Pareto analysis in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sales data by category to perform Pareto analysis.

Cell	Value
A1	Category
B1	Sales
A2	A
B2	500
A3	B
B3	300
A4	C
B4	100
A5	D
B5	50
A6	E
B6	50

Formula Trace

RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales])) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales]))

Step 1: SUM([Sales]) for each category

Step 2: TOTAL(SUM([Sales]))

Step 3: RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales])) ordered by descending sales

Step 4: RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales])) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales]))

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 Category Sales
2 A        500
3 B        300
4 C        100
5 D        50
6 E        50

Arrows: Sales values feed into SUM([Sales]) and TOTAL(SUM([Sales])) calculations.

The formula uses sales values from column B for each category in column A.

Result

    A       B      C
1 Category Sales  Cumulative %
2 A        500    50%
3 B        300    80%
4 C        100    90%
5 D        50     95%
6 E        50     100%

The cumulative percentage column shows the Pareto cumulative contribution of sales by category.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What is the total sales value used in the Pareto calculation?

A 1000

B 500

C 800

D 50

Key Result

Pareto analysis uses RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Measure])) divided by TOTAL(SUM([Measure])) to get cumulative percentage.