Targets, progress and status

Actual-versus-budget combination chart

Combines actual and budget series to compare performance across periods or categories.

Chart
Performance against target
Trend over time

What it answers

How does actual performance compare with budget over time?

Shape: Actual bars and budget line or markers
What it shows: Overspend/underspend or over/underachievement.

Example

The question

Which months came in over or under budget?

Monthly sales against budget, 2025 (EUR million)

Bars show actual sales, white marks the budget. Over budget in March, May, June and September; under in January, February, April and July. October to December show budget only.

Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.

When to use it

Use it when

Periodic budget monitoring.

Avoid it when

Different units, periods or scales obscure the comparison.

How to read it

Compare actual bars with budget markers at the same period.

Note

A business application of a combination chart.

The data you need

Layout: Wide comparison table
Fields: Period or Category: date/text; Actual: number; Budget: number
One row is: One comparable actual-budget pair. What is the grain?
Rules: Match units, period boundaries and scope. Mark missing actuals rather than zero.
Optional: Optional forecast and variance.
Preparation: Validate the input grain and missing values. Match units, period boundaries and scope. Mark missing actuals rather than zero.
Units: Use the measured variable's stated unit consistently. No denominator is implied unless the value is a rate or proportion.

A wide table: one row per item, with a separate column for each measure or period.

Worked example

Jan actual 80, budget 100; Feb 110, budget 105. Gaps are-20 and+5 units respectively.

Period	Actual	Budget
2026-01	80	100
2026-02	110	105

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