Waterfall charts are very useful charts to see the impact of various movements on a single number e.g. show all the main movements that explain the difference between budgeted profit and actual profit. Below details on our easy to use Excel Waterfall Chart template which allows you to (easily) add/ remove items as shown in the adjacent image.
Even though the recent versions of Excel have a waterfall chart, the template is useful because it works on all versions of Excel. So if you plan to send your spreadsheet to someone who doesn’t have the newest Excel version, they will still see, and be able to work with, the waterfall chart.
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YouTube Using the new Waterfall Chart in Excel
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Excel’s built in Waterfall Chart
In the latest versions of Excel, there is a built in Waterfall chart that you can use. To see if you have it see if you can see the button below.
Download our waterfall chart template
If you want to create a waterfall chart in Excel and you either don’t have the built in version, or you are sending your spreadsheet to someone who may not have the built in version, then download the template below.
How to use the Excel Waterfall Chart download
We have made the template as simple as possible. As shown below, to use the waterfall template:
- Choose the name of the chart (the blue cells are inputs and note what it will affect on the actual chart as shown below)
- Describe the movement e.g. once off big order, radio ads, volume discount etc
- You can categorise the movements to group similar movements together e.g. sales impact, cost of sales impact etc
- Insert the movement in the blue cells i.e. the positive or negative impact of each line item.
The template allows you to insert/ delete the descriptions and all you need to do is copy the formula to any inserted rows. There are instructions in the file to help you along.
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