Creating an actual vs budget chart in Excel step by step
In Excel, you can create the actual vs target chart to show if each project reaches the target value as below screenshot shown. Here, in this tutorial, it introduces how to create the actual vs budget chart in Excel step by step and how to use a powerful chart tool to quickly handle this job.
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Create actual vs budget chart in Excel with 6 steps
Create actual vs budget chart in Excel with 3 steps by using a powerful Charts tool
Target values as bars
1. Select the data range, and click Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart > Clustered Column. See screenshot:
2. In the inserted chart, right click at the Actual Value series，then in the context menu, click Format Data Series.
Tip: if the target value series is the second series in the chart, in this step, you need to right click at the Target Value series.
3. In popping Format Data Series pane (in Excel 2010 or prior versions, there is popping a dialog box) check Secondary Axis option, then adjust the percentage in Gap Width until the Actual Value Series looks thinner than the Target Value series.
Now an actual vs budget chart is created.
Optional steps:
4. Remove the secondary y axis.
5. Change the series fill color as you need. Right click at the Actual series, select Format Data Series in the context menu. In the Format Data Series pane, under Fill & Line tab, check Solid fill option, and change filled color in Color drop-down list. See screenshot:
6. Change the title as you need.
Target values as Lines
1. Select the data range, and click Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart > Clustered Column. See screenshot:
2. In the inserted chart, right click at the Target Value series， and click Change Series Chart Type in the context menu.
3. In popping Change Chart Type dialog, click the drop-down list next to Target Value in the Choose the chart type and axis for your data series section, select Line with Markers chart and then click OK. See screenshot.
4. Right click at the Line with Markers chart, select Format Data Series from the context menu.
5. In the Format Data Series pane, under Fill & Line tab, go to the Line section, and check No line option in the Line options group.
6. Go to the Marker section, under Marker Options group, check Built-in option, choose the line type from the drop-down list of Type, then change the Size as you need.
Now the target values as lines chart has been created.
Also, you can change the fill color of the series, chart title as you need.
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Tip: If you want to use the actual vs budget chart next time, you can save this chart to the Auto Text tool of Kutools for Excel which can collect charts and allow you to reuse them in anywhere anytime, what you only need to do is change the references of the chart to match your real need. Click for free download it now. |
If you have Kutools for Excel installed, you can apply the Target and Actual Chart tool from the Charts group to quickly solve this job with 3 clicks.
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After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:
1. Click Kutools > Charts > Progress > Target and Actual Chart.
2. In the Actual vs Target Chart dialog, select one chart type you want to create in the Chart Type section, then select x labels, target values and actual values as you need.
3. Click Ok, then a target vs actual chart has been created.
Tip:
1. if you are the first time using this tool, you can click the Sample button to show how this tool work.
2. you can change the chart color in the Format tab in Excel.
Sample File
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