Excel Waterfall Chart: How to Change the Legend Text

In Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, you generally cannot rename the built-in Increase, Decrease, and Total legend entries in a waterfall chart as you would rename a normal chart series. To use different wording, hide the built-in legend and make a custom legend with shapes and text; if you only need to change the colors, format the waterfall chart’s increase, decrease, and total points instead.

What the waterfall legend represents

A waterfall chart shows how a starting value changes through a sequence of positive and negative amounts to reach an ending value. For example, a revenue bridge might begin at $100,000, add $25,000 in new sales, subtract $8,000 in refunds, and finish at $117,000. The bars that add value are increases; those that subtract value are decreases; a bar marked as a total represents a running or final total.

Excel’s built-in waterfall chart uses those three roles to distinguish bars, and its default legend identifies them as Increase, Decrease, and Total. These are not ordinary series names taken from separate columns in the source table. A typical waterfall chart is based on one set of values, with individual points classified by their role. That is why changing the source column heading or editing a series name may not change the three legend labels.

This distinction matters when the chart is intended for a particular audience. A finance team may prefer “Positive movement,” “Negative movement,” and “Balance,” while a sales team may use “Gains,” “Losses,” and “Ending revenue.” The chart can show the same values and categories with either vocabulary, but you need a custom legend for that wording.

How Excel’s built-in legend works

When you insert a Waterfall chart, Excel assigns each bar a role. A normal intermediate bar is an increase or decrease depending on its value. A bar can also be set as a total, which makes it start from the chart’s baseline rather than float as a change from the previous bar. Excel uses the role categories to apply the corresponding colors and to build the built-in legend.

The legend therefore describes visual categories, not the labels along the horizontal axis. In a chart with “Starting balance,” “New sales,” “Refunds,” and “Ending balance,” those phrases are category labels below the bars. They are not legend text. Renaming a category in the worksheet changes its axis label, not the legend’s Increase, Decrease, or Total wording.

Excel’s chart controls let you show or hide the legend and format the chart, but they do not provide a straightforward rename field for these built-in waterfall role labels. If you see instructions for changing a legend entry through Select Data, check whether they refer to a regular chart. That approach edits a series name in many chart types; it does not reliably rename the special role labels in a native waterfall chart.

Hide the built-in legend

First remove the default legend so it does not conflict with the replacement. Select the chart, then choose Chart Design > Add Chart Element > Legend > None. You can also select the legend itself and press Delete. Deleting the legend does not delete the chart data or change the way Excel classifies the bars; it only removes the legend object.

If you want to keep the existing legend, you can reposition it using Chart Design > Add Chart Element > Legend and choose a location such as Right, Top, or Bottom. That changes placement, not wording. For a custom legend, removing the built-in one is usually clearer because it prevents two different sets of labels from appearing together.

Create a custom legend with your own wording

A custom legend is a small set of colored markers paired with text labels. You can build one from shapes and text boxes, then position it beside or below the chart. For example, replace Increase with “Revenue added,” Decrease with “Revenue lost,” and Total with “Running balance.” Use the same colors as the corresponding bars so readers can still interpret the chart quickly.

Select the chart and remove its built-in legend.
Choose Insert > Shapes and add a small square or rectangle for each category you want to explain.
Format each marker to match the relevant bar color. Select a shape and use the Shape Format options for its fill and outline.
Choose Insert > Text Box, add a label beside each marker, and type the preferred wording.
Align the markers and labels, check that the chart remains readable at its final size, and save the workbook.

For a compact chart, a three-item legend might read “Added,” “Subtracted,” and “Total.” For a project-cost bridge, more useful wording might be “Cost increase,” “Cost reduction,” and “Project total.” Choose terms that describe what the bars mean in your data, not just whether the amount is positive or negative. A positive cost change, for instance, may be an unfavorable result even though the bar is an increase.

When you add shapes while a chart is selected, Excel can place them within the chart area. If you add them without selecting the chart, they may sit on the worksheet instead. Either arrangement can work, but worksheet-level objects may not move or resize with the chart. Check the selection pane or click the objects to see where they are anchored, especially before copying the chart to another sheet or document.

Make custom labels easier to maintain

If the wording is likely to change, keep each label in a worksheet cell and link a text box to that cell. Insert a text box, select its border, click the formula bar, enter a reference such as =Sheet1!$A$1, and press Enter. The text box displays the cell’s contents, so changing the cell updates the label. Use your actual sheet name and cell reference; if the sheet name contains spaces, enclose it in apostrophes, as in ='Chart notes'!$A$1.

