In any organization expenses control represents a key factor for a proper functioning. Department managers and all those responsible with the company financial resources management and resources allocation, would want to have access at any time to the organization status of its revenues, expenses and profit.
Figures are important in any business environment, whether we talk about employees workflow, products or commercial services, as well as customer commitment. All of these represents the data source that we need in order to build business analysis and decide further actions to improve business efficiency.
Data analysis offers the opportunity to see the results obtained, to understand in a simpler and faster way the margin of expenses and revenues, bringing the advantage of better decisions regarding the business environment. The analysis of the indicators or factors that influence the way in which the resources of the company circulate from one month to another and the pursuit for the objectives fulfillment have the role of helping the management identify the optimal solutions regarding the challenges often encountered in the business market.
In order to be permanently connected with the information and data you need, Tableau Software offers to the user “thermometer style chart” analysis. This type of analysis is useful for users who want to track and monitor progress in terms of goals and targets set. Depending on the field of activity of the organization, the users are able to track assigned revenues versus current revenues, profit in comparison to sales, number of calls made versus number of calls needed to reach the goal or any performance compared to a established goal.
“Thermometer Style Chart” analysis displays the reports or the distance between the actual results and the objectives in a unique form. The data and the results are represented by a similar shape like a thermometer, in order to help the user to better understand and easier to visualize the status of objective fulfillment. Each level of performance and its objective are located above each on another, being displayed in the form of mercury rising in a thermometer.
Below you can find a step by step guide which shows you how to create a “Thermometer Style Chart” type analysis, followed by a video demonstration.
In Tableau Desktop, connect to Superstore sample data provided by Tableau Software.
→ Drag the Sales on Column and the Category on Rows.
→ Now, to create the rounded bottom end of your thermometer chart simply double click in the Columns area next to Sum of Sales in order to create a new calculated field with the formula: AVG(0), then enter.
→ Go to the Marks area and select the newly created AVG(0) and change it into Circle.
→ Go to Rows, right click on AVG(0) and select Dual Axis.
→ Right click on the AVG(0) axis at the top and select Synchronize axis from the drop-down menu.
→ Drag the Profit onto your bottom axis – two parallel green lines will appear when you hover over the axis.
→ Go to the Marks area and change the visualization type for Profit and Sales into bar.
→ Go to the Analysis -> Stack Marks -> Off.
→ In order to change the colors, right click on the legend from the top right and to select Edit Colors. Make the color of your progress towards goal (in our case Profit) and the bowl of your thermometer the same color.
→ Select the Entire view visualization type.
→ Hide the secondary axis. For this, right click on the top axis and select Show header.
→ Modify the sizing for the bars and for the circle. For this go to the Marks area -> Size.
→ This is the way we can easily compare Profit to overall Sales using a Thermometer chart
By Adelina Popescu
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