Income Statement and Cash Flow Bridge Chart showing the relationship between financial data components.

All Industries, Financial Model, General Excel Financial Models

Cash Flow Analysis, Chart, Income Statement

This chart is an excellent visual tool that walks you from sales revenues down to net operating income and then further down to operating and total cash flow.

This type of chart is called a waterfall. Waterfall charts are used to explain variances between the numbers. Traditional waterfall charts were set up vertically, but to me, horizontal charts look more convenient and elegant. Aside from horizontal orientation, the chart has a few more enhancements, namely:

Several categories of pillars (primary, secondary), differentiated by format
Movements colored in green or red, depending on the direction of change (positive or negative)

This chart will surely help you make your presentations and memorandums look professional and impress your clients, managers, and colleagues.

All components of the chart are native Excel chart elements and are updated automatically as you change the source data without any manual interventions. The chart is compatible with all versions of Excel and does not use VBA macros.

The attached Excel file contains the chart itself and very detailed step-by-step explanations of how such a chart can be set up from scratch. These instructions will help you both to learn how to create this chart and to change the format and content of the chart as you require.

In addition to visualizing income statements and cash flow statements, you may find other uses of such charts. With waterfall charts, you can, e.g., demonstrate variances between model scenarios by every input (assumption), explain the variances between budget and actual figures, and so on. Let me know if you need any help with this.

You must log in to submit a review.