How to Create a Goal Line on a Chart in Excel?

Excel is a powerful tool for data visualization and data management which can be used to store, analyze, and create reports on large data. Data can be visualized or compared using different kinds of plots in excel such as line charts, bar charts, etc. Goal line is also called a target line. It helps show actual performance against your expected target.  For example, you may want to view actual sales against the target sales in order to understand how the business is performing against expectations.

How To Create A Goal Line On A Chart

For the purpose of demonstration, we will use the below table values which have monthly sales with target sales of that month,

First, we will create a regular chart say a column chart.

Steps to create a column create a column chart

Step 1: Select the data

Step 2: Click on the ‘Insert’ tab and select column chart.

Step 3: A column chart will get created.

Create Goal Line

Step 1: Right-click on any bar and select the ‘change series chart type’ option.

Step 2: In the change chart dialog box, make sure the Combo category is selected.

Step 3: Click the dropdown of the ‘Target sales’ field.

Step 4: Select the Line option.

Step 5: Press Ok.

Output

In the above graph, the Orange line represents the goal line.