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You have data you’ve been tracking over time. And you’re tasked to explain its trend and also provide a forecast.
What’s the chart to go for?
Yes, you guessed right. It’s the Time Series Chart in Excel. The chart is suitable in this scenario because time and dates are continuous, categorical data.
If you want to craft a compelling data story that provides actionable insights into trends, outliers, and other shifts, use Time Series charts. And this is because they’re straightforward to read and understand.
Remember, simplicity is always at the core of every persuasive narrative.
There’s no doubt that people don’t like to be subjected to cognitive overload. So, the simpler the message, the more compelling it becomes.
Excel lacks ready-to-use Time series Charts.
You actually don’t have to do away with the Excel spreadsheet. Supercharge its usability by installing a particular third-party application into your spreadsheet to access a ready-to-use and visually appealing Time Series Graph.
In this blog, you’ll learn the following:
Before delving into the how-to guide, we’ll address the following question: what is a Time Series Chart?
Definition: A Time Series Chart in Excel is a visualization design that illustrates data points at successive intervals of time.
Each point in a Time Series Chart in Excel corresponds to a time and variable under study. The horizontal axis of the chart or graph plots time increments while the vertical displays the key data point understudy.
There are 4 types of Time Series Chart in Excel, namely:
Let’s discuss these charts in detail.
The Dual Axis Line Graph is one of the best Time Series Graphs for comparing two data sets for a presentation.
The visualization design uses two axes to easily illustrate the relationships between two variables with different magnitudes and scales of measurement.
The relationship between two variables is referred to as correlation. The Dual Axis Line Chart illustrates plenty of information using limited space, so you can discover trends you may have otherwise missed.
Plotting multiple metrics in one graph is possible if you use a Multi-Axis Line Chart.
This chart visualizes trends and relationships in various datasets. It’s made up of various data points connected using line segments, where each point represents a single value. Use this chart to visualize continuous data like prices over time.
A Sentiment Trend Chart is one of the Time Series charts in Excel you can use to display the target market’s opinion of your offerings.
The chart is a must-have, especially if your goal is to show the growth and decline of key variables. The line curve in the chart shows the overall pattern and trend of a key variable over a specified period.
An Area Line Chart is a visualization design that uses a line graph and a filled area to display patterns and trend insights into key data points in a specified period.
The visualization design is ideal if your goal is to display trends. Besides, it’s one of the best charts for tracking performance in a specified period.
The visualization design is amazingly easy to read and interpret. Furthermore, its minimalist design ensures no insight is obscured.
Use the Time Series Chart in Excel to display changes in metrics (plotted on the vertical axis) and continuous values, such as time (plotted on the horizontal).
To get the insights, check for line segments moving consistently from left to right and evaluate their respective slopes (rate of change).
On the horizontal axis, use a variable that depicts continuous attributes at regular intervals of measurement. And this variable should be a temporal one, generating an observation every minute, hour, day, week, or month.
Use a variable in each of the intervals defined by the horizontal-axis variable on the vertical axis. Often, this can be a statistical summary, such as:
In the coming section, we’ll take you through how to create a Time Series Chart in Excel.
You don’t want to miss this.
Excel is a trusted data visualization tool because it’s familiar and has been there for decades.
However, the spreadsheet application lacks ready-made Time Series Charts, such as Dual Axis Line Graphs.
We understand switching tools is not an easy task.
This is why we’re not advocating you ditch Excel in favor of other expensive data visualization tools.
There’s an easy-to-use and amazingly affordable visualization tool that comes as an add-in you can easily install in your app to access a ready-made Time Series Chart in Excel. The tool is called ChartExpo.
So, what is ChartExpo?
ChartExpo is an incredibly intuitive add-in for Excel which you can easily install in your Excel without watching hours of YouTube tutorials.
With many ready-to-go visualizations, the Time Series Chart Excel generator turns your complex, raw data into compelling, easy-to-digest, visual renderings that tell the performance review stories in real-time.
In the coming section, we’ll take you through how to use ChartExpo in your Excel.
You don’t want to miss this!
This section will use the Area Line Graph (one of the Time Series Chart variants) to display insights into the table below.
| Months | Current | Previous |
| Jan | 90 | 70 |
| Feb | 60 | 80 |
| Mar | 40 | 30 |
| Apr | 70 | 60 |
| May | 80 | 90 |
| Jun | 75 | 60 |
| Jul | 40 | 30 |
| Aug | 60 | 70 |
| Sep | 90 | 80 |
| Oct | 50 | 70 |
| Nov | 70 | 60 |
| Dec | 50 | 40 |
In the coming section, we’ll address the components of a Time Series Chart in Excel.
Analyzing trends is critical in predicting future movements.
The trend shows an increase or decrease of a key variable over a certain period. Not all increases or decreases occur simultaneously.
This is the variation in a particular variable due to some predetermined patterns over time.
You can use the Time Series Chart in Excel to display insights into the commodity price quotes, interest rates, exchange rates, stock prices, and so on.
In the coming section, we’ll address the following question: why should you use the Time Series Chart?
There are 4 key charts you can use to display time series insights. They include:
The charts mentioned above are incredibly easy to read and interpret. Besides, they’re easy to plot if you use third-party add-ins, such as ChartExpo.
Use the Time Series Chart in Excel to display changes in key variables (plotted on the vertical axis) and continuous data points, such as months (plotted on the horizontal).
To get the insights, check for line segments moving consistently from left to right and evaluate their respective slopes (rate of change).
You have data you’ve been tracking over time.
And you’re tasked to explain its trend and, most importantly, provide a forecast.
What’s the go-to chart?
Yes, you guessed right. It’s the Time Series Chart. The chart is suitable in this scenario because time and dates are continuous, categorical data.
If you want to craft a compelling data story that provides actionable insights into trends, outliers, and other shifts, use Time Series charts. And this is because they’re straightforward to read and understand. Remember, simplicity is always at the core of every persuasive narrative.
There’s no doubt that a majority of us don’t like to be subjected to cognitive overload. So, the simpler the message, the more compelling it becomes.
Excel lacks ready-to-use Time Series Charts.
So, what’s the solution?
We recommend you install third-party apps, such as ChartExpo, to access the ready-to-use Time Series Chart in Excel.
ChartExpo is an add-in for Excel that’s loaded with insightful and ready-to-go Time Series Graphs, such as Area Line Chart. You don’t need programming or coding skills to use ChartExpo.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-made Time Series Charts that are easy to interpret and visually appealing to your target audience.
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