We all know about the MAX formula. But do you know about 3D Max?
Sounds intriguing? Read on.
Lets say you are the sales analyst at ACME Inc. Your job involves drinking copious amounts of coffee, creating awesome reports & helping ACME Inc. beat competition.
For one of the reports, you need to find out the maximum transactions by any customer across months.
But there is a twist in the story.
Your data is not in one sheet. It is in multiple sheets, one per month.
Like this:
How to get the max value for all months?
Using 3D MAX formula
We can use 3D formulas in such cases. 3D formula?!?
Lets say our transaction data is in column C, in range C5:C44 in all sheets (same cells in all sheets)
To calculate the max of all the transactions, we simply write:
=MAX(Jan:Jun!C5:C44)
Notice the blue text? That is what makes our references 3D.
Aside: If row & columns make Excel 2D, sheets in a workbook act as 3rd dimension. Hence the name 3D reference.
This formula will go and fetch all the C5:C44 data from sheets Jan thru Jun and gives us the desired answer.
Related: Consolidating data from multiple sheets using 3D references.
What if you want to consider only specific months
The 3D formula approach is simple & powerful. But what if you want to consider data only in a specific list of sheets (or months in our case)?
For example, what formula would work if we want to calculate maximum transactions in months Jan, Mar, Apr & Jun alone?
Lets say the names of the sheets we want to consider is listed in a range called sheet.names
Also, keep in mind that the data is in range C5:C44 in all the sheets.
Then the below formula gives us maximum value from the selected sheets.
{=MAX(N(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(A5:A44),3,1,1, TRANSPOSE(sheet.names)))))}
It is an array formula. So you must press CTRL+Shift+Enter to get the correct result.
PS: Thanks to Pranay Shah, whose question inspired me to write this formula.
How does it work?
First lets figure out the logic we need to use.
- We have a list of sheet names in the range sheet.names
- For each sheet, get the data from cells C5:C44
- Calculate the max of all this data
Now, lets take a look at the formula, inside out.
ROW(A5:A44) portion: This generates an array for numbers from 5 to 44 – {5;6;7;…;42;43;44}
Transpose(sheet.names) portion: This transposes the vertical sheet names array to horizontal. So {“Jan”;”Mar”;”Apr”;”Jun”} becomes {“Jan”,”Mar”,”Apr”,”Jun”}
ADDRESS(ROW(),3,1,1,TRANSPOSE()): This generates an array of cell addresses from rows 5 to 44, column 3 and sheets in sheet.names range. The result looks like this:
{“Jan!$C$5″,”Mar!$C$5″,”Apr!$C$5″,”Jun!$C$5”; “Jan!$C$6″,”Mar!$C$6″,”Apr!$C$6″,”Jun!$C$6”;
“Jan!$C$7″,”Mar!$C$7″,”Apr!$C$7″,”Jun!$C$7”; “Jan!$C$8″,”Mar!$C$8″,”Apr!$C$8″,”Jun!$C$8”;
“Jan!$C$9″,”Mar!$C$9″,”Apr!$C$9″,”Jun!$C$9”; “Jan!$C$10″,”Mar!$C$10″,”Apr!$C$10″,”Jun!$C$10”;
…
“Jan!$C$41″,”Mar!$C$41″,”Apr!$C$41″,”Jun!$C$41”; “Jan!$C$42″,”Mar!$C$42″,”Apr!$C$42″,”Jun!$C$42”;
“Jan!$C$43″,”Mar!$C$43″,”Apr!$C$43″,”Jun!$C$43”; “Jan!$C$44″,”Mar!$C$44″,”Apr!$C$44″,”Jun!$C$44”}
Why TRANSPOSE()?
If we have not TRANSPOSE()ed either sheet.names or row numbers, we will not get full list of addresses. TRANSPOSE forces Excel to generate all combinations of addresses from given row numbers & sheet names.
For example, here is the result of the formula
ADDRESS(ROW(A5:A44),3,1,1, sheet.names)
Notice the missing TRANSPOSE()
{“Jan!$C$5″;”Mar!$C$6″;”Apr!$C$7″;”Jun!$C$8”;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A; #N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A; #N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A; #N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A;#N/A}
INDIRECT(ADDRESS()) portion: We have the addresses and we need values. This is exactly the purpose of INDIRECT formula. So we pass the list of addresses to INDIRECT to get the cell values.
