Small workflow for making a waterfall chart. A lot of the code here is attributed to kind citizens on stackoverflow and elsewhere.
Often I want to show a comparison of budgets or incremental from a model FY-to-FY or Q-to-Q. Often charts like:
Some people love waterfall charts for this task - these are annoying charts to make.
Essentially you are plotting the differences between groups leading to the new total.
So:
- If an item increases YoY - it is represented by a box with height of 0 - growth
- And if an item decreases - it is represented by a box with 0 - minus(growth)
- And the start of each box relies on the next as it "flows" towards the new total
Also - needed the following abilities:
- Quickly decide on which quarters and years are included
- Maintain colors
- Easily add a new category or switch level of granualarity