Waterfall

Use a waterfall visualization to understand the cumulative effect a series of positive and negative values have on an initial value. The bars in a waterfall visualization are not totals.

A waterfall visualization shows how an initial value is increased and decreased by a series of intermediate values, leading to a final cumulative value shown in the far right column. The intermediate values can either be time-based or category-based.

Some examples of waterfall visualizations are as follows:
  • Viewing the net income after you add the increases and decreases of revenue and costs for an enterprise over a quarter.
  • Cumulative sales for products across a year with an annual total.

This waterfall visualization shows the policy holder delta by month.

Waterfall visualization that shows the policy holder delta by month

Creating a waterfall visualization

To build a waterfall visualization, create a new report and open the sample data Customer analysis module. Add a waterfall visualization to your report (for more information, see Creating visualizations). From the Source tab source tab drag and drop the following data items from the Policy Holders section:
  • Drag Month onto the x-axis .
  • Drag Delta onto the y-axis .
How to create a waterfall visualization

The next step is to set the properties to customize the way the <Delta> data item values appear.

  1. Click the visualization, then in the Data pane, click the <Delta> data item.
  2. Click Properties
  3. Next to Data format, click Ellipsis and set the following options:
    • Format type: Currency
    • Currency symbol: K
    • Currency symbol position: End
    • Number of decimal places: 1
    • Scale: -3 (this presents values in thousands).
  4. Click OK.
Set properties on the Delta data type

Finally, customize the appearance of the visualization.

  1. Click the visualization, then set the following options in the Properties pane:
    • Size - Width: 700 px, Height: 300 px
    • Total column axis label: Total.
    • Set the column colors. This example uses green.
    • Show legend: No
  2. Click Properties to close the Properties pane.
Set properties on the visualization

Samples

You can see examples of a waterfall visualization on the Overview tab the sample report Customer lifetime value analysis. You can find the samples here: Team content > Samples > Reports > Customer lifetime value analysis.

If any of the sample objects are missing, contact your administrator.