Waterfall

See exactly what drives the change between a start and an end value with a flexible, story-driven Waterfall chart.

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About

About Waterfall

See exactly what drives the change between a start and an end value with the Waterfall Viz Extension. This extension breaks a total down into a sequence of positive and negative steps, turning bridge analysis into a clear, story-driven visualization right inside your Tableau dashboards.

Whether you’re explaining a revenue bridge, a headcount roll-forward, a profit & loss breakdown, or a budget-to-actual variance, this waterfall delivers a flexible, polished way to show how you got from one number to the next.

A single total hides the story behind it. Waterfall charts reveal it, step by step, showing which factors pushed the value up, which pulled it down, and how everything reconciles to the final result. The Waterfall Viz Extension makes that story effortless to build, with filter-reactive start and end totals, automatic running totals, and subtotals that keep even complex bridges easy to read.

Gallery

See Waterfall in action

Key features

Everything you need

Flexible inputs: build from deltas or absolute values, by dimension or by measure
Smart totals with automatic running totals and a variance bar when steps don’t reconcile
Subtotals added manually after any step or auto-generated by hierarchy
Targets shown as a line, a bar, or both, with custom styling and labels
Separate colors for increases, decreases, totals, subtotals, and variance

Best used for

When Waterfall shines

Revenue bridges and profit & loss breakdowns
Headcount roll-forwards and budget-to-actual variance
Any start → changes → end story

Setup

Setup in Tableau

Two short phases: add the Viz Extension to your workbook once, then drop the relevant fields on the new Marks Card.

Phase 1

Add the extension to Tableau

Open the Marks card and choose Add Extension On any Tableau worksheet (Desktop, Cloud or Server), open the Marks card dropdown and select "Add Extension". A new dialog will list available Viz Extensions.
Pick the Exchange listing or upload the .trex file Either choose "Access Extensions on the Exchange" for the free hosted build, or click "Access local extensions" and upload the .trex file you received with your LaDataViz license.
Review and accept the data-access prompt Tableau will ask you to allow the extension to read the worksheet's aggregated data. Accept it — a new Viz Extension Marks Card will appear next to Color, Size, Tooltip, etc.

Tableau's official Viz Extensions guide

Phase 2

Configure Waterfall

By Dimension: drop a Measure on Value and a Dimension on Detail. By Measure: drop several Measures on Value for one bar per measure. Optionally add a Measure on Start Total and/or End Total.
Click Format Extension to configure totals, subtotals, colors, connectors, and labels.

Security & Privacy

Enterprise-grade by design

Every LaDataViz Viz Extension is built so your data never leaves Tableau. Here's exactly how we keep it that way.

No data is ever stored As a recognized Tableau Partner, your data is never stored anywhere — not even temporarily. Everything runs in your browser.

Only aggregated data The extension cannot access your data source’s raw fields. It only reads the aggregated marks the Worksheet already displays.

Cloud or on-premise Use the hosted cloud version, or deploy a packaged build inside your own environment with no internet connection required.

Trusted by Tableau Listed on the official Tableau Exchange, with free tiers hosted by Tableau themselves and reviewed against their security guidelines.

Read the full Privacy & Licensing Agreement (PDF)