We have created a waterfall chart excel template for download to help users with creating this useful chart in Excel in the easiest possible way.
A waterfall chart allows you to easily see what the biggest reason for a particular movement is (for more explanation see the waterfall chart Wiki entry). In the adjacent picture explaining the reason for sales exceeding the budgeted sales, it is possible to visualise that, although sales are up, it was a volatile year with sales initiatives costing us money but we have recovered with aggressive focus on the cost of sales.
The template allows you to include the chart in your own spreadsheet so that you can link to your data and to re use it as often as you require.
Other features include allowing you to create categories and automatic colouring of the bars depending on whether the movement is upwards or downwards.
You can include more (or less) reasons for the movement and add as many categories as you need. It is a normal Excel chart, so can you make changes to the colours and format if you like.
You can get it from the Waterfall Chart Template page