How to Create a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel?

A Stacked waterfall chart in Excel shows how individual components contribute to changes in a total value across categories or over time.

In this blog, you will learn:

Table of Content:

1. What is a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel?
2. Why is an Excel Stacked Waterfall Chart Important?
3. Video Tutorial: Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel
4. How to Create a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel (Built-in Method)?
   • Step 1: Prepare Your Data
   • Step 2: Select Your Data
   • Step 3: Insert the Waterfall Chart
   • Step 4: Format the Chart
   • Step 5: Customize the Chart
   • Step 6: Final Stacked Waterfall Chart
5. How to Create a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel with Multiple Series Using ChartExpo?
6. FAQs
7. Wrap Up

What is a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel?

Definition: A Stacked waterfall chart in Excel visualizes how values change over time or across multiple data series by showing the cumulative effect of individual components. It helps explain how different factors contribute to an overall increase or decrease.

This chart combines Stacked bars and columns to represent each data point clearly. Individual values are shown as stacked segments, while the columns are arranged sequentially to illustrate progression.

A Stacked waterfall chart also includes a total bar, which represents the final sum of all contributing values. Sometimes referred to as a Waterfall chart, it visually connects the starting value to the ending value.

By breaking totals into smaller, visible components, this chart makes data analysis easier and helps users quickly understand how each value impacts the final result.

Why is an Excel Stacked Waterfall Chart Important?

An Excel Stacked Waterfall Chart is important because it helps explain complex changes by showing how multiple factors contribute to an outcome. Instead of focusing only on totals, it reveals the story behind the numbers.

• Shows how different components contribute to increases and decreases
• Makes complex financial movements easier to understand
• Helps break down revenue, cost, or profit changes into clear segments
• Highlight which factors have the biggest positive or negative impact
• Supports better decision-making through visual clarity
• Improves communication in reports and presentations

Video Tutorial: Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel

Here’s a quick video showing how to make this chart in Excel from scratch. The video discusses the following details:

How to Create a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel (Built-in Method)?

Step 1: Prepare Your Data

• Create a table with categories like Start, Sales, Expenses, Other Income, and End
• Add separate columns for Start value, Revenue, Costs, and Profit
• Use positive values for increases and negative values for decreases
• Keep the data clean and correctly aligned for accurate chart results

Step 2: Select Your Data

• Highlight the entire table, including headers
• Make sure all revenue, cost, and profit columns are selected
• This allows Excel to build the stacked structure correctly

Step 3: Insert the Waterfall Chart

• Go to the Insert tab
• Click Insert Waterfall or Stock Chart
• Select Waterfall from the dropdown
• Excel will insert a basic waterfall chart

Step 4: Format the Chart

• Click the Start and End bars and set them as totals
• Enable stacked series for revenue, costs, and profit
• Ensure values flow correctly from start to end

Step 5: Customize the Chart

• Add a clear chart title
• Apply different colors for revenue, costs, and profit
• Turn on data labels for better readability
• Adjust legend and axis if needed

Step 6: Final Stacked Waterfall Chart

• Review the chart for accuracy
• Confirm all components are stacked correctly
• Use the chart for financial analysis, reporting, or dashboards

How to Create a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel with Multiple Series Using ChartExpo?

First, you will need to organize your data into columns and rows. Each row should have a different series of data. Once you organize the data, you can create the chart. Upon creating the chart, you can customize it by adding labels, changing the colors and font sizes, or adding a legend.

How to Install ChartExpo on Excel?

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click on the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps”.
4. In the office Add-ins window, click on “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click on the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available in Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and make creative data visualizations in Excel in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Example

Here is the cash flow data for a certain business. Let’s create a chart in Excel of this data:

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

• Once ChartExpo is loaded, you will see a list of charts available.

• Then, scroll through the numerous charts until you see your required chart.

• After highlighting data from the sheet, click on the option “Create Chart From Selection“.

• The result will be an image that looks like the one below.

Insights

• The total revenue of $56.6k is derived from sales of $36.87k and services of $19.69k.
• Mobile sales are the major contributor at $20.03k.
• PCs accounted for the majority of services at $9.08k.
• Most of the revenue was consumed by Taxes and Marketing, which amounted to $11.44k and $9.64k, respectively.
• Transportation was the least spending at $4.05k.
• Ultimately, your net income was $12.18k.

FAQs

What types of data can you visualize with a Stacked Waterfall Chart in Excel?

It is commonly used to visualize and analyze financial data, such as profit, revenue, expenses, and cash flow. This is also useful for visualizing and analyzing datasets with multiple categories. For example, expenditures by department or revenue by product category.

How to use the Stacked Waterfall Template in Excel?

To use this chart Excel template, first open it and enter your data into the predefined categories and subcategories. The template automatically builds the chart based on your inputs.

Customize colors and labels as needed to highlight positive and negative values. This template makes it easy to visualize complex data and track how different components contribute to overall changes.

Wrap Up

Now, you have learned how to create this chart in Excel. It’s a great way to compare the contributions of different values to a total sum.

ChartExpo is a great resource for creating a Stacked waterfall chart in Excel. It offers a variety of charts and diagrams to choose from and provides step-by-step instructions for creating the chart.

These charts help you to visualize the cumulative effect of positive and negative values. Creating a Chart is a great way to visualize data intuitively.

In addition, it’s also a great way to identify areas of improvement quickly. For efficiency, ensure the data is in columns and rows, and the chart is easy to interpret.