How do I get subtotals in a Waterfall Chart

Q&A
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1

I’m trying to mimic the Excel waterfall chart below in Quick Suite (QS) but I can’t get the subtotals to work. I’ve tried using Categories and Breakdowns but nothing seems to work. QS doesn’t seem to comprehend that not every breakdown applies to every category.

How can I do this? If I can’t, please mark this as an urgent enhancement request.

Screenshot 2026-03-19 at 10.32.15 PM
Screenshot 2026-03-19 at 10.32.15 PM2120×840 75.5 KB

2

Hi @RobinSmith ,

Welcome to the Amazon Quick Community!

You can achieve this using the Waterfall visual in Quick Suite by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to your analysis in Quick Suite

  2. Add a new Waterfall chart visual

  3. Set your Category field to the “Category” column

  4. Set your Amount field to the “Value” column

  5. Use the Breakdown field for the “Breakdown” column

This will automatically update and create a visual similar to your Excel chart. From there, you can customize the formatting and appearance to match your specific requirements.

Hope this helps!

3

That was the first thing I tried - this is what I get:

image
image1793×990 76.2 KB

QS doesn’t seem to understand that only the breakdown items which belong to a particular category should be used, instead it applies them all.

4

Hi @RobinSmith,
In this scenario, are you referring to the ‘Other’ category on the right side of your waterfall chart?
There are quite a few limitations when it comes to waterfall charts in Quick Sight; many that hinder the ability to fully customize the chart to your desired look.
Adding a field to the ‘Breakdown’ section will automatically capture an value that essentially has a row present in the dataset. Since there is technically data for this hierarchal breakdown (there is a present value for ‘Other’ on the left side), it’s going to populate across the board.
I know there have been a few instances working with Waterfall charts where I’ve encountered pain points as well due to the limitations.

I’ll mark this as a feature request to promote visibility to the support team as I agree that the waterfall charts need additional customization options to make them more user friendly!