The Waterfall Chart

A one-page waterfall chart — the bridge chart accountants and analysts reach for — that shows how a running figure climbs and falls from zero to where it lands. List the steps in order and sign each amount: a plus climbs, a minus drops. Each bar floats at the running total, starting exactly where the last one ended, so you see the story of the number rather than just its final value — the income that lifted it, the rent that took it back down, the small leaks that added up. Green bars climb and red bars drop, so the colour reads the trend for you, and dashed connectors carry your eye from each step to the next. A solid slate bar at the end, anchored to the baseline, marks where you landed, and it handles a total that dips below zero — the bridge simply crosses under the line. A single 'you have $4,380 left' hides how you got there; laid out as a bridge, every gain and every drain is visible in one glance, which makes it far easier to see where the money, the hours, or the headcount actually went. Use it for a monthly cash bridge, a revenue-to-profit walk, a budget variance, a day's 24 hours, a headcount change, or any before-and-after where the steps in between are the whole point. Type signed amounts and the bars stack and colour themselves with a closing total; leave them off to print the empty axis and sketch the bridge by hand.

• Landscape
• 1 page
• Planning

Best for: Walking a running total from a starting figure through signed ups and downs to a final total — a cash bridge, profit walk, or budget variance — as floating green/red bars.