Overview

A Waterfall Chart is used to visualize how an initial value is affected by a series of intermediate positive or negative changes. It helps in understanding the cumulative effect of sequential changes in a value over time or across categories.

This chart is particularly useful in financial analysis, operational performance, and variance analysis to explain how a value evolves step-by-step.

When to Use

• To analyze incremental changes contributing to a total.
• To display positive and negative contributions to a metric.
• To explain variance between starting and ending values.
• To visualize cumulative growth over time or across groups.

Data Structure

A Waterfall Chart requires the following fields:

• Analysis model: The data source containing relevant fields.
• Field: A categorical or time-based dimension (e.g., Month, Department).
• Measure: A numeric field representing the change values (e.g., Profit delta, Monthly growth).
• Time axis (Optional): A time-based field to sort the data chronologically.
• Filters (Optional): Used to narrow down the scope of data shown in the chart.

Example Data

month	change_value
Jan	500
Feb	200
Mar	-300
Apr	100
May	-200

Example

The example below shows monthly changes and the resulting total. Each bar represents the increase or decrease in value, with the final green bar showing the cumulative result: