50 guides
The charts blog
Practical guides on turning data into clear Sankey diagrams and financial charts — written by the people building the editor.
LatestPie chart vs donut vs treemap: showing parts of a wholeThree charts fight over the same job: showing how a total splits. When each one wins, when each one lies, and the six-slice rule that settles most cases.
DataVisualising marketing attribution without starting a fightFirst touch, last touch and everything between. How to draw attribution so the debate is about strategy instead of the model.Chart craftSmall multiples: the fix for the chart with too many linesOne crowded chart becomes twelve tiny readable ones. Why repetition beats overlay, and how to keep the axes honest.FinanceThe six charts a quarterly business review actually needsRevenue movement, margin, pipeline, retention, cash and headcount cost — and how to keep the deck to six slides.DataHow to make a chart from a CSV file (any chart type)From a raw CSV export to a finished chart in minutes: how to shape your columns, import the file and pick the right chart type for what the data says.Chart craftTreemap vs stacked bar for showing compositionTwenty categories, one total. When rectangles beat segments, and why treemaps fail at comparison over time.AITurning a PDF report into a chartAnnual reports, invoices and statements arrive as PDFs. How to get the numbers out without retyping them, and what to double-check.SankeyPutting a Sankey diagram in PowerPoint or Google SlidesNeither app can build one. Here is how to get a crisp, editable Sankey into a deck without it turning into a blurry screenshot.FinanceCharting VAT and quarterly tax so it stops being a surpriseCollected versus deductible, quarter by quarter. A small chart that turns tax deadlines into routine instead of panic.Chart craftBar chart best practices: 8 rules for charts people actually readSorting, baselines, labels, color and the horizontal switch: eight practical rules that turn a default bar chart into one that lands in a meeting.Chart craftStacked bar vs grouped bar: which question are you answering?Stacked shows composition and totals. Grouped shows comparison between series. Choosing wrong makes one of them impossible to read.SankeyUsing a Sankey diagram to map a supply chainSuppliers, warehouses, channels and waste in one picture. How to model a supply chain as flows without ending up with spaghetti.FinanceThe invoice ageing chart that gets you paid fasterCurrent, 30, 60 and 90-plus days. A simple bar chart that turns chasing payments from an awkward chore into a routine.AIWhat AI chart generators still get wrongInvented numbers, wrong chart types and confident labels. An honest look at where automated charting fails and how to catch it.Chart craftHow to choose the right chart type for your dataComparison, trend, share of a whole or flow? A practical decision guide to the 15 most useful chart types, with examples of when each one wins.Chart craftDesigning charts for presentations, not dashboardsA dashboard chart is explored. A slide chart is glanced at. The changes that make one work as the other.SankeyChoosing colours for a Sankey diagramWhy three colours beat twelve, how to keep green and red meaningful, and palettes that stay readable in dark mode and in print.FinanceFour charts every freelancer should keepIncome by client, invoice ageing, tax set-aside and a rolling twelve-month view. The minimum reporting that prevents unpleasant surprises.FinanceThe Nvidia income statement Sankey, explained (and how to make your own)Nvidia's earnings Sankey shows an unusual shape: modest cost of sales, enormous gross margin, and a fat green net income ribbon. Here's how to read it and build one for any company.AIHow to prompt an AI for the chart you actually wantVague prompts produce vague charts. The four things to say — data, message, chart type and constraints — and examples that work.Chart craftSVG or PNG: which to export your chart asVector for print and slides, raster for compatibility and social. A short decision guide, plus the file-size trap in both.SankeyWhere Sankey diagrams came from: Minard, Sankey and modern earnings chartsFrom Napoleon's retreat to quarterly earnings threads. A short history of the flow diagram and why it keeps being reinvented.FinanceVisualising unit economics: what one customer is actually worthCAC, gross margin, payback and lifetime value in charts that survive scrutiny — including the assumptions most LTV charts hide.Chart craftSankey vs waterfall vs funnel: which chart for financial flows?Three charts get confused for each other. Here's the honest rule of thumb: Sankey for splitting and merging paths, waterfall for the bridge of one balance, funnel for a single linear drop-off.DataFrom pivot table to chart without losing your mindPivot tables produce exactly the wrong shape for most chart tools. The two-minute