How to Create and Customise a Waffle Chart in Microsoft Excel for Goal Tracking

When presenting percentage completion, survey results, or goal achievement metrics on executive dashboards, standard pie and doughnut charts often fail to convey proportions with mathematical precision. Humans struggle to accurately judge slice angles and 2D circular areas. To overcome this visual handicap, modern reporting professionals frequently turn to the waffle chart—a crisp, 10-by-10 square grid containing exactly 100 cells, where each individual cell represents exactly 1% of the total target.

While Microsoft Excel does not include a dedicated “Insert Waffle Chart” button on its ribbon, you can easily build an elegant, fully dynamic waffle chart using a 10×10 cell grid paired with conditional formatting. In this guide, we walk through how to construct the numerical matrix, size cells into perfect squares, apply dynamic formatting rules linked to KPI cells, and embed a floating percentage readout for polished dashboard presentation.

Why Choose a Waffle Chart for Goal Tracking?

Waffle charts provide distinct analytical and design benefits compared to traditional circular visualisations:

• Intuitive Human Comprehension: A 10×10 matrix breaks progress down into familiar base-10 units. Viewers can instantly count rows (10% each) and individual units to verify progress without guessing slice sizes.
• Superior Dashboard Compactness: Unlike large circular charts that leave substantial unused whitespace around their margins, square waffle grids fit seamlessly into structured, modular dashboard cards.
• Flexible Multi-Metric Comparison: Stacking three or four compact waffle charts side-by-side provides a clean, uniform layout for comparing completion across different departments or quarterly targets.

Step 1: Setting Up the 10×10 Percentage Matrix

The foundation of a waffle chart is a square grid of 100 cells holding decimal values ranging from 0.01 (1%) up to 1.00 (100%). In professional visualisations, percentages typically fill from the bottom-left corner upward to mimic filling a container.

1. Open a new or existing Microsoft Excel worksheet.
2. Select cell C3 (or any convenient starting cell for your 10×10 grid, spanning columns C through L and rows 3 through 12).
3. In modern Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021, you can populate the entire matrix with a single dynamic array formula. In cell C3, enter:

   =((10-SEQUENCE(10,1,1,1))*10 + SEQUENCE(1,10,1,1))/100

4. If you are using an older version of Excel that does not support dynamic arrays, enter values manually or use standard relative formulas:
   • Enter 0.91 in C3 across to 1.00 in L3 (Row 1).
   • Enter 0.81 in C4 across to 0.90 in L4 (Row 2).
   • Continue downward until Row 10 (cells C12 to L12) contains 0.01 in C12 through 0.10 in L12.

Step 2: Squaring the Grid Geometry and Hiding Numbers

By default, Excel cells are rectangular. You must adjust row heights and column widths to form uniform square tiles:

1. Highlight columns C through L by clicking and dragging across the column header letters.
2. Right-click any selected column header and choose Column Width…. Set the width to 3.5 (or approximately 30 pixels).
3. Highlight rows 3 through 12 by dragging across the row numbers.
4. Right-click any selected row header and choose Row Height…. Set the height to 22 (or approximately 30 pixels).
5. With the entire 10×10 range (C3:L12) selected, right-click and choose Format Cells… (or press Ctrl + 1).
6. On the Number tab, select Custom.
7. In the Type field, enter three semicolons: ;;;. This instructs Excel to hide the numeric values from display while preserving their underlying numerical data for conditional logic.
8. On the Border tab, select a thin white line and click both Outline and Inside. This creates clean, subtle separators between each waffle tile.
9. On the Fill tab, select a very light neutral grey (e.g., Background 1, Darker 10%) as the uncompleted base tile fill.
10. Click OK.

Step 3: Creating the Dynamic KPI Input Cell

To control the waffle chart, establish an independent KPI metric cell outside the grid:

1. Select cell A1 and enter your label (e.g., Project Completion).
2. In cell B1, enter your target percentage value (e.g., 74% or 0.74).

Step 4: Applying Conditional Formatting Rules

Now, instruct Excel to highlight only the tiles whose values are less than or equal to the percentage in cell B1:

1. Highlight the entire 10×10 waffle grid (C3:L12).
2. Go to the Home tab on the Excel ribbon, click Conditional Formatting, and select New Rule….
3. In the dialog window, click Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
4. In the Format values where this formula is true box, enter the following comparison formula:

   =C3<=$B$1

   Important: Notice that cell C3 is entered as a relative reference (without dollar signs) so it checks each cell in the grid individually, while $B$1 is locked with absolute dollar signs.

5. Click the Format… button.
6. Go to the Fill tab and select an attractive accent colour (such as vibrant royal blue, deep teal, or emerald green).
7. Click OK to close the format window, then click OK again to apply the rule.

Immediately, exactly 74 of the 100 tiles will light up with your chosen accent colour, rising cleanly from bottom-left to top-right. If you change the value in cell B1 to 42% or 89%, the waffle chart automatically recalculates and updates in real time.

Step 5: Adding a Floating Dynamic Percentage Label

To make the visualization complete and boardroom-ready, overlay a crisp percentage readout:

1. Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click Text Box (under the Text group).
2. Draw a small text box floating directly next to or below your waffle grid.
3. With the border of the text box selected, click directly into the Formula Bar at the top of Excel.
4. Type =$B$1 and press Enter. The text box is now linked dynamically to your percentage cell.
5. Format the text: increase the font size (e.g., 28 pt Bold), match the font colour to your waffle accent colour, and set the text box Shape Fill and Shape Outline to No Fill and No Outline.

Advanced Waffle Chart Styling Techniques

To further refine your visual presentation across professional reports:

• Two-Metric Target Comparison: You can apply a second conditional formatting rule to compare Actual performance against a Target goal. Format completed tiles in dark blue, target gap tiles in light blue, and unmet capacity in grey.
• Colour Palettes by Status: Use multiple rules or nested IF statements to change the waffle fill colour dynamically (e.g., red if completion is under 50%, amber between 50% and 79%, and green at 80% and above).
• Grouped Dashboard Badges: Group the waffle grid cells, header text, and dynamic text box into a single grouped dashboard card for seamless copy-and-paste replication across multiple regional KPI cards.