---
title: "Bullet chart"
description: "Single value with target bands. What the bullet chart is for, the data it needs and every option it has."
section: "Widgets"
canonical: "https://banksync.io/docs/widgets/chart-bullet"
specs: ["dashboards"]
operationBindings: [{"capability":"dashboards","operation":"dashboards.author"}]
---

Single value with target bands. It sits in the **Comparison** group of the widget library.

![Example bullet chart on a BankSync dashboard](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/docs/charts/bullet.ba448e6a548c0f99.png)

## When to use it

Use a bullet chart to show how far a figure has got against a goal, such as spending so far against this month's budget, or savings against a target. Each bullet is a thick bar over a shaded track, with the value printed on the right; a target, when your rows carry one, is a tick.

## When to pick something else

- One number against a goal? Use a **Progress** bar or **Gauge**.
- Comparing totals with no target? Use a **Bar chart** or **Lollipop**.
- Showing budget against actual over several months? Use a **Layered chart** with bars and a line.

## The data it needs

Pick these in the **Data** tab of the inspector. BankSync suggests a column for each when your source has an obvious match.

| Field      | Needed   | Pick                 | Notes |
| ---------- | -------- | -------------------- | ----- |
| **X axis** | Yes      | a category or a date |       |
| **Y axis** | Yes      | a number             |       |
| **Series** | Optional | a category           |       |
| **Color**  | Optional | a category           |       |

Rows that share a category are combined before drawing: choose **Sum**, **Average**, **Count**, **Min** or **Max** on the value field. See [Binding data](/docs/widgets/binding-data).

## Bullet chart options

This chart has no options of its own; everything on its **Style** tab is the shared chart styling below.

## Shared chart styling

Every chart also has the shared styling options. These apply to this one:

- [Legend](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#legend): position, layout and which series show.
- [Axes](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#axes): titles, tick labels and number format.
- [Grid](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#grid), [title](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#title), [padding](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#padding) and [background](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#background).
- [Value labels](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#value-labels) on the marks.
- [Categories and labels](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#categories-and-labels): top N with "Other", sort order, readable labels, the handwritten callout.
- [Style](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#style): corner radius, line width, opacity and animation.
- [Tooltip](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#tooltip) on hover.
- Click to filter: clicking a mark can filter the rest of the dashboard. See [Filters and cross-filtering](/docs/dashboards/filters-and-cross-filtering).
- [Colours](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#palette): follow the dashboard palette or pick one for this chart.

## Messy data

- Each category becomes one bullet, with its rows added together. With no category chosen, every row becomes its own bullet.
- Rows without a number are skipped. If none remain you see "No numbers to show".
- Rows that don't fit the card height are cut off rather than folded into "Other".
- When rows are on very different scales (more than ten times apart), each row gets its own scale and the shared axis is hidden. Compare the printed values instead.

## On a phone

Bullets suit a narrow card: each row reads left to right with its label on the left and value on the right. Long labels get shortened to leave room for the values.

## Related charts

- [Bar chart](/docs/widgets/chart-bar): Horizontal categorical bars
- [Column chart](/docs/widgets/chart-column): Vertical categorical bars
- [Grouped bar](/docs/widgets/chart-grouped-bar): Side-by-side bars per series
- [Stacked bar](/docs/widgets/chart-stacked-bar): Composition per category
- [100% stacked bar](/docs/widgets/chart-normalized-stacked-bar): Composition as percentage
- [Lollipop](/docs/widgets/chart-lollipop): Bars with circle endpoints
- [Dot plot](/docs/widgets/chart-dot): Discrete category dots