Summary

Income statements are commonly shown in a combo chart, with columns plotting revenue and net income, and a line showing the profit margin as a percentage. You can see examples of this on Google's finance pages. This kind of chart is easy to make in later versions of Excel by inserting a combo chart.

The data used to create this chart is shown below:

Data used to create income statement chart

How to make this chart

  1. Select the data and insert a "combo chart"
    Insert > combo chart option
  2. Select the send option - columns with line on secondary axis:
    Select the send option - columns with line on secondary axis
  3. The initial chart looks like this:
    Initial combo chart as inserted
  4. Select revenue columns, then set series overlap and gap with
    Set series overlap to zero and bar width to 60%
  5. Select legend and move to top:
    Select legend and move to top
  6. Select secondary axis and set units to major units to .01 (1%):
    Select secondary axis and set units to major units to .01
  7. Chart at this point:
    Final chart after options

At this point you can finalize the chart by setting the chart title, chart size, and font size for all text.
 

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Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.