Introduction to Variance Chart in Power BI

This article explores the different types of variance charts and shows how Inforiver Analytics+ features enable you to create variance charts with a few simple steps. 

1. What is a Variance chart? 

2. Why are Variance Charts Important? 

3. Types of Variance Chart in Inforiver Analytics+ 

4. IBCS Notations for Variance Charts 

5. Key Features of Variance Charts using Analytics+ in Power BI 

1. What is a Variance Chart? 

A variance chart is a data visualization technique designed to show the difference (variance) between two key measures. Most commonly, it compares: 

• Actual vs. Budget/Plan: How reality stacks up against expectations. 

• Current Period vs. Previous Period: Tracking growth or changes over time (e.g., Year-over-Year, Month-over-Month). 

• Forecast vs. Actual: Evaluating the accuracy of predictions. 

Instead of just showing two separate bars or lines, a variance chart often directly visualizes the gap, highlighting whether you are over, under, or on target, and by how much. This makes deviations immediately apparent. 

Variances can be expressed in two primary ways: 

• Absolute Variance: The raw difference between the two values.  

• Formula: Actual - Plan 

• Purpose: Helps understand the magnitude of the difference. 

• Relative Variance: The difference expressed as a percentage of the comparison value (usually the Plan or Previous Period).  

• Formula: (Actual - Plan) / Plan 

• Purpose: Helps to understand the scale or proportion of the change. 

2. Why Variance Charts are Important 

Visualizing variance isn't just about making reports look good; it provides tangible business value: 

• Performance Monitoring: Quickly see if you are meeting targets or deviating from plans across different departments, products, or regions. 

• Identify Outliers: Easily spot significant positive or negative deviations that require investigation. Is a sudden spike in costs an error or a new trend? Is a sales dip a blip or a market shift? 

• Data-Driven Decisions: Understanding where and why variances occur helps managers allocate resources, adjust strategies, and make timely corrections. 

• Improved Accountability: Clear visualization of performance against goals fosters accountability within teams and departments. 

3.Types of Variance Charts in Inforiver Analytics+ 

While the goal is always to show the difference, variance can be displayed using various chart types, each suited for different contexts and insights. Analytics+ supports a wide array of these, optimized for variance visualization: 

• Integrated Variance Bar/Column Charts: In this chart type, you can show the “Actual” bar and variance from the 'Plan' is overlaid or appended as a separate segment or marker directly on the Actual bar. This makes it easier to see actual and absolute variance in one element. It is best with up to 3 measures. 

• Overlapped Bar/Column Charts: In this chart, you can plot up to 4 measures to compare. Variance (absolute or relative, often shown as columns or lollipops) can be plotted alongside or integrated to highlight the differences between specific measures. Available in Column/Bar Family

• Variance Line/Area Charts: Ideal for showing variance over time. Plotting Actual and Plan/Previous Period as lines, the gap between them visually represents the variance trend. Analytics+ allows filling the area between these lines with color (e.g., green/red fill for favorable/unfavorable variance) for added impact. 

• Vertical Variance Waterfall Charts: Excellent for showing the flow of positive and negative variances contributing to a result. It can easily compare the change from Start to end points with incline/decline to understand the closing values. Useful for bridging the gap between budget and actuals or analyzing cash flow statement changes. 

• Waterfall + Column: Variations of the waterfall chart designed to support the IBCS template. Waterfall + Column shows grouped columns for AC and PL combined with a waterfall chart showing absolute variance. It can be further extended by an additional column (PY) on the Axis. It supports showing relative variances to PL and PY.  

• Side-by-Side Waterfall: Variations of the waterfall chart designed to support the IBCS template C12. This visual allows plotting two waterfall charts with absolute and relative variance between them. This template is best used when you need to present the calculation scheme for different scenarios along with their variances.  

• Bullet Charts: It compares a primary measure (e.g., Actual) against a target measure (e.g., Budget) and often includes qualitative ranges (e.g., poor, satisfactory, good). Here, variances alongside actual and target markers make it easier to spot the gaps. Part of bullet chart.

• Box Plot: International Business Communication Standards (IBCS) identifies the box plot to be particularly helpful in visualizing distributions and identifying variances. They can be used to compare actual vs planned and show data spread.  To learn more visit statistical chart family

4.IBCS Notations for Variance Charts 

The International Business Communication Standards (IBCS®) provide practical guidelines for designing business reports, presentations, and dashboards that are clear, consistent, and easy to understand across organizations and cultures. A key principle of IBCS is the integration of actual values, comparison values (such as budget or prior year), and the resulting variance into a single, cohesive visual element. 

Rather than displaying these figures as separate bars or charts, IBCS recommends combining them in one visual—such as a single bar for the actual value with an overlay, added segment, or connected marker to show the variance. This integrated approach enhances readability and helps users quickly grasp key insights. 

How do Variance Charts follow in IBCS? 

• Semantic Notation: IBCS proposes a standardized visual meaning. "Things that mean the same should look the same." Integrated variance charts excel here by clearly applying IBCS notation within one element:  

• Actuals: Typically, solid fill (e.g., black). 

• Comparisons: Outlined bars (for Plan/Budget) or lighter fill (e.g., grey for Prior Year). Hatched patterns are often used for Forecasts.    

• Variances: Clearly distinguished, often using color. Green typically represents positive or favorable variances (e.g., higher profit, lower cost), while Red indicates negative or unfavorable variances (e.g., lower profit, higher cost). Variances might be shown as overlaying bars, or separate bars integrated into the main chart structure. Percentage variances are often visualized using "lollipops" or pins.    

