A pie chart is a graphical data representation technique that is used to show data in a ratio format. Pie charts offer visual clues as to the breakdown of assets, expenses, usage, and other common functionalities in the workplace, household, and elsewhere.
Many people use pie charts for a variety of daily evaluation needs. Pie charts are often used to represent sample data, and it’s typical to hear references to a “slice of the pie” in terms of percentages of the whole. The size of each one of these slices is directly proportional to the percentage of the whole of the thing being measured in a pie chart. One thing that many people wonder is how to create an Excel pie chart. In fact, these are a fairly simple data representation that anybody can accomplish with the use of Excel software. This is a robust software package that allows users to manipulate and represent data in a variety of different ways, including the use of pie chart representations.
Continue reading to learn more about how pie charts can influence your understanding of particular datasets and how you can create a pie chart that can be used to facilitate any needs that you may have as a business owner, consumer, or in any other role that you play.
Pie charts offer a new means of understanding data.
The use of a pie chart is often found in business settings. Business managers understand the importance of representational and fractional data in their ongoing daily tasks. Visualizing sales, budgets, and other elements of business in the format of percentages rather than total dollar figures or other total numbers is a great way to understand long trending assets, liabilities, and other elements of the brand’s capabilities. shifting your perspective to think in terms of percentages is something that many people don’t take advantage of in their daily lives.
Indeed, thinking in terms of percentages can help you identify areas of weakness in your business, or places in your personal budget in which change can be affected for the greatest possible outcome. In terms of budgets, pie chart users are able to understand where their cash flow is being directed in a fractional sense rather than an aggregate total. One area where this is an important consideration is in the ongoing financial squeeze that many families and businesses are seeing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
As an example, the average consumer spends somewhere between 15 and 30 percent of their monthly budget on groceries and other household purchases in this space. By building a budget that utilizes a pie chart rather than bar graphs or any other data visualization technique, you can identify whether your month over month spending is on pace with this average or exceeding it. Likewise, a household that is looking to minimize expenses in order to create additional capital for a vacation, renovation, or other spending needs, can utilize a pie chart to great effect, allowing them to understand where their money is going and how they can minimize expenses in order to create better savings habits over the long term.
Creating a pie chart is simple in Excel.
Excel spreadsheets are a great place for creating datasets that can be used to build pie charts and many other visualization tools. in order to build a nuanced pie chart it’s best to begin with the data you want to represent. Creating a spreadsheet that incorporates all the important data can be done through plugins built on cloud technology, user input, and other means. Once the data has been aggregated in the sheet, outputting a pie chart is as simple as using the tools built into the programming. Selecting the cells that will be used to create the table is simple, and then you can get started analyzing the information.
Start using pie charts for your analysis today.