This method updates the text, but it does not automatically create or recolor the marker shapes. You still need to maintain those visual elements and check that their colors match the chart. It is most useful when a workbook has standard approved terminology or when the same chart is refreshed regularly. For a one-time chart, ordinary text boxes are simpler.

Custom legends are separate objects, not part of Excel’s automatic legend system. If you change the chart’s colors, revise the marker fills as well. If you delete or rearrange chart points, check that the wording remains accurate. A label such as “Ending balance” can become misleading if the total bar is later moved to another point in the sequence.

Change the colors without changing the wording

If the issue is that the default colors are hard to distinguish, keep the automatic legend and change the colors of the waterfall roles. Select a bar once to select the series, then select the specific bar again to select an individual data point. Open the formatting pane with a right-click and choose Format Data Point; use the fill controls to set its color. The exact pane options can vary slightly with the selected point and Excel build.

For a consistent design, use the same color for all increases, another for all decreases, and a third for totals. Excel’s built-in Increase, Decrease, and Total legend remains useful when the labels are already clear and you only need a different palette. If you format individual bars differently, remember that the legend communicates the general role colors and may not describe every exception you have created.

To mark a bar as a total, select that point, right-click, and choose Set as Total when the option is available. This changes how the bar is drawn and which legend category it belongs to; it does not rename the legend entry. Use this for genuine subtotals or endpoints, not simply to make a bar look more prominent.

Common problems and misunderstandings

Changing the worksheet header has no effect. A header can supply a series name, but the waterfall legend’s role labels are not ordinary series names.
Select Data does not show the labels you want. The Select Data Source dialog is useful for changing a chart’s source range or series details. It does not offer a direct rename control for the built-in waterfall role names.
Editing an axis label changes the wrong text. Axis labels identify individual steps, such as “Refunds.” Legend entries identify bar roles, such as Decrease.
The colors do not match the custom legend. Changing a bar’s fill does not update a separately drawn shape. Review both after changing the chart design.
The custom legend shifts when the chart is resized. Shapes and text boxes may be anchored to the worksheet or chart. Test resizing and moving the chart, and group related objects if that suits your layout.

A related misconception is that the word “Total” always means the final bar. In a waterfall chart, any point can be set as a total, including an intermediate subtotal. The legend identifies the total-style bar category; it does not say whether that bar is the final result. Make the axis label and chart context clear so readers know what each total represents.

Excel for Mac and Excel for the web

The explanation applies to the native Waterfall chart in Microsoft 365 for Windows. Excel for Mac also supports waterfall charts in current Microsoft 365 versions, although ribbon placement and some formatting-pane details can differ. Look for the chart design and formatting controls after selecting the chart; the principle remains the same: the built-in role labels are not edited like ordinary series names, so use a custom legend when you need different text.

Excel for the web has fewer chart-editing controls than the Windows desktop app, and available options can depend on the chart and current version. If you cannot add or format the needed shapes or chart elements in the browser, open the workbook in the desktop app to build the custom legend. A chart with a custom legend should still be reviewed in the browser, because object placement and resizing can affect its appearance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I rename Increase, Decrease, and Total in a waterfall chart?

Not directly through the built-in waterfall legend controls in Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows. Hide the built-in legend and create a replacement with shapes and text boxes if you need different wording.

Will changing the series name change the waterfall legend?

Changing a series name can change a legend entry in many standard chart types, but waterfall Increase, Decrease, and Total labels represent point roles. Editing the series name does not provide a dependable way to rename those role labels.

Can I change just one legend label?

The built-in role labels do not have a direct rename field. If only one term needs different wording, use a custom legend and include the labels you want to show; you can also retain the built-in legend if its other terms are acceptable.

Can I change the legend colors?

You can format the fills of waterfall data points, including increase, decrease, and total bars. The built-in legend reflects the chart’s role colors, but separately drawn custom markers must be updated manually to match.

Can I make custom legend text update from a cell?

Yes. Link a text box to a worksheet cell by selecting the text box border, entering the cell reference in the formula bar, and pressing Enter. The wording updates with the cell, although the marker shapes and their colors still need separate maintenance.

Try it: the Percentage Formula Generator: percent of, percent change, increase and decrease, with the formula.

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Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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