Like a pie chart, bar/ column chart is also the simplest and widely used graph. When bars are plotted vertically, it is called column chart and when bars are plotted horizontally, it is called bar Chart. Length of bar is determined by the category value. Here we can plot multiple bars; each bar representing single value for subcategory, like Sales for Jan and Target for Jan. Main Category, is distinguished by the colour of the bars. Refer adjoining graph. There are two bars for each month, differentiated by colour.

With a little tweak, both target and achievement can be displayed using a single bar which is called a stacked bar chart. Like a pie chart, a stack bar chart is the sum of all categories; that is, all categories must sum up to 100% to form the stacked bar. Height of Bar is determined by the sum of all the values of categories. To make a stacked bar chart for target and sales, Target can be split into Achieved Sales and Pending Sales.

Target Sales= Pending Sales(Sales Gap)+Achieved Sales(Actual Sales)

Problem with above formula arises when Sales is higher than Target. In such cases Sales Gap is negative. Net output is equal to Target but Sales Gap is negative which visually contradicts Total Sales. To overcome such problems we have to take absolute values of Sales Gap and colour-code this gap based on actual values of Sales and Target. In the adjoining graph, green colour is sales lead; that is sales is higher than the target and red colour is sales lag, that is sales less than the target. All the bars with Sales lead having height more than the target and all the sales lag bar having height exactly equal to target. It is made possible by adding a hidden column in a table, whenever Sales is greater than Target choose Sales otherwise choose Target for displaying total Sales.

It is similar to a stacked bar chart. But unlike the cumulative height of categories in a stacked bar graph, a 'bar inside bar'; each category bar is plotted with its different height. In stacked bar graph; graphs are plotted one above the other whereas in a 'bar inside bar' all subcategory bars share the same base. Here we play with the width of the bars. Outer bars are plotted with a larger width than inner bars. In a programming point of view; we change bar mode from stack to overlay. In the adjoining graph Target colour is fixed, Sales lag or lead colour changes based on value. A sales lead is green and sales lag is red.

Bullet chart is exactly similar to gauge chart, but instead of a circular axis, it has a horizontal axis. It more resembles to bar chart due to horizontal axis. Like the gauge chart, we can show a separate target line, achieved value steps- if we wish to categories performance. It is also called an Indicator chart. Like gauge chart it is mostly used to display final performance at any time point rather than for series, otherwise, we will have plot multiple indicators for entire series. i.e, 12 indicator for 12 months.

Scatter plot is two-dimensional Cartesian product plot, where one value is plotted on the x-axis and another value on the y-axis. The intersection of values on two axes becomes position for the marker. Scatter plots can be multidimensional; we can play with colour, size and shape of marker. Shape and colour can be applied to categorical data and size can be used for numerical values. In the adjoining figure, circle denotes targets whereas a sale is denoted by a triangle. Additionally, colour is applied to denote whether sales is higher than the target or less a.k.a sales lag or sales lead. Based on value; up-triangle with the green colour or down triangle red colour is displayed in the plot.

A line chart is the extension of the scatter plot. Markers plotted in the scatter plot are connected with lines to make a line chart. Entire series is plotted as one single line. In scatter plot if points are plotted at distance; that is; small series, it becomes difficult to identify the trend for that series. Line chart visually helps to identify trend/correlations exists in underlying data. In the adjoining plot, one line represents the sale and another is for the target.

An area chart is the extension of the line chart. The area below the line is filled with colour or texture to visually differentiate quantities. The entire area below the line and area above and beside axes is shaded. An area chart is used for comparing two quantities. An issue with Area chart is higher value over-shades lower value. So if series having all the values lower than another series then only higher value series remains visible. To ensure both series remain visible in the plot, during coding; we have to plot lower value data series first.

Butterfly chart is a type of bar chart. It compares two categories at a particular point of time; by plotting them side by side. This graph generally used for sensitivity analysis. It is also called a tornado chart. Here Target and Sales are plotted on two different sides of the y-axis. From a programming point of view, these are two different graphs plotted next to each other; y-axis of one graph is hidden, instead of negative x-axis we have positive x-axis on both sides of y-axis.