Quick Charts

Creating many of the charts commonly used in finance and consulting with native Excel functionality alone is complex and tedious. Quick Charts automate much of this complexity, reducing it to just a few mouse clicks.

When you create a new Quick Chart, a preferences dialog presents you with several orientation, sizing, formatting, and labeling options depending on the type of chart you are creating. Each Quick Chart dialog has an Example button that will populate a new Quick Chart with sample data to help you quickly understand the required chart data structure. Macabacus remembers your Quick Chart dialog preferences, and loads them the next time you create a similar chart. For most Quick Charts, Macabacus also builds some options directly into the worksheet containing the chart. These in-worksheet options let you customize the appearance of the chart even after it is created, and whether or not you have Macabacus installed.

Because Macabacus adds calculations and in-worksheet chart options to the workbook when building most Quick Charts, most Quick Charts are created on new worksheets so that these modifications do not interfere with the structure of the worksheet containing the original chart data.

Waterfall charts, also known as bridge charts, are often used to show adjustments driving changes in a single metric (e.g., net income) from one period to another.

To insert a waterfall chart, click the Macabacus > Charts > Waterfall Chart button. Chart options let you display labels in different positions—like centered on data points or above/below adjustments depending on whether adjustments are positive or negative. You can customize the three colors used in waterfall charts, and optionally show "bridge lines" connecting the tops/bottoms of columns shown in the chart to facilitate visual interpretation of the chart.

Football field charts, also known as floating bar/column charts, are often used to display valuation ranges computed using different valuation methods (e.g., P/E, EV/EBITDA, DCF).

To insert a football field chart, click the Macabacus > Charts > Football Field Chart button. These charts can be oriented as either bars (extending horizontally) or columns (extending vertically). You can optionally show average and median lines that extend the width or height of the chart, as applicable, showing the average/median value of all ranges shown in the chart. The "bonus line" lets you include a similar line at a value you specify, such as a price target or offering price.

Macabacus' stacked column chart is similar to those you create natively in Excel, except that you can (a) optionally include totals at the tops of the columns, (b) show percentages rather than amounts in the data labels (advisable when showing the vertical value axis and column totals), (c) omit data labels for small values where label text would otherwise overflow the bounds of the associated data point (i.e., block), and (d) automatically apply your Macabacus chart series colors. To insert a stacked column chart, click the Macabacus > Charts > Stacked Column Chart button.

Butterfly charts, also known as tornado charts, are often used to compare similar metrics for two companies, business units, etc.

To insert a butterfly chart, click the Macabacus > Charts > Butterfly Chart button. You can orient the chart with categories (e.g., sales, net income) on the left axis, or down the middle of the chart separating the two series of data being compared. Several data label positioning options are also available.

When you orient the butterfly chart with category labels in the middle, Macabacus can handle chart data in multiple units. For example, the first section (e.g., top half) of the chart might include income statement figures in dollars, and a second section (e.g., bottom half) might include key summary metrics, like margins and growth rates. To tell Macabacus where sections begin and end, leave the second and third columns in the chart data blank. Macabacus will treat the label in the first column as a section title and apply additional formatting to distinguish it from other category labels.

Marimekko charts, also known as Mekko charts, are two-dimensional stacked charts popular among consultants. They combine the functionality of both stacked column and stacked bar charts, displaying data in blocks that vary in both height and width. These charts are notoriously difficult to construct using native Excel functionality, and a third party solution like Macabacus is usually required to generate them.

To insert a Marimekko chart, click the Macabacus > Charts > Marimekko Chart button. Several options let you customize the text that appears block data labels, how that text is formatted, and omit labels for small blocks where label text would otherwise overflow the block bounds. Many of these options are located on the worksheet containing the chart, so that they can be customized even after the chart has been created.

Scatter Charts are used to visualize the relationship between two numeric variables. To insert a scatter chart, click the Macabacus > Charts > Scatter Chart  button. When inserting the Scatter chart you can choose to include the R2  trend line and statistic.

Prior to Macabacus v8.8, creating a Quick Chart would fail if the default chart template specified in Excel's Insert Chart dialog did not support the type of Quick Chart being created. This occurred with "unusual" default chart templates, such as a candlestick stock chart, but generally not when a "basic" default chart template was selected, such as a stacked column chart. As of v8.8, Macabacus can insert a Quick Chart even when your default chart template is "unusual", but the Quick Chart's formatting may deviate from that specified in your template. The remedy for both scenarios is to select a "basic" chart template with your desired formatting as the default chart template in Excel's Insert Chart Dialog.

If you are still having a problem with Quick Charts, please contact us at support@macabacus.com for help. In addition to the standard information we need to provide effective support, please include your default chart template (a .crtx file). To find your default chart template, open Excel's Insert Chart dialog and click the Manage Templates button (in Excel 2013/2016). You can tell which of your custom templates is the default template by right clicking each custom template in the Insert Chart dialog—the one with the checkmark is the default template.

_{This documentation refers to the latest Macabacus version. Some features and descriptions of these features may not apply to older versions of Macabacus. Update your Macabacus software to take advantage of the latest features.}