 or multiple series. I like to utilize 2 series when I’m trying to understand the intersection

• Area chart → highlights magnitude of change by shading the bottom

𝟯. 🟡 Pie chart → helps you understand the distribution between multiple categories

• Pie Chart → shows the split / distribution between multiple categories

• Donut → shows the % completion. This is in essence a hollow pie chart (my favorite for budget vs actuals)

𝟰. Hierarchy charts → helps you understand the hierarchy of data

• Treemap → provides a hierarchal view of data by color and size

• Sunburst → provides a hierarchical data in a circular fashion

𝟱. 🔢 Statistical charts → provide a visual representation of data distributions, trends, and patterns

• Histogram → Shows the underlying frequency distribution

• Box & Whisker → Shows distribution of data into quartiles, highlighting the mean and outliers.

• Pareto Chart → displays both the individual and cumulative frequencies

𝟲. Waterfall chart → Helps in understanding the cumulative effect of sequentially introduced positive or negative values

This is especially relevant when showcasing MRR and ARR

𝟳. Scatter charts → often used to find correlations and patterns in the data

• Scatter Chart → displays the relationship between 2 numerical variables

• Bubble Chart → variation of the scatter chart, adding a third dimension using the size of the dots.

𝟴. Combo charts → allows you to combine data from multiple series

Helpful when you have information across 2 distinct series (like Revenue and Gross Margin)

𝟵. 🗺️ Map Charts → provide a geographical representation of data

𝟭𝟬. PivotCharts → allows you to control chart data from a PivotTable

What are some other ways that you present financial data?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments

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