flow-chartslisted

# Flow and composition charts Two questions that ordinary bar charts answer badly: **where did the money move** and **how does the mix break down across two dimensions at once**. --- ## Sankey — movement between states Bands whose width encodes magnitude, flowing left to right between nodes. ### The two that earn their place in finance **Cash flow.** Sources on the left, uses on the right. ``` Collections ─────┐ ├──► Cash ──┬──► Payroll Financing ───────┘ ├──► Vendors ├──► Capex └──► Ending balance ``` Instantly answers "where did the money go" in a way a table of the same numbers does not. **Customer movement between periods.** The single best chart for retention dynamics: ``` Start-of-period ──┬──► Retained (same tier) ├──► Upgraded ├──► Downgraded └──► Churned New ─────► End-of-period ``` Shows all four ARR-bridge components *and* their relative magnitudes and their destinations at once. Where the bridge shows net movement, the Sankey shows the flows behind it. ### Rules - **Widths must be exactly proportional and must conserve.** Inflow to a node equals outflow. If they do not, the diagram is wrong — the same footing discipline as `bridge-charts`. - **Cap at ~15 nodes.** Beyond that it becomes a hairball. Group small flows into "Other" — and per the usual rule, "Other" must be smaller than the smallest nam