What a waterfall chart shows
A waterfall chart, also called a bridge, explains how one number became another: last year’s revenue to this year’s, budget to actual, or revenue to EBIT. The first and last bars are totals; the bars in between float, each starting where the previous one ended.
Option 1: PowerPoint’s built-in waterfall
Since Office 2016, desktop PowerPoint has a waterfall chart type.
- Go to Insert → Chart → Waterfall.
- Replace the sample data in the worksheet that opens.
- For each total bar, select it, open Format Data Point and tick Set as total.
That’s enough for a simple bridge. It gets fiddly when you need subtotals in the middle, a difference arrow, consistent brand colours by sign, or the same chart in Google Slides.
Option 2: Deckcell
- Open Deckcell: in PowerPoint, Home → Deckcell; in Google Slides, Extensions → Deckcell.
- Choose Waterfall from the chart types.
- Paste two columns from Excel into the datasheet: labels, and values. Use negative numbers for decreases.
- Type
eas the value of every bar that should be a total: the last bar, and any subtotal in between. - Click Insert. Turn on a difference arrow, change colours or number format in the pane.
- To change the numbers later, select the chart; its datasheet opens again in the pane.
Subtotals work anywhere in the bridge. For example, a gross profit line halfway through an EBIT bridge:
Tips for a clear bridge
- Write an action title that says what drove the change, not “Revenue bridge”.
- Order the movements logically, usually largest first or by business driver, and keep the order the same every month.
- Use one colour for increases and one for decreases; keep totals in the darkest brand colour.
- Put units in the title or a footnote (“$m”), not on every label.
- Group small movements into “Other” so the main drivers stand out.