Level 1 · Revenue by category as a column chart

A chart never reads raw data well. Forty-six order lines is too much for a picture, and Excel would draw forty-six bars. What a chart needs is a small summary table: one row per bar, one column per series. Building that table is the analyst’s job; the chart is the last step.

Column or bar: comparing categories

When the question is “which category is biggest?”, the answer is a column chart (vertical bars) or a bar chart (horizontal bars). Our eyes compare lengths that start from the same baseline very accurately, so this is the safest chart there is.

Use	When
Column	a few categories with short names, or periods in order
Bar	many categories, or long names (product names read better sideways)

Both start the value axis at zero, and they must: a bar’s length is its value.

Build the table behind the chart

The categories are already listed in F2:F7. For each one you need the sum of revenue where the category matches, which is exactly SUMIF:

G2   =SUMIF($C$2:$C$47,F2,$D$2:$D$47)

Fill it down to G7. Lock the two data ranges, leave F2 relative so each row reads its own category. Then the total and the shares:

G8   =SUM(G2:G7)
H2   =G2/$G$8

G8 should come to 9,080.38, and the six shares in H2:H7 should add up to 100%. If they don’t, a category name in F doesn’t match the data exactly, or a range slid when you filled down.

Making the chart in Excel

The page draws the chart under the grid for practice. In Excel:

1. Select F1:G7 (labels and values, with the headers).
2. Insert → Charts → Column (or Bar). Excel uses the first column as categories and names the series after the header revenue.
3. With the chart selected, the Chart Design tab appears. Add Chart Element adds a Chart Title, Axis Titles (“Revenue, $”), Data Labels (the number on each bar) and the Legend. With one series, delete the legend: it only repeats the title.
4. Sort the summary table largest to smallest first (Data → Sort) so the bars descend. A ranked chart answers “which is biggest?” without anyone hunting.

In Google Sheets it is Insert → Chart, and the same options live in the Chart editor’s Customize tab.

Same numbers as a pie

Use the Chart type menu above the chart to switch to Pie. A pie answers a different question: “what share of the whole is each part?”. It works here because there are only six slices and they really are parts of one total (the day’s revenue). In Excel, select F1:G7 and use Insert → Charts → Pie, then add data labels as percentages in Chart Design.

What the chart shows

Textiles led the day with 3,301.70, 36.4% of the 9,080.38 total, followed by Lighting (2,100.98, 23.1%) and Decor (1,774.80, 19.5%). Outdoor brought in only 289.00 (3.2%), which is normal for October. Read Furniture carefully: 1,165.00 (12.8%) came from just 2 order lines, while Decor needed 15 lines for its total. One day is a small sample, and a single sofa can move a category by a thousand dollars. Before anyone plans stock on this, chart a month.

Common mistakes

• Charting the raw lines. Selecting C1:D47 gives 46 bars, one per line, not one per category.
• Unlocked ranges. =SUMIF(C2:C47,F2,D2:D47) filled down shrinks the ranges row by row.
• A pie for things that are not parts of one whole, or a pie with a dozen slices. Use a bar chart there.
• Leaving the default title. “revenue” tells a reader nothing. Say what, where and when.