How do you compare budget vs actual performance using data visualization?

2 What types of data visualization can you use?

When comparing budget vs actual performance, there are various types of data visualization that you can use, depending on your purpose, audience, and data characteristics. Bar charts are helpful for displaying the differences between categories, while line charts are useful for demonstrating changes over time. Pie charts can be used to illustrate the proportions of a whole, and tables are great for showing exact numbers and details. Dashboards can provide a summary of multiple data visualizations, such as budget and actual values for different metrics.

3 How to design effective data visualizations?

In order to design effective data visualizations that can compare budget vs actual performance, there are some best practices you should follow. It's important to know your purpose and audience before creating any data visualization, as this will help you choose the right type, format, and style. You need to select the relevant data that is most important for your purpose and audience, making sure it is clean, accurate, and consistent. The type of data visualization should be chosen carefully, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each type and how they can affect interpretation and perception. Clear and consistent labels, titles, and legends should be used to explain the data and data visualization. Additionally, colors, shapes, and icons should be used to enhance the data and visualization rather than distract or confuse the audience; they should also be meaningful, consistent, and accessible.

4 What tools can you use to create data visualizations?

There are many tools available for creating data visualizations, depending on your needs, preferences, and skills. Excel is a popular spreadsheet software that can generate basic data visualizations such as bar charts, line charts, pie charts, and tables. Power BI is a business intelligence and analytics software that enables users to create advanced data visualizations like dashboards, maps, gauges, and slicers. Tableau offers interactive and dynamic data visualizations such as dashboards, maps, treemaps, and histograms. Google Data Studio is a free and easy-to-use data visualization and reporting software that creates simple yet elegant data visualizations like dashboards, charts, tables, and maps. All of these tools allow users to connect to various data sources, transform and model data, explore and analyze data, share and publish reports, customize and style reports, embed them online, collaborate on insights, and communicate findings.

5 How to evaluate your data visualizations?

Once you have created your data visualizations, it is important to evaluate them to ensure that they are effective, accurate, and impactful. To guide your evaluation, ask yourself questions such as: do the visualizations align with the purpose and audience? Do they use the right type and format of data visualization? Are labels, titles, and legends clear and consistent? Are colors, shapes, and icons used wisely? Are there any errors, inconsistencies, or anomalies? These questions will help you assess whether the visualizations convey the message clearly and convincingly, use the appropriate amount of data, show relevant information, suit the data and message, explain the data well, enhance the visualization rather than distract or confuse the audience, and reflect the data quality and accuracy.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?