Power BI waterfall chart: from revenue to net income, step by step

In short

What is a waterfall? A waterfall (or bridge) chart shows how you get from one value to another, step by step: a start bar, one bar going up or down for each step, an end bar. Each step bar "floats": it starts where the previous one ends.

Mini example: a simplified income statement.

Account	Amount
Revenue	1,000
Cost of sales	−400
Staff costs	−250
Rent	−80
Other income	+30
Result	300

The waterfall starts at 0, climbs to 1,000, drops by 400, then by 250, then by 80, rises by 30 and ends at 300: you see at a glance where the money goes.

Waterfall Plume draws two charts:

• the classic waterfall, like Power BI's waterfall chart, plus what users have been asking for for years: a start value, a budget-to-actual bridge, subtotals ★ ("Gross margin", "EBITDA"), horizontal bars ★, a hidden or renamed total, a custom order, grouping of small steps ★;
• the price-volume-mix bridge, which explains a revenue change between two periods by three effects: you sold more (volume), you sold more expensive products (mix), prices changed (price). The visual computes it product by product, without complex DAX.

The visual picks by itself: as soon as a measure is in Quantity (price-volume-mix), it is the price-volume-mix bridge; otherwise, it is a waterfall. Format › Waterfall › Chart type forces one or the other.

• When to use it: income statement, cash flow (opening balance → flows → closing balance), variance to budget by department or region, year-over-year change by channel, revenue or margin change explained by price, volume and mix.
• When to use something else: to compare values that do not add up (rates, averages), use Bar Plume; to follow a trend over many periods, Line Plume.
• By the end, you will know how to: build a waterfall from a table; add a start value and a renamed total; build a budget-to-actual bridge; explain the year-over-year change by channel (Breakdown); add subtotals ★; build a price-volume-mix bridge.
• What you need: Power BI Desktop, the Waterfall Plume visual installed (see the shared basics), a table with a category and an amount. The PlumeWaterfall-Sample-EN sample report, in your Downloads space, shows the waterfall ("3 · Waterfall (new in 1.3)" page) and the price-volume-mix bridge (pages 1 and 2).

The data to provide

The expected shape: one row per step. The category (account, department, region…) is a column; the amount is a measure (a calculation that Power BI redoes according to the filters, written in DAX; see the glossary). The sign matters: a cost is negative.

Sample dataset (Result table, fictitious data):

Account	Order	Amount
Revenue	1	1000
Cost of sales	2	-400
Staff costs	3	-250
Rent	4	-80
Marketing	5	-60
Other income	6	30
Taxes	7	-50

In Power BI Desktop, on the Modeling › New table tab, paste:

Result =
DATATABLE (
    "Account", STRING,
    "Order", INTEGER,
    "Amount", DOUBLE,
    {
        { "Revenue", 1, 1000 },
        { "Cost of sales", 2, -400 },
        { "Staff costs", 3, -250 },
        { "Rent", 4, -80 },
        { "Marketing", 5, -60 },
        { "Other income", 6, 30 },
        { "Taxes", 7, -50 }
    }
)

Then the measure (Modeling › New measure):

// Adds up the amounts of the filtered rows
Total amount = SUM ( Result[Amount] )

To show the accounts in income statement order, select the Account column, then Column tools › Sort by column › Order. The visual keeps the model order (Step order = Data order (model)).

Preparation pitfalls:

• The sign. A cost entered as a positive number goes up instead of down: multiply it by −1 in the measure, or in the table.
• The order. Without "Sort by column", Power BI sorts the accounts alphabetically.
• A subtotal row in your data ("Gross margin"): either remove it, or declare it as a subtotal ★ (its value is then replaced by the running total; see the how-to guides).
• Values that do not add up (rates, averages) make no sense in a waterfall.

For the price-volume-mix bridge, you also need a quantity: see the how-to guide "How do I explain a revenue change by price, volume and mix?".

Step by step: your first waterfall in 10 minutes

Start from the Result table and the Total amount measure.

1. In the Visualizations pane, click the Waterfall Plume icon. Enlarge the empty frame.
2. Drag the Account column to the Category (or Product) field.
3. Drag the Total amount measure to the Values (amount) field. The waterfall appears: 7 step bars, green going up, red going down, then a Total bar at 190. The axis starts at zero, like in Power BI.
4. Hover the "Rent" bar. The tooltip gives the amount, its Share of total and the Running total reached after this step.
5. In the Format pane, Waterfall card, Start, subtotals and total group, type Net income in Total label.
6. In the Data labels card, type $ in Prefix.
7. In the Bars card, set Connector style to Solid.
8. Click the "Marketing" bar: the other visuals of the page are filtered on this account (cross-filtering). Click an empty spot of the visual to clear.
9. In the Title card, type From revenue to net income.

Expected result: a readable waterfall from revenue ($1,000) to net income ($190), in income statement order, with no watermark: this whole walkthrough uses free features.

Troubleshooting

What you see	Likely cause	Fix
A price-volume-mix bridge instead of a waterfall	A measure is in Quantity (price-volume-mix)	Remove it, or set Waterfall › Chart type to Waterfall
"Add a "Period" field (at least two values), or the "Reference quantity" and "Reference value" measures."	Price-volume-mix bridge with no period and no reference	Add a Period, or both reference measures
Accounts in alphabetical order	No "Sort by column" on the category	Column tools › Sort by column, or Step order = Custom list
A cost goes up instead of down	Amount entered as a positive number	Flip its sign in the measure
Red "Subtotals not found (unknown step name)" message	Misspelled step name in Subtotals ★	Copy the exact name (case does not matter)
A "Gap" bar before the end	The measured end value differs from start + steps	Expected: it is the check; review the data or remove End value (check)
Total bars cut by a zigzag mark	Start at zero is off (broken axis)	Turn on Value axis › Start at zero (otherwise: broken axis)
No percentage in the labels	Waterfall without a start: a share of the total would be misleading	Add a Start value or a Reference value; the share stays in the tooltip
A watermark appears	A ★ feature is in use	See the how-to guide "avoid the watermark", or add a key
Warning icon at the top of the visual	More than 10,000 rows (or products) or 60 periods	Filter the page, or group small steps ★

Key takeaways

• Category + Values = a waterfall from zero with a total at the end, like Power BI; a Quantity = a price-volume-mix bridge.
• Reference value = budget-to-actual bridge; Start value and End value = cash flow with a gap check.
• Breakdown = the change from one category to the next, item by item, like the native visual.
• Subtotals, horizontal bars and grouping of small steps are ★; start, total, order and connectors are free.
• Direction is always written with ▲▼, never shown by color alone.

Learn more

• Waterfall Plume how-to guides: recipes for common needs.
• Waterfall Plume fields and settings: every field well and every setting.
• Getting started with Plume visuals: installation, license, styles and shared settings.
• The visual's page: Waterfall Plume. A question? Support.