An Excel budget can tell us how much each department receives. Following that money into payroll, software, and contractors takes another view. A Sankey diagram connects those steps, with wider bands representing larger amounts.
Excel has no built-in Sankey chart, so creating one requires an add-in, a custom construction, or a separate visualization platform. Deepnote offers a more direct route: describe the flow to Deepnote Agent and let it generate the diagram from the data.
We’ll examine the Excel options, explain how to structure the connections, and build an interactive budget diagram in Deepnote. The example also shows why adding every row in a Sankey table can count the same money more than once.
The short answer: Excel has no native Sankey diagram
Excel’s waterfall chart explains additions and subtractions from a starting value. It does not show the connections between departments and expense categories that we need for this example.
There are three practical routes: install a Sankey add-in, construct a custom chart with formulas and helper series, or use Excel for the data and another tool for the visualization.
The walkthrough uses Excel to organize the source-target-value table, then uploads that workbook to Deepnote. We’ll ask Deepnote Agent to create the diagram and check that the allocations balance.
Excel Sankey workarounds: add-ins, stacked bars, and their costs
Add-ins keep the workflow in Excel
A Sankey add-in supplies the chart type that Excel lacks. This can be a sensible choice when the workbook is already the team's reporting tool and colleagues need to update the diagram there.
Free options exist. SankeyArt includes its Excel add-in on a free plan, with watermark removal reserved for paid plans. SankeyEngine also offers a Free Edition with limits on diagram size. Check the current plan’s row limits, export formats, and saving options before building a recurring report around it.
Before choosing one, check whether it supports your version of Excel, whether your organization allows it, and what happens when a colleague opens the workbook. A free download and an editable chart that everyone can maintain are different requirements.
Stacked-bar hacks need more than stacked bars
A stacked bar can show how each department divides its budget. It does not draw the connections between departments and shared destinations.
We would start by checking whether the connections are necessary. If the question is simply how Marketing and Product divide their budgets, compare the allocations with stacked bars. A Sankey earns its space when readers need to follow where the amounts go.
Route | What you gain | What you need to maintain |
|---|---|---|
Excel add-in | A flow diagram within the workbook workflow | Add-in compatibility, access, and any paid features |
Custom Excel construction | Control over the design using workbook calculations | Helper formulas, band geometry, labels, and layout |
Excel data plus Deepnote | A diagram generated from a flow table and a written request | Source data and flow checks when allocations change |
What a Sankey diagram needs: source, target, and value
A Sankey input table records connections. Each row needs a source, the place an amount comes from; a target, where it goes next; and a value, the amount moving between them.
Our example allocates a $120,000 operating budget for Q2 2026. Marketing receives $70,000 and Product receives $50,000. Each department then allocates its share to expense categories.
These are fictional budget allocations in US dollars, not recorded payments or Deepnote company figures.
Source | Target | Value |
|---|---|---|
Operating budget | Marketing | 70000 |
Operating budget | Product | 50000 |
Marketing | Payroll | 40000 |
Marketing | Software | 10000 |
Marketing | Contractors | 20000 |
Product | Payroll | 35000 |
Product | Software | 15000 |
Keep these as three columns in Excel, with one row per connection. Store Value as a number. You can apply currency formatting in the sheet, but the chart needs numerical amounts, not text containing currency symbols.
Check the totals at each stage
Marketing receives $70,000 and allocates $70,000. Product receives and allocates $50,000. The final expense categories together receive the original $120,000.
Add all seven rows, however, and you get $240,000. That is expected: the table records the same budget moving through two successive steps. Its grand total is not a second, larger budget.
For this fully allocated example, every intermediate department must balance. In another dataset, a difference might represent unallocated funds, retained inventory, or a missing record. Explain that difference or include a suitable destination; do not silently resize the bands to make it disappear.
Two other checks prevent common mistakes:
- Use consistent names. “Marketing” and “Marketing team” can become separate nodes even if you mean the same department.
- Use one unit throughout. Don't mix dollars with invoice counts, or percentages with amounts, in the same set of flow widths.
If your spreadsheet contains individual records
You may have one row per allocation or transaction instead of the seven-row summary above. Group those records by the fields that define each connection, then sum the amount.
For example, records with Department, Expense category, and Amount can produce the department-to-expense rows. They cannot tell you where the departments' funding came from unless that information is also recorded.
For a longer process, prepare each adjacent transition separately and combine the resulting source-target-value rows. Keep stage names distinct when the same label appears at different steps, such as “Review, stage 1” and “Review, stage 2.” Otherwise, a plotting tool may merge two different steps into one node.
That preparation matters more than the curve of the bands. A diagram cannot recover connections your spreadsheet never recorded.
How to make a Sankey diagram quickly without Excel: use Deepnote
You can start with our Sankey diagram generator or work directly in a Deepnote project. Here, we’ll upload the Excel workbook containing the budget table above and ask Deepnote Agent to create the diagram and review the allocations.
After uploading the workbook, ask Agent:
Use the uploaded Excel workbook to visualize the fictional Q2 2026 operating budget. Find the source table containing Source, Target, and Value. Use it once, excluding any subtotal or grand-total rows.
Create an interactive Sankey diagram with three stages: Operating budget, departments, and expense categories. Make band widths proportional to the dollar amounts. Color Marketing’s outgoing bands blue and Product’s teal. Show the source, destination, and amount on hover. Title it “Where the operating budget goes” and include the subtitle “Q2 2026 budget allocations in USD. Fictional example.”
Calculate the starting budget and the totals reaching each expense category. Show a check table comparing incoming and outgoing amounts for each department, and flag any imbalance without changing the source values. Do not sum all connections to calculate the budget: the same money appears at successive stages.
Briefly explain which expense category receives the most funding and how the departments contribute to it. Describe these figures as allocations, not actual spending.
The interactive diagram below shows how the departments contribute to each expense category. Hover over a band to inspect its allocation.
Payroll draws money from both departments, while contractors receive an allocation only from Marketing. The chart lets us follow those contributions into the shared expense categories. A single total for payroll would hide which departments supplied it.
We can also see a limit of the example: an allocation tells us where money is assigned. It does not tell us whether it has been spent or whether the spending was effective.
Refine the diagram without changing its meaning
Once the flows are correct, make the diagram readable at the size you'll use. Ask for a wider layout, shorter labels, or more space between nodes. Keep color meanings consistent as you edit.
Check the revised labels against the table. Payroll should total $75,000, software $25,000, and contractors $20,000. Showing those totals directly makes the diagram easier to read without inspecting each incoming band.
Keep the balance checks alongside the diagram. When the allocations change, upload the revised workbook and ask Deepnote Agent to rerun the analysis so the chart and checks reflect the same data.
If you're deciding whether a flow diagram fits your question, the AI chart generator offers a broader starting point. Describe what you need to compare and include the data that support it.