Generate a forecast on a Running Sum chart in Tableau

3
votes

I need to create a forecast chart of a Running Sum of a column in my data. The data comes from and Excel table and is an income value. I have a line chart of the Running Sum of this income over time (year quarters). The data itself is not ordered by date, but by a particular ID that is not used in this chart, and it should not be re-ordered.

The chart looks like this:

enter image description here

If I just use the income, I can create the chart with a forecast. However, if I add the quick calculation for Running Sum, then the forecast stops working because "Forecast can't be added to a view that uses a table calculation".

I tried creating a calculated field that already contains the Running Sum, but Tableau recognizes it as a table calculation too. I also tried creating the Running Sum in the original data (I have access to the Excel file) but since the rows are not ordered by date, the Running Sum doesn't work.

I would like to know if there is an alternative? It can be either using a Tableau workaround or an Excel calculation I am not aware of, that gives me this Running Sum without Tableau identifying it as one.

Thanks in advance.

1
exceltableau-apiforecast
Thumbs up for the question, it's a shame that Tableau does not allow such an obvious scenario like a forecast on a running sum. – Vlad Vlaskin

1 Answers

0
votes

In the end, I managed to created a Running Rum in the Excel using the following formula:

=SUMIFS(DATABANK!T:T,DATABANK!O:O,CONCAT("<",TEXT(A2,"0")),DATABANK!D:D,"ELC")

Where in column A I have one month date per row, DATABANK-T is the Income, DATABANK-O is the Date and DATABANK-D is a filter (not relevant to the problem).

Then, in Tableau I took the Date as a column (by months) and this Running Sum as a measure, as a SUM. enter image description here