A unit mix or a cashflow draw reads faster as a chart than as a column of numbers. Spreadsheet builds one directly from a range on the sheet, so it stays connected to the live formulas behind it and redraws the moment they recalculate.
Insert a chart
Select the range you want to chart, including its header row and label column if it has them.
Click Chart in the toolbar.
The chart reads from the range you selected, so it updates as the cells behind it recalculate. Spreadsheet guesses a sensible label column, series header row, and chart type from the shape of what you selected. See How Spreadsheet reads your selection below, and the Chart settings section to correct any of it afterward.
How Chart reads your selection
Inserting a chart from a selection sets its starting Values, Labels, First row holds series names and Type automatically, all correctable afterward in Chart settings:
If the selection's first column holds text in every row, that column becomes Labels and drops out of Values.
If the row directly above the selection holds text, it becomes the series names and First row holds series names is checked.
A selection that is a single row of several columns, such as one line of a monthly cashflow, is read as one series running across time rather than as many one-point series: the row above supplies month-by-month labels, and the chart type defaults to Line.
Any other selection defaults to Bar.
Chart types
Five types are available, set from the chart's Type dropdown in its settings:
Bar: one group of bars per label, one bar per series, side by side. Compare revenue across usages, or unit count across bed types. |  |
Stacked bar: the same series, stacked into a single bar per label instead of standing side by side. Show hard cost, soft cost and contingency stacking up to a total construction cost per usage. |  |
Line: one point per label, connected across the sequence. The natural choice for a monthly cashflow draw or a cumulative balance over time. |  |
Pie: a single series split into a full circle of slices. Show each usage's share of total revenue. |  |
Doughnut: the same as Pie, drawn as a ring instead of a filled circle. |  |
Pie and Doughnut only ever chart one series, the first one in the data range. Switching to either from a multi-series Bar or Line keeps reading that first series and drops the rest.
Chart settings
Click the ⋯ button in the chart's header to open its settings.
Set Title, the text shown above the chart.
Set Type to any of the five chart types.
Set Values, the cell range the chart's numbers come from, as an ordinary range reference like
B2:D14.Set Labels, the range supplying one label per row or column of Values, for example the usage names beside a schedule.
Check First row holds series names if the row directly above Values carries a name for each series, such as column headers on a schedule.
Click Delete chart at the bottom of the same panel to remove the chart. This deletes the chart card only. The cells it read from are untouched.
Move and resize a chart
Drag the chart's header to move it anywhere on the sheet. Drag the handle at its bottom corner to resize it. Both are separate from clicking cells underneath: a chart floats over the grid rather than living inside a cell.
Colors and the legend
Each series gets a color from a fixed set of eight, assigned in order: blue, orange, aqua, yellow, magenta, green, violet, red. A legend is shown automatically whenever a chart has two or more series, or for any Pie or Doughnut regardless of series count, since a single Bar or Line series is already named by the chart's title. A ninth series and beyond are not given a ninth color: they are added together into a single series labeled Other, with a note under the chart saying how many series that folded in.
Blank rows and date labels
A row where every series is blank is dropped from the chart rather than drawn as zero, so a schedule with unused rows reserved at the bottom does not draw a cliff down to the axis. A label read from a cell formatted as a date, such as the date column of a monthly cashflow, is shown as that date rather than as the underlying serial number.
See Schedules in Spreadsheet for building the table a chart usually reads from, and Building a Formula in Spreadsheet for a unit mix and a monthly cashflow worth charting.