SubscribeBudget vs. Actual Charts – 14 Charting Ideas You can Use
update: This poll is closed now, however, feel free to share your opinions and ideas.
Wow, Just Wow. I am thrilled and over joyed seeing the quality and quantity of responses received for our first visualization challenge. There are just too many good responses that dedicated a whole weekend afternoon compiling a post about them.
First let us take a look at the entries, in no particular order. You can click on the full image link beneath the snapshot I have provided. Also I have added one or two lines for each chart about what is good and what is not so good.
1. 3 colors and everything is clear
Submitted by: Gerald | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Very easy to understand the values
Shows the differences in % which makes more sense to business users
What is not so wow about it?
Somewhat misleading, since the budget variance is shown in a corner (thus when you have actual as zero, you will see 2 bars, one with budget, one with variance thus confusing the reader that 50% is the variance)
2. A simple budget vs. Actual chart
Submitted by: Juwin Thomas | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Looks slick
What is not so wow about it?
Provides very little information as no labels are available
Could have used one color for center instead and changed the orientation
3. Creative Options to Visualize Budget vs. Actual Data (1)
Submitted by: Lee | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Very easy to compare trends, for eg. It is easy to conclude that Center 1 is has grown in the last 5 quarters
What is not so wow about it?
Instead of displaying actual-budget, it could have been budget-actual since our data is like that. That way it would have been easy to compare the variances
4. Creative Options to Visualize Budget vs. Actual Data (2)
Submitted by: Lee | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Creative and shows lots of data in one quick snap shot
What is not so wow about it?
Kind of difficult to read and understand
5. Creative Options to Visualize Budget vs. Actual Data (3)
Submitted by: Lee | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Creative and Shows the quarter-wise trend in a different way
Provides average variance and actual/budget %s too
What is not so wow about it?
Could have been better if the both actual and budget values are show how incorporated
6. Simple and Easy to Read
Submitted by: MB | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Very simple and very easy to understand
What is not so wow about it?
Could have added labels since the gaps are too small
7. Quarter-wise Snapshot of Budget Performance
Submitted by: NamKo | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Provides all the useful information, budget, actual, budget-actual, variance %s
What is not so wow about it?
It is difficult to see how the centers have performed across centers
8. Center Level Performances Along with Cumulative Values
Submitted by: Cuboo | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Provides a quick snapshot of center level values along with cumulative values
Looks slick
Has an option to add comments
9. Simple and Easy to Read (2)
Submitted by: Efrit | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Uses less color and stresses on actual values in the budget frame
Easy to compare both center-level and between centers
What is not so wow about it?
Since the variances are low, it is difficult to find the values without labels
10. A Pivot Chart show the Budget vs. Actual Performances
Submitted by: Jacob | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Uses pivot charts to show both center level and cumulative performances
Can be filtered using pivot chart features
What is not so wow about it?
The cumulative values are shown in a smoothed curve, although it is good, it kind of misleads
Labels could have been used as the values are close to each other
11. Simple and Easy to Read (3)
Submitted by: Michael Podemski | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Shows values in tables thus making it easy to read
What is not so wow about it?
The 3d feature of budget marker are kind of misleading as the gaps are very small, could have used a line instead
12. Cumulative Variances along with Budget and Actual Performances
Submitted by: TJ | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Shows cumulative variances as well
What is not so wow about it?
Could have used the lesser colors
13. Using form controls and displaying one center data at a time
Submitted by: D Murphy | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Provides all the information for a center quickly
Takes less space
What is not so wow about it?
Difficult to compare the performance of various centers in a quarter
You have to calculate the gap between budget and actual
14. Showing YTD Trends along with budget and actual trends
Submitted by: Pablo GM | Full Image
What is WOW about it?
Looks slick
Provides a variety of information
What is not so wow about it?
Could have used colors instead of gradients
Doesn’t tell the difference between budget and actual in numbers
A Big thank you to all the people who have sent their entries through email and blog comments.
Thanks to readers for constantly checking out the entries and commenting on the ones that needed improvement.
Now, Who gets the Prize?
Personally I liked entries 1, 3,6,7,8,9. I thought each one of these are very special and very well done.
But this contest isnt about what I like. It is about what you like. So go ahead and pick a winner. Just drop a comment with the number of your choice (use the number mentioned in the title). I will keep the voting open for a week and we will send a copy of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Go!
Additional Material You Should Check out If you want to Make Charts Like Above:
Using Form Controls to Display One Chart from Many
Excel Combination Chart Basics
Our Excel Charting Page with a Ton of tutorials and DIY Training Material
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- Pingback by Visualization Challenge - Budget vs. Actual Performance | Charts & Graphs | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org on April 5, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
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At Pointy Haired Dilbert, I have one goal, "to make you awesome in excel and charting". PHD is started in 2007 and today has 300+ articles and tutorials on using excel, making better charts. 
#6 is the best here. Simple, no extraneous visual effects.
I was all set to vote for #9…until I noticed its lack of y-axis labels. So I have to go with #6 also.
I think #6,#9 is enough .
#9 is my favorite
Nice data/ink ratio
I agree with Jon – #6 for me.
8 & 14
I go for # 9 (simple) and #14 (complete)
I go for cuboo #8
cheers
#6 for overview at a glance / top management
#8 for deeper analysis / those who need more detailed information
#14 although I think you only need the bottom panel and I then would stack the Center charts vertically to make Center comparisons easier.
#10 gets my vote.
If there is a second place, then #14
denise
Hi, if I was not wrong, Samples 3,4 and 5 were created using Tableau software and not Excel. For more information on Tableau you might want to visit http://www.tableausoftware.com/. It was initially designed by Prof. Pat Hanrahan and his PhD students. I am not their salesperson but I thought someone might want to know more about this particular technology.
11, 6, 9 (presque pareil)
7 pour la clarté
cuboo #8 ist my favorite
best regards…
8
8 is fantastic
I prefer N#8 – N# 1,7 & 8 use the settings of Rolf Hichert…
6 : The GURU (read “Jon Peltier “) has spoken,
SOO easy on eyes!
Hi Chandoo,
I liked Cuboo’s submission. So #8 gets my vote.
Regards,
Sumit
Number 8 by far. Even though it’s not part of the data display, the comments feature sells me. Variance explanations are as important as the actual variances.
I visually prefer #8, but #3 is really easier to understand, even if it lacks a lot of information (inverting budget/actual), legend, etc…
anyone willing to post their xls for these? Some really excellent exmaples.
To avoid the summary execution of the person presenting these to an executive team these charts must handle overspending as well as underspending, be comprehensible in 5 seconds and show the key fact clearly. The key fact isn’t budget or actual – it’s the magnitude of the gap!
Therefore:
#14 for nailing the key fact and being able to handle overspending. The winner therefore.
#6 for nailing speed-reading and being able to handle overspending, but somewhat obscuring the key fact. Second place.
#8 for nailing information depth and aesthetics. Third place.
I really wanted #8 to win, but that’s the technician’s view not the end-user’s.
number 8
clean, full of info, qualitative as well as quantitative
Hi,
I Like 4 chart in above as per the following ratings:-
no 1# -> 14***
no 2# -> 7***
no 3 # -> 8**
no 4# -> 1.3**
I will be greateful if someone can send me the process of making all above 4 charts.
Virender