Build a waterfall chart
Show how a starting value builds up and down through a series of changes to an ending total.
3 min readUpdated October 28, 2026
A waterfall chart shows how a starting value gets to an ending one. Each step is a floating bar that rises for an increase and drops for a decrease, so you can see which steps moved the total most - revenue to profit, say, or one month's balance to the next. Pick Waterfall from the chart type selector.
Fill the shelves
| Shelf | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Category | The steps, one bar each. |
| Value | The measure for each step, positive or negative. |
- Pick Waterfall from the chart type selector.
- Drag the dimension that names your steps to Category.
- Drag the measure to Value.
- Open the format pane to set the value mode, totals and colors.
Note: A waterfall has no Color shelf. Bars are colored for you: one color for increases, one for decreases and one for the total.
Format a waterfall chart
Open the format pane and find Waterfall options.
- Value mode picks Delta (values are changes) or Absolute (values are totals). Use Absolute when each row is a running balance rather than a change.
- Show connectors draws the lines linking each bar to the next.
- Show baseline bar adds a starting bar. Set its Baseline label and Baseline value.
- Bar order lists your steps so you can move each one up or down.
- Show total bar adds a final bar with the ending total. Total label renames it.
- Bar colors sets the Increase, Decrease and Total colors.
Build one from the chat
Ask the Analyst pane, or a dashboard's Storyteller pane, for a waterfall, for example "waterfall of profit by category", and it builds the chart. It works the same way in Analyze and on dashboards.