Create an Excel Chart Showing Daily Sales Increases and Decreases in WPS Office
Question details
The user needs to create a chart that compares each day's sales with the previous day and displays daily increases and decreases instead of the raw daily sales totals.
- Product
- WPS Office Spreadsheet
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- The user has daily sales totals and wants a waterfall-style chart that shows the change from the previous day, such as 10 to 5 displaying a decrease of 5 and 5 to 7 displaying an increase of 2.
- Observed behavior
- A standard Excel waterfall chart adds the daily sales values, so it does not show whether sales increased or decreased compared with the previous day.
Prepare a worksheet with a day or date column and a daily sales column. Identify the exact cells containing the daily sales values because the helper formula will subtract the previous row from the current row.
Create a Daily Change Column and Build a Clustered Column Chart
Use this method when you need the chart to show daily increases and decreases compared with the previous day rather than raw daily totals.
A standard Excel waterfall chart cannot calculate differences from independent daily sales totals by itself. You need a helper column that subtracts the previous day's sales from the current day's sales, then plot that helper as the increase/decrease series in a clustered column chart.
In your WPS Office Spreadsheet worksheet, click the cell next to the second day's sales value. If sales are in B2:B4, click C3, type =B3-B2, and press Enter. Then drag the fill handle down to copy the formula for the remaining days.
Select the day labels in column A along with the original Sales column and the new Daily Change column, then click the Insert tab on the ribbon.
In the Charts group, click Insert Column or Bar Chart and choose Clustered Column from the 2-D Column options.
Right-click one of the chart series, choose Format Data Series, and set Series Overlap to 100% so the Daily Change bars align with the sales bars and the differences become the visible change series.
Right-click the Daily Change series, choose Format Data Series, and under Fill & Line enable Invert if negative and set the negative color. Right-click the series again, choose Add Data Labels, and format the labels to show the exact increase or decrease.
Create a Daily Sales Increase/Decrease Chart in WPS Office Spreadsheet
Use a simple helper column and clustered column chart in WPS Office Spreadsheet to show daily sales changes compared with the previous day. The resulting workbook remains fully compatible with Excel .xlsx files, formulas, and chart formatting.
- 1. Open your sales workbook: Launch WPS Office Spreadsheet and open the Excel workbook that contains your daily sales data.
- 2. Calculate the daily change: Click the cell next to the second day's sales value, type =B3-B2 or the equivalent formula for your layout, press Enter, and fill the formula down through the last sales row.
- 3. Insert a clustered column chart: Select the day labels, sales values, and Daily Change values, then go to Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart > Clustered Column.
- 4. Format the increase and decrease bars: Right-click the Daily Change series, set Series Overlap to 100%, enable Invert if negative, and choose distinct colors for positive and negative changes.
- 5. Save as an Excel-compatible file: Click Menu > Save As, choose .xlsx format, and keep the chart and helper column in the saved workbook for future updates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a standard waterfall chart show total sales instead of daily increases or decreases?
A standard waterfall chart treats each value as an independent total or running total. It cannot automatically compare each day with the previous day, so you need a helper column with a formula such as =B3-B2 to calculate the change.
Can I create this chart without adding a Daily Change column?
No. WPS Office Spreadsheet and Microsoft Excel cannot infer daily differences from independent positive sales totals. You must create a calculated Daily Change or equivalent helper series and plot it as the increase/decrease series.
How do I make decreases appear in a different color from increases?
Right-click the Daily Change series and open Format Data Series. Under Fill & Line, enable Invert if negative and select a separate negative color so decreases stand out.
How do I show the exact increase or decrease amount on each bar?
Right-click the Daily Change series and choose Add Data Labels. Then format the labels to display the change value, or use a custom number format such as +0;-0 to show the sign direction.
Does this chart method work in WPS Office and Microsoft Excel?
Yes. The helper formula, clustered column chart, series overlap, and negative value formatting work in both applications, and you can save the workbook as an .xlsx file for Excel compatibility.
