Sparklines, bullet charts, variance bars

1. Sparklines on dashboards

(Basics in the Analysis track, Module 5.) Dashboard-specific tips:

• Source a CALC row (12 months), never raw data.
• Sparkline tab → Axis → Same for All when cards or rows are compared.
• Mark High and Last points; colour the line grey and the markers in the accent.
• Make the cell taller (row height 30) so the line is readable.
• Region rows with Win/Loss sparklines from a +1/−1 "beat target?" row show at a glance which months hit target.

2. Bullet chart — the gauge replacement

A bullet chart shows actual as a dark bar, target as a thin marker, and optional bands (poor / OK / good) behind — in a fraction of a gauge's space and easier to read.

Data in CALC for one region (FY2025-26, ₹ lakh):

(Bands are the widths of each range: 90% of target, then the next 10%, then the next 10%.)

Build:

1. Select Region + the three band columns → Stacked Bar. Colour bands from dark grey to very light grey; gap width 30%.
2. Add Actual as a series → Change Series Chart Type → Clustered Bar on the secondary axis; set its gap width ~250% (thin bar) and colour it dark/accent.
3. Add Target as a series → change to Scatter (x = Target value, y = 0.5 for one row; use 0.5, 1.5, 2.5… for more rows); marker = a vertical line ("|", size 15) or use error bars.
4. Make both value axes the same min/max (0 to 900 here), then hide the secondary axis.

West: the bar stops at 748 — inside the OK band, short of the 809 marker. Many rows (one per region) make a compact target panel.

3. Variance bars

Show actual − target as bars to the left (negative) or right (positive) of a zero line. FY2025-26 by region (₹ lakh):

Option A — chart: Clustered bar of Variance → Format Data Series → Invert if negative (choose red for negatives, green for positives); sort by variance; add data labels; delete the gridlines.

Option B — in-cell: Conditional Formatting → Data Bars on the variance column → Manage Rule → Negative Value and Axis → fill red, axis position Cell midpoint. Positive bars green. Great inside tables and leaderboards.

4. Choosing among the three

Common mistakes

Bullet chart axes not synced (target marker drifts). Bands coloured in red/amber/green (too loud — use greys). Variance bars not sorted. Sparklines each auto-scaled when compared.