Waterfall charts
A waterfall chart is a type of chart that is used to display how an initial value is affected by a series of intermediate positive or negative values, leading to a final value. It is often used to show the breakdown of the total change in a value, such as a financial metric like net income or cash flow.
Waterfall charts are often used in finance and accounting to show the flow of money in and out of a business but can also be used in other industries such as manufacturing, sales, and production.
Inforiver offers 3 variations of the waterfall chart: Solid, Colored, and Invert Colored.
Solid waterfall - All the bars are represented by the same solid color.
Colored waterfall - By default, the positive and negative values are represented using green and red bars, but they can be customized.
Invert colored waterfall - This chart type is the exact opposite of the colored waterfall chart. The positive and negative values are represented using red and green bars, but they can be customized.
1. Adding the chart
In this example, we will visualize the contribution of the subcategories to the total margin using a waterfall chart.
Step 1: We have added 'SubCategory' in the Rows field and 'Cost', 'Sales', 'Margin', 'Margin %', and 'Total customers' in the Values (AC) field in the visualization pane.
Step 2: Select the column for which you want to insert the waterfall chart. In the following image, the margin column has been selected.
The waterfall chart option gets enabled. From the Waterfall chart drop-down, select the Colored waterfall chart.
Step 3: The waterfall chart gets inserted as shown below. You can see the Customize tab in the toolbar and the following customization options.
2. Customization options
Inserting a waterfall chart will open up the following customization options.
2.1. Chart type
You can change your current waterfall chart type from the highlighted toolbar.
2.2. Continuous
Enabling this option will display a continuous waterfall chart across row hierarchies.
The Continuous option is available only if the selected column has a row hierarchy.
To create a row hierarchy, we have added the 'Category' in the Rows field in the Visualization pane.
Select the 'Sales' column, and from the Waterfall chart drop-down, select the Colored waterfall chart. The waterfall chart gets inserted as shown below.
The continuous option now becomes available under the Customize tab. Enabling this option will display a continuous waterfall chart as shown in the image below.
2.3. Axis config
This option lets you configure the axis-related settings. Clicking on this option opens up an 'Axis' modal from which you can choose to
Show Y-axis - Enabling this option will display the Y-axis on the chart
Show X-axis - Enabling this option will display the X-axis on the chart
Hide ticks - Enabling this option will hide the tick intervals on the axis
Note that some of these options may not be enabled for you depending on the type of waterfall chart inserted and the properties chosen.
2.4. Data label config
This option lets you configure the arrangement and display properties for data labels. The modal has the following properties:
Data label - You can enable or disable this checkbox to show or hide data labels for the chosen column/metrics.
The Show label and Percentage scaling options are available only if the Data label option is enabled.
Show label - Inforiver provides the option to display the data labels simply as Value, Percentage, or Both.
Percentage scaling - Using this option you can configure the scaling of the percentage data label. The available scaling options are
Universal - This is the default option, and it indicates the percentage contribution of the value to the grand total.
By level - Whereas 'By level' indicates the percentage contribution of the value to its parent level or category.
The Percentage scaling option becomes available, only if the Show label value is set to either Percentage or Both.
2.5. Fill pattern
You can customize the fill pattern of the bar to any of these IBCS notations: Solid, Outlined, or Hatched.
2.6. Appearance
This option lets you change the appearance of the waterfall charts. Clicking on this option will display a Colors or Series Display sub-option (depending on the type/variant of the chart inserted). Clicking on either of these sub-options will open up an Appearance model in which you can configure the following properties:
Some of these properties/options may or may not be available depending on the inserted chart type and variant.
a) Positive color - Using this option you can customize the positive color of the bar/marker
b) Negative color - Using this option you can customize the negative color of the bar/marker
c) Axis color - This option lets you set the axis color of the chart
The following properties are present in the Series Display option available under the Appearance option of waterfall charts.
d) Bar color - This option is available only for solid bar charts and will let you customize the color of the bar.
e) Gradient - Enabling this option will allow you to set a gradient color to your bar chart. If you enable this option, the Min and Max color options become available using which you can set the color for the min value and the max value.
2.7. Height Scaling
This option lets you customize the height scaling(width) of the bars in the bar chart. By default, Individual Scaling is applied.
a) Individual - Using this option you can set the height scaling based on each row.
b) Universal - Using this option you can set height scaling based on the parent level.
2.8. Measure Scaling
This option lets you select the measure scaling of the chart. By default, Universal Scaling is applied.
a) Universal - In this option the scaling of the chart is fixed based on the consolidated min and max values from all the measures.
For reference the consolidated min value is '13.05' and max value is '778.51' from all the measures, therefore the scaling of the chart is fixed based on these values.
b) Individual - In this option the scaling of each individual measure is fixed based on their own Min and Max values.
In this section, we covered waterfall charts. Navigate to the next section to learn more about the bar and pin charts.
Resources
Last updated
Was this helpful?