This results in an array of numbers like this:
{1400,900,1225,1440; 1035,1300,850,1850; 990,2000,1140,775; 1520,870,1225,650; 1300,1000,1800,875; 1305,980,1085,1215; 750,1350,1000,1330; 1050,600,1125,1755; 990,735,1350,1600; 1215,1750,770,625; 1600,735,1305,1300; 960,1950,1480,1800; 1215,1365,1110,1395; 1320,910,750,1560; 1700,975,1125,1480; 900,1400,780,1300; 1485,1440,960,1300; 825,2125,1110,1215; 1000,945,810,1120; 1650,500,1170,990; 1440,1080,1110,840; 1035,840,1300,800; 1225,1330,1020,1560; 1100,690,1170,780; 600,700,1280,990; 1000,1000,1400,700; 1260,1520,875,1305; 1360,1260,925,1320; 810,1100,2000,1800; 825,690,750,1215; 1575,1560,1000,1900; 1190,1080,960,1400; 1200,1200,1160,980; 900,1665,575,500; 880,1000,1200,1550; 1000,950,1440,550; 1400,900,1000,1190; 750,1190,1110,700; 1710,805,800,1755; 1950,1365,660,1150}
Now, notice the 2 dimensional nature of this array. It has 4 items per row.
N(INDIRECT()) portion:
We just pass the array of numbers to N() so that they are force converted to numbers. This step ensures that we get correct results with MAX.
Note: Even without N() your array formula shows a result, but often this will be incorrect. I assume it is one of the quirks of Excel and we just have to use N().
Related: See how N() plays a vital role in situations like – dynamic charts from non-contiguous data & String parsing.
MAX(N()) portion:
This will just tell us what the maximum number in that array. Make sure you press CTRL+Shift+Enter to get the correct result.
Download Example Workbook
If all these MAX formulas are confusing, check out the example workbook. It shows all these. Play with the formulas and examine the results to learn more.
Do you use 3D references?
I rarely use them. This is because, most of the times, my data is in one place. If is it scattered across multiple sheets, I usually spend time writing a macro (or using Power Query) to consolidate the data to one place before attacking the analysis problems.
But I find 3D references & formulas a powerful way to answer questions like this.
What about you? Do you use 3D references in your formulas? When do you use them? Please share your thoughts & experiences using comments.
Learn more
If this technique sounds interesting, check out below tutorials to learn more.
- MaxIF formula in Excel
- Using INDEX formula in Excel
- Calculate maximum change – problem & Solution
- Calculating all-time high & trailing 12 months high values
31 Responses to “Beautiful Budget vs. Actual chart to make your boss love you”
Would be considerably easier just to have a table with the variance shown.
On Step 3, how do you "Add budget and actual values to the chart again"?
There are a few ways to do it.
Easy:
1) Copy just the numbers from both columns (Select, CTRL+C)
2) Select the chart and hit CTRL+V to paste. This adds them to chart.
Traditional:
1) Right click on chart and go to "select data..."
2) From the dialog, click on "Add" button and add one series at a time.
One more way to accomplish it is just select the columns into chart. Press Ctrl+C and then press Ctrl+V
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work for me in Excel 2010. The "Var 1" and "Var 2" columns cannot combine two fonts to display the symbol and the figure side-by-side.
Secondly, there is no option to Click on “Value from cells” option when formatting the label options. The only options provided are Series Name, Category Name or Value.
@TheQ47... the emoji font also has normal English letters, so if you use that font, then you should be ok. I am assuming your computer doesn't have that font or hasn't been upgraded for emoji support.
Reg. Excel 2010, you can manually link each label to a cell value. Just select one label at a time (click on labels, wait a second, click on an individual label) and press = and link it to the label var 1 or var 2.
I am using excel 2010, please explain how to apply Step 12
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Hi Neeraj,
"Value from cells" option is only available in Excel 2013 or above. In older versions, you have to manually adjust the label value by linking each label seperately.
