Pie Charts – TrackVia

A pie chart is a circular graph that shows how different categories relate to a whole. Each category is represented as a slice of the pie, and the size of a category's slice indicates its proportion of the whole.

When to Use Pie Charts

Pie Charts are best used with small datasets of nominal data, and fewer categories (~6 or fewer)
To show relative proportions and percentages of a whole dataset
When comparing the effect of ONE factor on different categories

When to Avoid Using Pie Charts

If you have a large dataset
If you have more than 6 categories - the more categories included, the more difficult it will be to read and understand.
If you want to highlight a trend over time

Example Use Cases for Pie Charts

Customer segmentation: Visualize the breakdown of customer types based on demographics like age, income, or location.
Budget allocation: Display how a budget is distributed among different departments or project categories.

Set-up Instructions

Below are the chart settings used to create the example Pie Chart shown above.

1. Select which fields you want to include:

2. Under the "Format" tab, select the field you want to use as the Name (label). Think of this as the field used for the categories that each slice of pie represents.

In this example, we are showing the total sales revenue for salespeople in three territories: Midwest, Pacific, and Southeast, and the "Group by this field" checkbox is checked (see red box below) so the individual records for each salesperson are grouped by the territory they are in.

3. Under the "Customize" tab you can enter a Title for the chart, choose the position of the legend, and if you want to give the Pie Chart a 3D look instead of the standard 2D appearance, you can change the "Angle" of the chart.

4. If you want to change the colors of your chart, you can do so by navigating to the chart view, then clicking on the View Menu and selecting "Change Colors":

Related articles:
Charts Overview