Waterfall chart

A waterfall chart gives you a visual overview of positive and negative changes to a value over a period of time. It is often used to gain insights into key processes within an area (such as inventory) and to assess financial performance (e.g., to build a step by step picture of growth or decline in cash flow).

Waterfall charts are available in View a summary of the data and in Use Variance mode, and at least one dimension selected. Only one measure can be selected.

Accessing the waterfall chart

Choose Chart and select Bar > Waterfall.

What is displayed

The y axis displays the amount.
The x axis depends on the mode. It displays period if you are in summary view. In variance mode it displays the selected dimension.
The first (left) column is always 'previous' and the last column (on the right) is always 'current'. These show the sum of values for the respective period, including any filters you have applied on the grid.
For the columns in the middle, columns with positive values start at the height of the previous columns and go up proportionally to the variance; columns with negative values start at the height of the previous columns and go down proportionally to the variance. These also include any filters you have applied.

Example

In this example, the user is in summary view. They want an overview of results for the quarter Oct-Dec 2017, compared with the same period in 2016. The benefit of selecting a waterfall chart over a bar or column chart is that you get to see each piece of the puzzle. For example, hovering on the bar for December shows you there was a 77% decline in revenue just for that month.

The same information in a column chart.