Charts on a report

A report page can hold more than its table. An author can lay charts, stat tiles and notes around the table, all drawn from the same stored result. This page explains how to read them, then how authors arrange them.

#The widgets you may see

#Reading them

• Hover over a bar, a slice or a point to see its exact value. On a line chart with several series, the hover card lists every series at that point.
• Figures take the column's format. Money reads as money, and a percent column reads as a percentage, so an average of a 0/1 flag stored as a percent column reads as a rate. A count is always a whole number. The value axis uses a short form, such as 1.4M or 60%.
• Numbers, in the gear menu at the top of the page, switches every chart, stat tile and statement between full and compact figures, along with the table.
• Bars on a date or month column are drawn in time order, earliest first, whatever order the rows are in. A sort chosen on the widget, largest or smallest first, replaces that order. The same holds in a scheduled email and in a PDF.
• A line chart with several lines has its legend above the plot. The title of the horizontal axis is under it, so the two never share a line.
• A pie or a donut keeps room around the ring for its percentages at every size.
• Keyboard. Tab reaches a chart on its first bar, slice or point, the arrow keys move to the others, and Enter opens the rows. See Clicking a dashboard widget.
• Click a bar, a slice or a point to narrow the table below to the rows behind it. A bar at the top of the page says what is shown, Show everything removes it, and Back undoes the click. If the report has a drill-through on that column, the click opens the detail report. See Drill-through.
• Filters flow into the widgets. When you filter the table, every chart and stat tile over the report follows. With the grain switch set to Quarter or Year, the widgets read the grouped rows.

#Stat tiles

The caption under a stat tile's main figure names the period it covers, for example This year (Jan 1 to Sep 16, 2026). A comparison line names its own period, for example Last year (Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2025), so a line such as "1,004 vs 1,335" makes sense without opening anything. A target, when set, is a number the author typed in.

An author can add more to a tile:

• A name for the comparison. The tile reads vs Prior year or vs Budget, then the figure it is compared with.
• The change as an amount, a percentage or percentage points. Points are for a figure that is itself a percentage: a margin of 42% against 40% reads +2 pts.
• A coloured edge. The left edge of the tile is green when the figure stands well, amber for a warning and red when it stands badly. The word Good, Warning or Bad is written beside the change, so the colour is never the only sign. A tile with no change has a grey edge and reads No change.
• Which way is good. A rise in revenue is good. A rise in a cost is bad, so its tile turns red with an up arrow. The arrow always shows the direction, and the colour shows whether that direction is good.
• A caption. As of Sep 30, 2026 says what date the figure is as of, or the author's own words say something else, such as Unaudited.

The tiles of one row are the same height, and their figures start at the same height, whatever each one shows.

#Bars with a series

• Several bars for each group. A bar chart with a series draws one bar for each value of the series: one for each region, or one for each period, such as this year beside last year. A key above the chart names them.
• Side by side or stacked. Side by side compares the bars. Stacked adds them into one bar that shows the total and its parts.
• The hover card lists every bar of the group, and their total when the bars add up to one.
• A click on one bar opens the rows of its group and of its series or period. A click beside the bars opens the whole group.
• A horizontal chart scrolls sooner. Two bars side by side need more height than one, so each bar stays readable.

#Values and reference lines on the plot

• Values on the bars or points. The chart writes each value in short form, as its axis does. Where two values would be written over each other, or over another bar, one is left out. Point at the bar to read it.
• A reference line is a dashed line across the plot at one value, with its name and value: a minimum, a budget, the average of what is drawn. The scale stretches to take the line in.
• The last value of a line is written at the end of the line. Lines that end close together have their values moved apart.
• A soft fill under a line shades the area between the line and the axis.

#Two measures on one chart

• Bars and a line. A bar chart can draw a second measure as a line over its bars, such as the margin over the revenue. On a line chart the second measure is a second line.
• Two scales. An amount and a percentage do not fit one scale, so the second measure has its own, at the right, with its own title and formatting. On a horizontal bar chart it is along the top. Two measures in the same unit share one scale.
• Sorted by either. The chart can be ordered by the first measure or by the second.
• One measure for the order only. A chart can rank by one measure and draw the other, such as the top 10 vendors by spend showing only their on-time rate.
• The hover card and the key name both measures.
• A click on a bar follows the first measure's column, and a click on a point of the line follows the second's. That matters when the two columns have different drill-through reports.
• A chart has a series or a second measure, not both. With a series set, the second measure is not drawn.

#Lines, the dashed future and Today

A line chart over dates or months runs in date order. Where the axis runs past today, the part of each line that is still to come is dashed, and a Today marker shows the current period. Solid lines show what happened, and dashed lines show what is expected, such as purchase orders due against bills received.

#Comparison trend

• The period being reported is a solid line.
• The period it is compared with, such as the previous period or the same period a year earlier, is a dashed grey line behind it. The author can choose other colours for these two lines.
• A trend can be compared with up to four periods, such as last year and the year before. Each period after the first takes the next colour of the chart's palette, from its third colour, so it is never blue, grey or the second measure's orange. Each one also has a dash of its own and is lighter the further back it is.
• The chart lines the periods up by position, so the third month is drawn over the third month.
• The legend names every period with its total. With more than two periods, each earlier period also shows its change against the period reported.
• While the current period is still running, every total covers only the time elapsed so far, so a year to date is never measured against a whole prior year.
• A trend can have a second measure, such as total units beside average cost. Each period then has a line for it in the second measure's colour, orange unless the author chooses another, and the legend has a line for each measure. When the two are not in the same unit, the second measure is read on its own scale at the right, and each scale is titled.
• The hover box lists every period at that point, with its value and its change against the period reported.
• Every line, the legend, the hover box and both scales follow the widget's Colours, Chart text and Number format. With a second measure, Number format has a second set of choices for it.
• Future periods with no rows show as gaps. A future period that already holds rows, such as expected receipt dates, shows dashed past the Today marker.

