Create Interest Rate Fluctuation Graph with Reportivo.com

In this article we will have a look at a common business scenario for an analyst in a financial institution. The case that we will accomplish aims to compare the deviation of average interest rates of funds attracted from customers during Financial Year 2013 in foreign currency and local currency. Such reports are often used in presentations to top executives and business developers this is why polished look is crucial.

In order to accomplish our task we will use Reportivo- a free service that allows streamlined creation of reports and data visualization from tabular data sources like MS Excel and CSV. Reportivo allows easy sharing and publishing of these reports. In addition there are more than a dozen graphics types such as line, pie, bar, and more sophisticated like scatter, polar line and more.

The ability to share the generated reports is the top feature of Reportivo. When finished, users receive a permanent link that can be easily emailed, shared over the most popular networks like Twitter and Facebook, or included in a web site or presentation. As last minute changes may be needed, Reportivo allows dynamic changes to already generated reports.

Getting started

First let’s get a MS Excel file for our example. It contains just a bit of data: sample average interest rate for Local and Foreign Currency

 

We then go to Reportivo and click on the Create a report button right on the first page and upload the file on the next screen:

 Two clicks away from the beginning we already have the available data in front of us and can start creating the chart. Below we can see the tabular presentation of the data. This is rendered in a small selectable grid, which contains all the data, loaded initially:

 

Data Selection
We have our three columns with data for our sample Local Currency and Foreign Currency and the 12 periods of 2013 on the left. In an ordinary chart we would have the data represented as it is, and associated with one or two types of line. Reportivo however gives users much more than that. Let’s take a closer look.
Imagine that we need the data in Columns B and C to be visualized in bar and line chart at the same time. In order to do this we perform the following steps. Holding the Control Key we select the column with Foreign Currency Data that we need visualized. After selecting the data we choose the desired chart type for the data series and optionally can enter name for it. We repeat the same step for each of the data series that we want to include in the chart.

 

Adjusting the X axis
In the next step, we learn how to customize the X axis labels, or in other words adjust the data, which will be displayed along the X axis. This can be done easily, by selecting the "X-Axis" button, as shown below:

 Following the same selection-based data inclusion, we select all the data, which is to be presented along the x axis of the rendered chart.

Setting additional options
So far with just a few clicks we have our chart pretty much done. With the built-in defaults reflecting the most common usage, the additional settings can be skipped with no hassle. However we’ll have a look at them, since there is much more that Reportivo can offer.
Clicking on the Options tab we can see the available options:

Here the user can invert the axes (switch the places of the X and Y axis).
Zooming, which by default is turned off, can be switched on or off.  We may choose to allow viewers to zoom the chart vertically or horizontally.
Additionally, we can enable exporting for the chart to an image or allow printing.
Finally, for even more customization, we can specify the exact dimensions of the chart so that it can display just the way we need it to.

Labeling the chart
In order to provide more information, Reportivo enables setting up a Title and Subtitle to the chart, in addition to labels for the X and Y axes. These options are available under the Labels tab, as shown in the screenshot below:

One can easily set the text for both axes, as well as a title and subtitle for the chart.
You can also leave any field blank, if you do not want to specify a sub-title, for example.
Each setting can be put into effect, by pressing the "Apply" button.

Applying visual styles
Under the Styles tab we can find ready to use visual themes that can be applied to the chart with only one click. Themes are sets of visual settings, which contain color information for the series and legend items, as well as font and styling information.
This option is demonstrated below:

 After having applied all the settings to the report, it is ready to be published. This can be done, by clicking on the "Publish your chart" button.
A finished report looks like this:

At the top of the report we see the graph, which represent all the data, selected from the original data file. It includes the data series, as well as title and axis data.

Right below the report are links to quickly share the finished presentation on Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn or Google+.

To make things fully flexible, Reportivo allows embedding the report through a frame object in your page. The code needed for this is available immediately below the report.

This concludes the introduction to the Reportivo online graph generation tool.
Best of all, it is free and does not even require a registration, so feel free to give it a try.