• Clarity and Efficiency: By integrating the variance, these charts reduce clutter and make the deviation immediately obvious. Viewers don't need to mentally calculate the difference or compare separate bars; the insight is presented directly. 

• Information Density: They often pack more comparative information into a smaller space effectively, without sacrificing clarity. 

Adopting an integrated variance chart style, especially one aligned with IBCS principles, significantly enhances report comprehension, ensures consistency across different reports, and helps users quickly grasp performance deviations, leading to faster and more reliable decision-making. 

5.Key features of Variance Charts using Analytics+ in Power BI 

You can easily build variance charts in Power BI using custom visuals. Inforiver Analytics+ empowers you with all the right features to build a display variance.  

1.Orientation:  

Inforiver Analytics+ supports both horizontal and vertical orientations, allowing you to easily plot visualizations based on screen size and label length to show details properly. 

2.Various Chart Options 

Inforiver Analytics+ supports multiple chart types including bar, column, line, area, waterfall, and bullet to visualize variance. To access these charts, go to the toolbar, select the chart type, and choose the desired chart from the respective family or search for variance.  

All the charts mentioned in this section are available. 

3.Automatic Variance Calculation 

With Inforiver Analytics+, you don’t have to write any additional DAX or code to calculate variances. Simply select multiple measures. It supports up to 4 measures. Drag them into the respective fields in Pivot data. By default, you’ll see an integrated chart. Switch the chart type using the chart slider icon. To manage variances and series, go to the “Manage series” tab. 

4.Manage Series 

Integrated variance charts include absolute variance as part of the default design. In other charts control variance series using the Manage Series option available in the “Measure” tab.  

This allows you to configure the variance type, formula, chart style (pins, column), and responsiveness of variance based on visual space. 

In case of multiple measures, you can add or show more than 1 absolute and relative variances. 

5.Data Colors 

A variance chart includes two additional colors for positive and negative changes other than standard category colors. Inforiver Analytics+ allows you to control the color for variance and invert variance for specific cases. 

To configure this property, go to Settings > Canvas > Variance Colors. 

6.Sorting 

Sorting in variance charts can be done based on category, values, or variances.  

To enable this option in Analytics+, go to the toolbar > select Data, > choose the Sorting option. 

7.Deviation 

To highlight specific differences between two points in a variance chart, you can enable the deviation line. It also allows dynamic deviations such as min-max, first-last, and more. 

8.Conditional Formatting 

In Analytics+, you can highlight different elements of charts based on a given rule. Absolute and relative variances can be used to create rules, and any rule can be applied to variance charts to change the formatting when it’s true. 

9.IBCS-Compliant Charts 

Inforiver Analytics+ supports all IBCS-compliant charts for variance analysis. It automatically calculates absolute and relative variances while following IBCS notations (AC, PL, PY & FC). Furthermore, IBCS guidelines suggest showing total or average bars at the end, which can be enabled from the Analytics tab. 

10.Small Multiples 

All Inforiver Analytics+ charts support trellis mode, allowing you to get a detailed overview of changes across multiple categories.   

You can enable grid or ranked layouts with average panels and more customizations. 

11. KPI Card 

To display overall change or variance, you can enable KPI mode in the chart. This helps you showcase the total actual and budget values along with overall variances. 

12. Multi-measure chart types 

Inforiver Analytics+ supports the multi-measure chart feature. This allows you to choose different chart types for each trellis panel. This allows you to enhance the overall view and break the repetition on screen. 

To enable this, hover on any panel, select the chart icon to choose a different variance-supported chart. This feature is smart enough to only suggest chart types which support similar data types, and it uses the formatting from the main chart as well.  

13. Legend 

Analytics+ supports increase/decrease legends to easily identify which color indicates positive and negative changes. 

14. Data label 

Absolute and relative variance series have data label properties. You can control the display types as min-max, first-last, or all, and manage the color and font properties for labels. 

15.Number Formatting 

Inforiver Analytics+ allows you to manage individual measure formatting, including all variances. You can control the scaling type, decimal points, prefix, and suffix options for values. 

It is helpful when dealing with different scaling data types or customizing different decimal points for actual or absolute variance. 

16. Pixel-perfect export to PDF 

Inforiver Analytics+ supports exporting to PDF with the exact formatting in your report.  

17. Analytics 

Inforiver Analytics+ supports more than 10 types of analytics features, including reference line, band, error bars, and more. One of the important analytics features for variance charts is the total and average bars are also included.  

To compare the overall or average change, enable them from Analytics+. It allows individual or uniform scaling so both total and individual bars can be read without impacting height. 

There are many additional features that are part of Inforiver Analytics+, including modern UI, dynamic annotations, theme support, import/export JSONs, and tooltip customization to deliver high-performance visualization. 

Conclusion 

Variance charts can be a useful visualization for comparative measures. It can clearly communicate the deviations to drive decisions. Inforiver Analytics+ focuses on simplifying the process of plotting a variance chart without any additional coding or DAX. 

Inforiver Analytics+ is a 3-in-1 visual that consolidates all your reporting in one platform. It offers 100+ charts, Gantt, cards, and tables. Learn more 

• Try it Free: Install the trial version directly from AppSource. 

• See it in Action: Watch our demo on "Variance Analysis using Microsoft Power BI" to see Inforiver's bullet chart capabilities. 

Explore our other post on calculating variances from a single measure in Power BI—no DAX required! 

If you are interested in hierarchical variance analysis for tables/matrix, read this blog.