Power BI has a LOT of chart types. More than 30 of them. So, picking the correct chart for a data analysis situation is hard. Here is a picture of a frustrated Power BI developer trying to figure out the right chart for her data analysis.
In this article, let me explain when & how to use these Power BI charts along with my top tips to make them.
The Power BI Visualization (Charting) Options
Here are the 30+ charting options in Power BI (as of July 2023). In this article, I am going to cover a majority of them.
We can categorize these charts into below groups.
- Bar / Column Charts 📊
- Line & Area Charts 📈
- Pie & Donut Charts 🍩
- Card Visuals 💳
- Tables & Matrices 📰
- Scatter (XY) plots
- Maps 🗺
- Everything Else
Let’s understand when & how to use these charts now.
Bar & Column Charts in Power BI
When: Use them to compare things
Examples
Top Tips
- Use the “Legend” option to split the chart
- If you put more then one field in the “axis”, you can drilldown on the charts.
- You can also split the chart into many using the “small multiple” option. See this video to learn more.
- When using “time” or “date” axis, try the column charts instead of bar charts.
Line & Area Charts in Power BI
When: Use them to see the trends
Examples
Top Tips
- Convert line to “stepped” line chart by enabling the “stepped” option in formats.
- Enable markers to improve the line chart readability.
- When you have a line chart with date axis, you can use the “analytics” options to introduce forecast or trend lines.
- Don’t make line chart with “things” on axis. They are meaningless (most of the time).
Pie & Donut Charts
When: To understand the full picture & contribution
Examples
Top Tips
- Always customize the labels and legend to get best look for your pies (or donuts)
- Avoid making too many slices. No one likes a tiny slice of pie.
Card Visuals
When: To share single numbers, KPIs & messages
Examples
Top Tips
- Add context to your cards whenever possible. This is a powerful way to engage your audience. Read this article for more.
- Power BI recently introduced a “NEW Card” visual. Give it a try. It lets you build cards with more formatting options and it is faster than regular cards.
Table & Matrix Visuals in Power BI
When: To show details
Examples
Top Tips
- Adjust row padding on tables & matrices to make them look easy on eyes.
- Add conditional formatting to one or two fields to elevate the data.
- Apply correct sort order on your tables. If you hold SHIFT while sorting the tables, you can sort on multiple columns!
- When you have lots of data, Filter your tables down to just important points.
Power BI Maps
When: To explain geographical data
Examples
Top Tips
- Power BI has a lot of map visuals. Try them all to see which one gives you best fit for your data. My favorite is the new Azure Map Visual. Learn more about it here.
- While maps are useful, I find them clunky. So try tables or other charts from time to time.
- Do not overlay useless information like traffic on to maps. Keep them light so the focus can be on the data.
Scatter (XY) Plot in Power BI
When: To explain 2 dimensions in one picture & to explore relationships
Examples
Top Tips
- XY plots are great for exploring relationships. But remember the golden rule – Correlation is not same as causation.
- If you have a Date dimension, use it on the “Play Axis” option to make a cool animated XY graph in Power BI.
Waterfall Chart
When: To explain how things have changed from one point / place to another.
Examples
Top Tips
- Use the “explain” feature of Power BI to auto-generate useful waterfall graphs for you.
Don't forget
Don’t forget title, sub-title, legend, labels & tool-tips.
These can make or break a chart.
Examples
Top Tips
- Don’t settle for default titles. Write a great title & subtitle on your charts to elevate them.
- Highlight important data points using conditional formatting feature. Here is a tutorial.
- Set up a tooltip page to further explain your data. Here is a tutorial on Power BI Tooltips.
Everything Else...?
Use with caution.
When in doubt, try them with your audience, get their feedback and proceed as needed.
Demo Workbook with all these charts
Here is a Power BI workbook with all these visuals. Check it out to learn a bit more.
When & How to use Power BI Charts - Video
I made a short & useful video on all of the important chart types in Power BI. Check it out below for some extra tips, pointers and information on when & how to use Power BI visuals.
Watch it below or go to my channel.
More Resources on Power BI
- Course: I run an online Power BI course to make you awesome with it. Check out the program and sign up today to learn Power BI, the right way.
Here are some articles & videos to help you master Power BI:
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.