Read this please: https://chandoo.org/wp/change-data-labels-in-charts/
Sir, you are just awesome.
Your creativity has no limit.
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Hi Chandoo,
I just found your website, and really love it. It helps me a lot to be an Excel expert 😉
Currently I am facing with a problem at step 11:
Var1 Var2
D30%
A5%
B0%
B4%
B7%
C10%
C13%
D27%
I42%
Though at mapping table, I used windings, here formula uses calibra. How I can change it? I am able to change only the whole cell. In this case numbers will be Windings too.
Thanks for your help!
Hi Mariann... Welcome to Chandoo.org and thanks for your comment.
If you wanted to use symbols from wingdings and combine them with % numbers, then you need to setup two labels. One with symbol, in wingdings font and another with value in normal font. Just add the same series again to the chart, make it invisible, add labels. You may need to adjust the alignment / position of label so everything is visible.
[…] firs article explains how you can enhance your charts with symbols. You can simply insert any supported symbol into your data and charts. To some extend you can […]
You're a good person, thank you to share your knowledge with us, I will try to do in my work
Great visualization of variance. My question is that is this possible in powerbi?
How would you go about it?
HELLO, WHY CANT I FIND VALUES FOR LABELS IN EXCEL 2013
Dear chanddo sir,
What to do if we have dynamic range for Chart. How this will work. can you able to make the same thing works on dynamic range.
Sir Chandoo,
Good Day!
First, I'd like to say that I am very grateful for your work and for sharing all these things with us.
I tried to do this chart but it seems that the symbols don't work with text (abs(var%),"0%") unless we keep the Windings font style.
The problem is, it converts the text into symbol as well and you wont see the 0% anymore. I'm using Windows 7.
WOW - Segoe UI Emoji
This is the greatest discovery for me this month 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Here's my two-cents:
https://wmfexcel.com/2019/02/17/a-compelling-chart-in-three-minutes/
Sir This is awesome chart, and very easy to made because of your way to explain is very simple , everyone can do. Thank you
one problem i am facing, I hv made this chart , but when i am inserting data table to chart it is showing two times , how can i resolve this
in this chart when i am adding new month data for example first i made this chart jan to mar but when i add data for the apr month graphs updated automatically but labels are missing for that new month
Hi Renuka,
Please make sure the formulas for labels are also calculated for extra months. Just drag down the series and set label range to appropriate address.
So I am playing with the Actual chart here - but amounts are bigger than your - you have 600 as Budget - my budget is 104,000 - is there a way to shorten that I am unaware of
thank you - I LOVE YOUR SITE
Thanks for the tips and tricks on Excel. In the Planned versus Actual chart examples, you use multiple values (ex. multiple Categories in above). How can this be done when we have only 1 set of values? For example if I have only this:
Planned Actual
SOW Budget 417480 367551
How can I create a single bar chart like the one above?
Thank you Chandoo.
This one is just perfect for my Quarterly Review presentation on Operational Budget against Actual Performance for the Hospital I'm currently working with.
Just Subscribed today (10 minutes ago)
Is there a way to make the table of data into a pivot table to be able to add a slicer for the graph due to many different categories and months?
Hi, I tried to modify you template with something appropriate for me, and I found a problem. this template was modified by me started with excel 2010, then 2016 and finally 2019. Same thing - somehow appear an error - or didn't show the emoticons for positive percentage or doubled the emoticons for some rows. I suspect to be from excel. if is need it I can sand you my xlsx for study. Please help if you can.
Hi Chandoo,
Could you please check the Var Formula in Step1. You have mentioned budget-actual and when i did this i got different values but when reversed like actual-budget i got the actual value what you have demonstrated in step1.
Please share your view.
This is a great chart (budget vs. actual). However, in trying recreate it, I cannot color in the UP Down bars individually, and they all become formatted with the same color. I'm using Office 365. Look forward to the feedback.
Thanks.
Dan
pls explain in detail step 7
While in the Excel sheet you have used following formula for Var
Var = Actual - Budget
But
in the note, you have written
Var = Budget - Actual
Good Presentation and Data information.thank you so much chandoo.