[Bug]: The Y axis for the Net Worth chart must start at 0

[jeremyfourna]

Verified issue does not already exist?

• I have searched and found no existing issue

Is this related to GoCardless, Simplefin or another bank-sync provider?

• I have checked my server logs and could not see any errors there
• I will be attaching my server logs to this issue
• I will be attaching my client-side (browser) logs to this issue
• I understand that this issue will be automatically closed if insufficient information is provided

What happened?

Actual version: v24.3.0 hosted on pikapods

When displaying the amount of money on a chart, the Y-axis must start from 0 to provide better visibility. Changing the date filters must not change the Y-axis starting point. Right now, each date filter impacts the Y-axis.

3 months

6 months

1 year

What error did you receive?

No response

Where are you hosting Actual?

Other

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Firefox

Operating System

Mac OSX

[youngcw]

The y-axis is dynamic on purpose. If it wasn't the chart would be a flat line for larger amounts

[carkom]

I don't understand this request. Previous month's Networth is a static number. It only starts at 0 for the first transaction in your file.

Maybe you mean cash flow or are looking for a networth delta?

[jeremyfourna]

The best practice when displaying finite data such as money in charts is to have the Y axis to start at 0.

[jeremyfourna]

This is taken from the WSJ book

[Teprifer]

Not starting at zero exaggerates the variation and is misleading - on mine, looking at anything other than the all time view the graph gives the impression I'm near broke because of a lump sum mortgage payment, but that's not the case.
Similar would be for any other large payment someone might have.

The all time view has to be used to properly contextualise recent changes.

[carkom]

I don't understand this request. Previous month's Networth is a static number. It only starts at 0 for the first transaction in your file.

Maybe you mean cash flow or are looking for a networth delta?

Sorry, I thought you wanted the actual graph to start at zero. Didn't realize, you meant the axis labels.

[MatissJanis]

The y-axis is dynamic on purpose. If it wasn't the chart would be a flat line for larger amounts

I share this sentiment.

Example - zero based net worth graph:

Has my net worth grown? Looks like it might have, but by a very little amount.

Whereas if the axis is dynamic.. the graph provides me much more value as I can immediately see the dip in net worth.

And the problem would be even more exaggerated with larger numbers. I believe once the net worth reaches 10m+ mark (which is totally feasible in many currencies) - the net worth graph will look like a flat line if we set the x-axis at 0.

[kymckay]

The solution here may be to use a different scale (e.g. log) at high values, but still start at 0. Because while the second view in the above comment does highlight the dip better, it also misrepresents it to look like a larger dip than it actually is in the overall picture.

Edit: On second thought, a log scale would make the dip look even smaller.

[Teprifer]

Here's the reverse issue I was mentioning, in the short term which doesn't have Y start at 0 it looks catastrophic, but in context(all time) the proportionality information is available because Y starts at 0:

vs

[kymckay]

Reconsidering this, I think the real improvement this ticket is seeking is to increase the maximum value for which Actual will start the chart axis at 0.

Per the book in the image above "if adding a couple of grid lines can cover the zero baseline, then do so". So not in cases where the values shown are sufficiently high that it would hide the changes being shown, but for some of the cases shown above (e.g. 18,000) it would probably make sense to still start at 0 instead of 10,000.

[carkom]

These are all good arguments but they're all in the context of your own currency (10k, 18k, etc.). In USD, even getting up to 500K or 1M these suggestions might work.

However, actual is made to be used with any currency. To @MatissJanis point, what about currencies where it is not uncommon for Net worth to be in excess of 10M? A zeroed y-axis would make almost any changes impossible to see.

If you want to see the number in context, use the "all time" view. If you want to see small changes from one month to the next then use a narrower view. If every time range started at 0 then all those views would look exactly the same. What's the benefit of that? It can't just be "because some book I read said so".

[glowtape]

I prefer the dynamic Y-axis. Without it, there'd be barely any visual movement my net worth graph. And I'm not even remotely Richie Rich.