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Chart Genius

Build a chart the standard KPI card cannot produce.

The standard card draws what it draws. Sometimes that is not the chart you need.

Chart Genius is the card for charts the standard KPI card can't draw — several KPIs on one axis, custom grouping or filtering, or formatting the built-in chart doesn't offer. No SQL is required; the visual Builder generates it for you.

To add one: open a canvas dashboard in edit mode, click Add in the section you want it in, and choose Chart Genius. The configure panel opens on the right, the chart preview on the left. To edit one later, right-click the widget → View → Edit, or press Configure if you are already in edit mode.

To reach the SQL: switch Show Query Builder on, which reveals the query editor below the chart, then choose the Code tab. The Builder tab beside it does the same job point-and-click — data source, aggregations, group-by, filters, order and limit — with a read-only Preview pane showing the SQL it is generating. Either way, press Execute to run it.

The configure panel runs top to bottom: Title, Chart (vertical or horizontal), Datepicker, Layers, X Axis, Y Axis, Secondary Y Axis, Legend, Colors and Margins.

A layer is one series. Each has a Type — Bar, Line, Scatter or Area — a Y column, a Color By dimension, an optional filter, and toggles for labels, stack totals and the secondary axis. Add Layer overlays another: bars for actuals with a line for target is the common pairing, with the line on the secondary axis when the scales differ.

Datepicker is where a card stops following the page. Tick Detach from global date picker and choose a Time window: Dashboard default follows the page, Last X Months holds a rolling window, and Year to date runs from January to the dashboard's date. Detaching is how you keep a fixed reference panel beside figures that move.

Save writes both the visual configuration and the query. Leave the page without saving and the work is lost.

The Chart Genius editor showing a stacked bar chart, two sources each with a KPI, an Actuals setting, a bar count and an alias, and a right panel listing Chart, Datepicker, Layers, axes, Legend, Colors and Margins.
  1. 1Title, and the legend built from the aliases
  2. 2Source 1 and Source 2 — KPI, Actuals, Bars, Alias
  3. 3Add Source and Refresh Data
  4. 4Show Query Builder, currently off
  5. 5Datepicker — where a card is detached from the page date
  6. 6Layers, axes, Legend, Colors and Margins

ValueWorks 2026.08

The Chart Genius editor with Show Query Builder switched on, showing Builder and Code tabs, a SQL statement, an Execute button, and the Layers panel expanded with type, Y field, Color By, filter and label toggles.
  1. 1Show Query Builder, switched on
  2. 2Builder and Code tabs
  3. 3The SQL, with Execute beneath it
  4. 4A Layer — type, Y field, Color By, filter
  5. 5Labels, Show total and Secondary Axis toggles
  6. 6Add Layer, for a second shape on the same chart

ValueWorks 2026.08

The Chart Genius editor with the Datepicker section expanded, showing Detach from global date picker ticked, a fixed month of August 2026, and Time window options of Dashboard default, Last X Months and Year to date, beside a Code tab holding SQL.
  1. 1The page is on June 2026
  2. 2Detach from global date picker, ticked
  3. 3The card's own period — August 2026
  4. 4Time window — Dashboard default, Last X Months, or Year to date
  5. 5Show Query Builder on, with the Code tab selected
  6. 6Execute, which must be pressed after any query change

ValueWorks 2026.08

Takeaways

  • Add → Chart Genius on a canvas in edit mode; Show Query Builder then Code for the SQL.

  • Define the query first — its columns populate the Y, Color By and X Axis dropdowns.

  • A layer is one series: Bar, Line, Scatter or Area. Add Layer overlays another.

Surfaces covered

  • Reporting

Also taught in the Academy

Module 4 · Build your own views

Take it as lesson 4.5 in Business Analyst & FP&A