Showing percentage gains in bar charts

fanzini

We have several bar charts that show revenue/bookings per fiscal quarter (or per fiscal year).  The question that always gets asked is, "what's the percentage gain/difference between 2 bars?".  Any clever way to show this (maybe on a hover or something)?

 

Thanks!

mbrady

I'd also be very interested in this, particuarly as a hover option!

pwood

The best way to accomplish this is to use a grouped bar + symbol card type. You can then create a beast mode to calculate the difference between the revenue/bookings. With a bullet chart, the y axis will be the bullet (the percent change in thie case), then then you'll set two series, one as revenue, and one as bookings.

 

If you have any additional questions, or need help on the beast mode, please let us know.

fanzini

Would love to jump on the phone and walk through your suggestion quickly.  I think I 1/2 understand..... ?

pwood

@fanzini I'd be happy to do that, however today will be challenging just from schedule standpoint. Can we work through as much as possible here, then look for a time to have a call? If you can help me understand your questions in the forum, I'll do my best to work through them here.

 

Just to give you a little more insight using dummy data, this is how you'll utilize that card for your purpose. The last two series will be your bookings and revenue. The Y axis will be the beast mode that looks at the percent difference between the two.

 

 

thallam

Hi! I work with Franco and would like to jump in here. I have the chart set up but am having difficulty with the beastmode. Could you help me? I'm looking to see the difference of the two bars, but they are of the same metric (bookings). It's a grouped bar chart, sorted by quarters and I would like to know the year over year comparison. ex. % change from FY15Q1 to FY16Q1. 

thallam

Actually, nevermind! I got it! ?

mbrady

@thallam Can you share the beast mode or how you were able to do this?

thallam

We have beast modes for our custom FY bookings #s, so where I state the bookings, I actually inserted our beast modes there. To make this short, I've just abbreviated as everyone else's calcs should be different. Also, you would need to set your axis type to percentage. If you don't, you would need to add (*100) at the end of this formula. 

 

( 

(Sum

(FY2 Bookings)

-

SUM

(FY1 Bookings)

)

/

SUM

(FY1 Bookings)

)