MVP #55: How To Make One Of Those Amazing Financial Charts That Have Bars In A Bar

I recently got a mail from one of the finance managers I trained. Occasionally, I get such high profile clients. Usually CFOs who are changing jobs or wanting advanced knowledge of Excel to complement their very high finance and accounting domain knowledge. I do a one-on-one training for them which I currently bill at N50,000/day.

So in the email, he attached a particular chart and asked how to make a similar one. Below is a snapshot of the chart type he sent.

We’ll make for this table. Download the practice file here: Creative Chart File

UrBizedge Yearly Revenue
UrBizedge	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017	FY2018
Expenses	₦ 63,000,000	₦ 78,750,000	₦ 98,437,500	₦ 123,046,875	₦ 153,808,594	₦ 192,260,742
Tax	₦ 15,924,093	₦ 16,480,479	₦ 19,062,787	₦ 11,381,509	₦ 13,075,861	₦ 10,050,507
Revenue	₦ 75,600,000	₦ 113,400,000	₦ 170,100,000	₦ 204,120,000	₦ 306,180,000	₦ 459,270,000

Insert a chart: Column Chart.

Also choose the first chart layout under design. So the labels will be under the charts, like the one under.

Rightclick on the Expenses chart bar and move to secondary axis. Do same for tax too.

The end result is:

Next is to give the secondary axis the same range (0 to 500million) as the primary axis.

Now make the Expense and Tax bars overlap. Rightclick on any of them, format data series and set to overlap.

Last major step is to expand the Revenue bar by reducing the gaps between the bars.

Final stage is to delete the secondary axis and give the chart a title.

Download the practice file here: Creative Chart File