How to Make a Cash Flow Diagram in Excel? (2024)

A Cash Flow Diagram is one of the crucial tools you need to account for every coin getting in and out of your business.

So, what is it?

You can use this chart to visualize the expenses and income generated by your business for clarity.

The visualization design comes in handy in organizing and examining securities, especially investment swaps. You can also leverage it to track installment plans for bonds, mortgages, and other kinds of credits.

The charts are amazingly easy to read and interpret.

Excel lacks ready-made Cash Flow Diagrams for your visualization needs. You don’t have to dump this spreadsheet app in favor of other expensive instruments.

You have an option of installing a particular add-in to access ready-made and insightful Cash Flow Diagrams for your data stories. Keep reading to discover more.

In this blog, you’ll learn:

Table of Contents:

1. What is a Cash Flow Diagram?
2. What is a Cash Flow Diagram Generator?
3. Benefits of Using a Cash Flow Chart Generator
4. How to Create a Flow Diagram with the Best Cash Flow Diagram Generator?
5. How to Make a Cash Flow Diagram in Excel?
6. Video Tutorial: How to Make a Cash Flow Chart in Excel?
7. How to Visualize Cash Flow Effectively in Excel?
8. Tips for Creating an Effective Cash Flow Diagram Generator
9. How to Choose the Right Cash Flow Diagram Generator?
10. Wrap Up

Before jumping right into the how-to guide, we’ll address the following question: what is a Cash Flow Diagram?

What is a Cash Flow Diagram?

Definition: A Cash Flow Diagram in Excel is a visualization that displays insights into the income and expenses in a specified time. It consists of nodes and flows that represent the cash in and out-flows.

Cash flow is the net amount of cash and cash equivalents coming in and out of your business.

The cash you’ve received represents inflows. On the other hand, the expenditures represent outflows. Your ability to create value for shareholders is determined by your brand’s ability to generate positive cash flows. You can also use a Stacked Waterfall Diagram to show positive and negative cash flows same as a simple Waterfall diagram.

The amount of data you can capture with cash flow models is massive. And this means you risk analysis paralysis if you don’t visualize this data for clarity.

This is where Cash Flow Diagrams, such as the Sankey Diagram, come in.

What is a Cash Flow Diagram Generator?

Definition: A cash flow diagram generator is a tool for creating a visual representation of your cash flow. It helps you to analyze your financial situation and make better decisions when managing your finances. It uses charts, graphs, and other visuals to illustrate the flow of cash. You can use it to track income, expenses, and investments.

This tool is useful for both individuals and businesses. It helps you identify potential cash flow problems and take the necessary steps to address them.

Cash flow analysis involves analyzing an organization’s inflow and outflow of cash. It helps assess a business’s overall financial health and forecast future cash flow. In addition, it helps to identify the sources of cash, such as sales, investments, and loans. It is vital in identifying cash usages, such as operating expenses, capital expenditures, and debt repayment.

Benefits of Using a Cash Flow Chart Generator

• It can help you to understand your financial situation better. You can identify potential cash flow problems and make better financial decisions.
• It makes financial analysis easier. With a 3-statement financial model, you can identify areas of financial strength and weakness. It can also help pinpoint areas that require improvement.
• You can use cash flow charts to forecast your cash flow and plan for the future.
• You can track income, expenses, and investments over some time.
• It can assist you in communicating your financial situation to stakeholders.

How to Create a Flow Diagram with the Best Cash Flow Diagram Generator?

This reporting typically includes details on expenses, vendor payments, budget adherence, and other financial transactions, presented in a structured and comprehensible format. It may also encompass tools and methods, such as how to generate a monthly budget in Excel, to aid stakeholders, executives, or relevant teams in assessing and acting upon the financial data.

ChartExpo is a customized chart maker to suit your needs. You can add labels and descriptions to the charts to make them easier to understand.

Let’s learn how to Install ChartExpo in Excel.

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click on the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps”.
4. In the office Add-ins window, click on “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click on the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts and graphs are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

In the coming section, you’ll discover how to make a Cash Flow Diagram in Excel.

How to Make a Cash Flow Diagram in Excel?

Excel is one of the most used visualization instruments. However, the spreadsheet application lacks ready-made Cash Flow Diagrams, such as the Sankey Diagram.

We’re not advising you to do away with Excel in favor of other expensive tools.

This is because there’s an amazingly affordable visualization tool that comes as an add-in you can easily install in Excel to access insightful and ready-to-go Cash Flow Diagrams. The tool is called ChartExpo.

So, what is ChartExpo?

ChartExpo is an add-in you can easily install in your Excel without needing tutorials.

With many ready-to-go charts, graphs, and maps, the ChartExpo turns your complex, raw data into easy-to-interpret and visually appealing Cash Flow Diagrams using Sankey Chart in Excel that tell data stories in real-time.

More benefits

• ChartExpo is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product, which makes it extremely light. You have a 100% guarantee that your Excel won’t be slowed down.
• You can export your charts in JPEG, PDF, SVG, and PNG formats.
• ChartExpo add-in is only $10 a month after the end of the trial period.

In the coming section, we’ll take you through how to plot a Cash Flow Diagram in Excel.

