Percentages in a pie chart

[Niki]

I am trying to create a pie chart that shows the percentages of each type of
monthly expenses for a household. I have set up a spreadsheet that contains
the category name, the amount of each bill and the percentage that each bill
represents of the monthly income. The problem is that when I create the
chart, the percentages shown in the pie chart are different than the
percentages shown on the spreadsheet. I know that the chart is updating
automatically from the numbers on the spreadsheet because when I change any
of the info on the spreadsheet the percentages on the chart change also but
they still aren't right.

I have tried to create the chart by including the percentages that have been
figured in the spreadsheet and I have tried to create the chart by not
including the percentages and it doesn't seem to have any effect on what the
chart come up with in regard to the percentages it shows.

Is there some kind of formatting that I'm doing wrong or anything.... I
haven't done much with charts but I can usually figure most things out by
playing around with it but this one is driving me crazy.

Any help would be much appreciated......

 

[John Mansfield]

The issue is a result of how Excel creates pie chart percentages i.e. it
forces the percentages to equal exactly 100%. Please refer to the link below
for details.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214033

To get around this, consider downloading John Walkenbach's Chart Tools
add-in which is available via the link below.

http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/charttools.htm

Once you have the add-in set up, use the Data Labels feature to apply the
data from the spreadsheet directly to the pie chart labels.

 

[lunarpc]

Try multipling the % by 360.

 

[Jon Peltier]

The data label option for percentages displays the percentage of each wedges
part of the circle. If you have three percentages in the sheet, each 25%,
selecting the percentages option will not show 25%, it will show 33 or 34%.
If instead, you choose the values option, you will see 25% for each.

There are so many better options than pie charts. Use a pareto chart (a
column chart with items sorted from high to low), with custom labels if need
be.

- Jon