#Colours and text of a chart

A bar, horizontal bar, line, pie, donut or comparison trend chart can have colours and text of its own. The author sets them under How it looks.

• Palette. The colours a chart with several series or slices takes, in order. Standard is the palette every chart had before. Strong and Earth keep every colour dark enough to read on white, and keep neighbouring colours apart for readers with the common forms of colour blindness.
• One colour. A chart with one set of bars or one line takes the app's blue unless the author picks another colour. With a second measure, the two measures each have a colour. A comparison trend has a colour for the period reported and one for the period it is compared with, and a colour for its second measure when it has one. A trend compared with more than one period also has Palette, which colours the periods after the first.
• Pinned colours. A colour can be pinned to a series value or a slice, so Freight is always orange. The pinned value keeps its colour when a filter or a sort moves it, or leaves it alone on the chart. The other values take the palette in order and skip the pinned colours.
• Chart text. The font and the size (Small, Medium or Large) of the axes, the values on the chart, the key and the hover card. Follow the account takes the chart font set on the Configuration page, Formatting tab. Medium is the size every chart had before. A larger text makes room for itself: the axes, the bands of a horizontal bar chart and the label column grow with it. The widget's title keeps its own Title format.

The key, the hover card, Print, a portlet, the scheduled email and the PDF use the same colours. An email writes the chart text in the chosen font where the mail reader has it, and a PDF in Helvetica, Times or Courier, which NetSuite's PDF engine draws without a font file.

#For authors: laying out a report

1. On the report page, click the gear icon and choose Edit Layout.
2. Choose + Add widget, the blue button at the top left of the grid, and pick a kind. The new widget appears below the last widget, selected, and nothing else moves. The button stays in view while you scroll. A report layout holds one table.
3. Drag a widget by its title bar to move it, and drag its handle to resize it. The table's height follows its rows, and the widgets below move up or down to stay under it.
4. Click a widget to open its side panel. The Widgets list at the top of the panel selects any widget, including one hidden under another.
5. Set the widget up, section by section. A ? beside a header or a field explains it.
   • Kind and title: the kind of widget and its title.
   • What it shows: Group by, and for a date or month column, By year, quarter, month or week. Then the Aggregate (sum, count, average, min, max, distinct count or median) and the column it is worked out from, Sort and Limit for a top N or bottom N. For a table, the columns shown.
   • Series, for a bar or line chart, under Group by. On a bar chart choose a column, or Periods, such as this year and last year. With periods, pick the date column, then each period and how far it is moved back. Then choose Side by side or Stacked into one bar.
   • + Add a second measure, for a bar or line chart: its aggregate and column, its name, Drawn as a line or bars, Its scale, Sort by and Shown.
   • What goes where, for a chart: the two choices, named for where they end up. They are Along the bottom and Bar height for a bar chart, Down the side and Bar length for a horizontal bar, Along the bottom and Point height for a line chart, and Slices and Slice size for a pie or a donut. With a Group by set, the chart fills both in for you.
   • Filter: which rows count, such as a relative period like "this year". A widget can have several conditions, and is any of ticks values from a list of the report's own. See "The Filter section" in Building a dashboard.
   • When clicked: whether a click on the widget opens the rows behind it. It does unless you choose Does nothing.
   • Rows and totals, for a table: rows per page, row numbers and Totals row….
   • Comparison and target, for a stat tile: the target, what the figure is compared with, Name of the comparison and Change shown as.
   • Status and caption, for a stat tile: whether a higher figure is good or bad, Show a coloured edge, what the colour follows when the tile has a target, Warning up to, and the Caption.
   • How it looks: the title's format, and for a bar or line chart the titles beside the chart, Write the value on each bar or point, and Reference lines. A line chart also has Write the last value at the end of each line and Soft fill under each line. A chart also has Colours (the palette, one colour, the second measure's colour and Pin a colour to a value) and Chart text (Font and Size). A colour is picked from the swatches or typed as #rrggbb. Back to the standard colours clears every colour of the chart. Charts, stat tiles and the comparison trend have Number format: currency, decimals, percent, compact or in full, for that widget only. See Formatting numbers. Choose Show to open it.
6. Set Numbers in the editor's toolbar to full or compact. This is the page's default, and each viewer can still choose otherwise.
7. Choose Save layout. Cancel asks before discarding changes.

Edit Report and Edit Layout, both in the gear menu, switch between the report wizard and the layout editor.

#How the date of a caption and the periods of a chart are chosen

• An as-of caption on a closing value names the latest date in the tile's rows. On a month column that is the last day of the month, or today while the month is still running.
• An as-of caption on any other figure names the end of the dashboard's Month or Date filter, or of the period in the tile's own Filter, and never a date after today.
• A bar chart with periods works its periods out from today. On a dashboard, a Month or Date filter on the chart's date column sets that day in place of today, and hides none of the chart's rows. See Dashboard filters.
• A Filter of the chart on that same date column is left out, since it would empty every period but its own.

#If something looks wrong

Related: Reading a report · Filters and the grain switch · Building a dashboard · The Statement widget