reshape that fixes it every time.Chart craftMaking charts that work in dark modePure white on pure black is the wrong default. Contrast, saturation and grid opacity for charts that read on both themes.FinanceHow to build an MRR waterfall chartNew, expansion, contraction and churn walking from last month to this month. The single most useful revenue chart a SaaS can keep.SankeyHow to build an energy flow Sankey diagramGeneration, conversion, losses and end use. The original use of the Sankey diagram, and how to build one for a country, a plant or a building.DataWhen to stop charting in ExcelExcel is a superb calculation tool and a mediocre publishing tool. The five signs you have outgrown its chart engine.FinanceHow to make a cash flow Sankey diagramTurn the statement of cash flows into one clear picture: operating, investing and financing flows in and out, with cash burn in red and the net change in cash on the right.Chart craftHow to label a chart so nobody has to ask what it meansDirect labels beat legends, units belong in the axis title, and the chart title should state the finding, not the dataset.SankeyMapping a customer journey with a Sankey diagramTurn acquisition channels, activation steps and churn into one flow chart of real users. A practical guide for product and growth teams.FinanceThe five SaaS metrics worth charting (and the ones that are noise)MRR movement, net revenue retention, gross margin, CAC payback and burn multiple — with the right chart for each.FinanceThe Apple income statement Sankey, explained (and how to make your own)The famous App Economy Insights style Apple earnings Sankey, decoded: how to read revenue, cost of sales, opex and net income — and how to build one for any company.SankeySankey diagram vs flow chart: they answer different questionsA flow chart shows what can happen. A Sankey shows how much actually did. When to use each, and why swapping them confuses readers.Chart craftChart colours that survive colourblindnessAround one in twelve men cannot separate your red from your green. How to keep meaning intact without giving up the finance convention.FinanceThe personal budget Sankey: how to build one and post it on RedditThe budget Sankey is the signature visual of r/personalfinance and r/Sankey. Here's how to map your income and expenses, color savings green, and export a clean PNG.FinanceBudget vs actual: the chart that survives a finance reviewSide-by-side bars, variance bars or a waterfall? How to show plan against reality without a colour war.DataWhat Google Sheets charts can't do (and what to do instead)No Sankey, no waterfall worth the name, limited annotation and awkward exports. Where Sheets stops and what to reach for next.Sankey7 Sankey diagram mistakes that make people misread your dataUnbalanced nodes, invented totals, colour that means nothing and labels nobody can read. The errors that turn a good Sankey into a misleading one.Chart craftWhen not to use a pie chartPie charts are not evil, they are just narrow. The four situations where they work and the many where a bar or treemap wins.SankeyHow to visualize an income statement as a Sankey diagramA step-by-step guide to turning a P&L into an income statement Sankey: revenue on the left, costs in red, profit in green — built free with AI.FinanceCharting burn rate and runway without scaring everyoneGross burn, net burn and the runway line. How to draw the chart every board asks for, and the two mistakes that make it misleading.DataHow to make a Sankey diagram in Google Sheets (the practical way)Google Sheets can't draw a real Sankey. Here's how people fake it with Drawings, and the faster alternative: paste your cell range and get a proportional chart.SankeySankey diagram best practices: 9 rules that make yours readableNode count, ordering, colour, labels and layout. The design rules that separate a Sankey people understand from one they scroll past.Chart craftWaterfall chart vs bar chart: when the bridge winsBars compare independent things. Waterfalls show one number becoming another. Picking wrong makes readers do arithmetic you could have drawn.DataHow to make a Sankey diagram in Excel (and a faster way)Excel has no native Sankey chart. Here's the honest manual workaround, why it's so tedious, and how to skip it by pasting your cells straight into MakeCharts.FinanceHow to visualize a cash flow statement so people actually read itOperating, investing and financing in one picture. How to turn the least-read financial statement into the one people quote.SankeyHow to read a Sankey diagram (in about a minute)Ribbon width is the number, direction is the story. A short guide to reading any Sankey diagram, from energy flows to earnings reports.DataCleaning a messy spreadsheet before you chart itMerged cells, totals inside the data, numbers stored as text. The five problems that break every import, and how to fix them in minutes.