Example # 1

This section will use a Sankey Diagram to visualize the tabular data below for analyzing cash flow.

• To install ChartExpo into your Excel, click this link.
• Open the worksheet and click the Insert button to access the My Apps option.

• Select ChartExpo add-in and clickthe Insert button.

• Once ChartExpo is loaded, you will see a list of charts. Look for the “Sankey Chart”, as shown below.

• Select the data in the worksheet and click the Create Chart From Selection button, as shown.

• Check out the final Cash Flow Diagram in Excel.

Example # 2

Let’s create a cash flow diagram using the Sankey Chart from a company’s cash flow data below.

Step 1

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
• Now, click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

Step 2

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

Step 3

• Once ChartExpo is loaded. Click on “Sankey Chart” from the list of charts.

Step 4

• Click the “Create Chart From Selection” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• The Sankey Chart will look as follows.

How to Edit Visualization Using Cash Flow Diagram Maker?

Step 5: Adding Chart Title/Header

• If you want to have the chart title, click on Edit Chart, as shown in the above image.
• To change the title of the chart, click on the pencil icon that is available very next to Chart Header.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1. Enable the Show Give the appropriate title of your chart and click on Apply button.

Step 6: Adding Prefix

• Let’s add the Prefix (e.g. $ sign) with the numeric values in the chart.
• Click on the highlighted pencil icon. Expand the “Symbols” properties to add the Prefix value (e.g. $ sign).

Step 7: Adding Color

• To change the node color, click the pencil icon available with the node. Expand the Node properties and change color from the Node Color property. Click on the Apply button.
• For saving changes click on Save Changes. This will persist the changes.

Step 8

• The final chart will look as follows.

Insights

• In Level 1 (Locations) North America is a major contributor in revenue, which is $1.48M and it is around 35%. Middle East contributed the least in revenue, which is $1.36M and becomes 32%.
• At level 2 (Revenue) total revenue of the company is $4.22M.
• At Level 3 (Profit & Cost) from $4.22M, $1.45M were the expenses and $2.78M was the profit of the company.
• At Level 4 (Details) out of a total of $2.78M profit, Taxes, and profits were $504K & $2.27M respectively.
• Expenses were divided into three nodes: cost of sales, salaries, and cost of marketing. The cost of sales was $449K, salaries were $483K and the cost of marketing was $514K.

Next, we will show how to visualize data using the Cash Flow Diagram(Sankey Diagram) with the help of a video tutorial.

Video Tutorial: How to Make Cash Flow Diagram in Excel?

In the following video, we will show you how to create a cash flow chart in Excel in a few clicks without any coding.

How to Visualize Cash Flow Effectively in Excel?

There are different ways to visualize your cash flow. The prevalent way is to use a cash flow diagram generator. It allows you to represent your cash flow using charts and other visuals.

You can also use spreadsheets to visualize your cash flow. For instance, an income statement template in Excel can help you create a timeline of your income, expenses, and investments. This approach enables you to track your financial situation over time effectively.

Tips for Using Cash Flow Diagram Generator

• Choose the right tool for your needs since tools have different features and capabilities.
• Customize the charts and graphs to make them easier to understand and analyze.
• Provide labels and explanations to make them more straightforward.
• Track your income and expenses to identify and address potential cash flow problems.
• Create forecasts of your cash flow to help you plan for the future.

How to Choose the Right Cash Flow Diagram Generator?

Here are things to consider when choosing a cash flow diagram generator:

• Budget: Your budget will determine how much you can spend on the tool. Some tools are free, while others require a monthly or annual subscription fee.
• Features: Different tools have different features and capabilities. It’s important to choose a tool that has the features you need.
• Ease of use: It’s important to choose a tool that is easy to use. A tool that is easy to use will help you to create a more effective cash flow diagram.

FAQ:

What is a cash flow diagram generator?

A cash flow diagram generator is a program you can use to create cash flow diagrams. It automates the process of cash flow examination and provides a visual representation.

How do I create a cash flow chart in Excel?

The first step is to install the ChartExpo add-in. Then, you can enter your income and expenses into Excel. Generate the cash flow chart with ChartExpo. Finally, you can customize the chart to suit your needs.

How can a cash flow diagram generator help visualize cash flow?

You can create diagrams that show the sources of income and expenses over time. You can identify cash flow trends that need to be clarified in financial reports.

What are some common features of cash flow diagram generators?

Common features include the ability to create diagrams that illustrate financial transactions over time. They have customizable graphs and charts, customizable labels and colors, and data import/export capabilities. In addition, many cash flow diagram generators provide forecasting capabilities.

What are the three types of cash flows?

There are three types of cash flows, namely:

1. Operating cash flow
2. Cash flow from investments
3. Cash flow from financing

Operating cash flow is generated from your operations and cash sales. Cash flow from investments is the money spent on buying stocks or bonds (investments).

Lastly, financing cash flow is the expense of acquiring capital.

Wrap Up

A Cash Flow Diagram is one of the crucial tools you need to account for every coin getting in and out of your business.

You can use this chart to visualize the expenses and income generated by your business for clarity.

The visualization design comes in handy in organizing and examining investment securities. You can also leverage it to track installment plans for bonds, mortgages, and other kinds of credits.

The charts are amazingly easy to read and interpret.