Pie & Donut

    The donut that reads itself

    Sorted slices, a labelled Other with its members, labels that add up to 100 % and small multiples for free. Then the mix review: how the mix moved and whether it is real.

    Read the documentationComing soon to Microsoft Marketplace
    Datasheet
    Status
    Coming soon to Microsoft Marketplace
    Price
    $1.99 /user/mo · $19 /user/yr
    Licensing
    Per user, assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center, with a 30-day free trial. Unlicensed viewers see the free tier, never a blocked visual.
    Data
    Computed inside Power BI. No external calls, no API keys, no telemetry.
    Visuals API
    5.11.0
    Shapes
    Pie, donut, semicircle, three quarters (270°) or a custom start and sweep; nested donut, bar of pie, small multiples
    Accessibility
    One tab stop with arrow-key navigation, screen-reader live region, accessible data table, high contrast with fill patterns, focus outline, minimum text size and Reduce motion
    Languages
    20: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional)
    Statistics
    Computed inside the visual, golden-tested against scipy, statsmodels and numpy
    Network
    No external calls, no telemetry
    Works in
    Power BI Desktop, Service, Embedded
    Dark donut of revenue by plant with last year's ring, share shift in points on every slice, a volume, mix and price split and a share bridge
    Pl. L  ·  Pie & Donut  ·  The mix review: last year's ring, the share shift on every slice, volume vs mix vs price and the points won and lost (premium).rendered from the shipped visual
    What it does

    SmartVisuals Pie & Donut fixes the pie chart instead of apologising for it. Bind a category and a measure and you get a donut sorted from 12 o'clock, a labelled Other that lists its members, percentages that add up to 100 % and a one-sentence caption, with no setup. Bar of pie, a nested donut, spotlight and one donut per region are a setting away, and all of them are free.

    Premium is the mix review: last year's ring and the share shift in points on every slice, a share bridge of the points won and lost, volume vs mix vs price, budgets per slice, a test of whether the change in mix is real, concentration and play over periods. Every statistic runs inside the visual and is golden-tested against scipy, statsmodels and numpy. SmartVisuals Part-to-Whole carries the same view next to rose, radial bar, waffle, pictogram, funnel and Marimekko.

    Free and premium

    Where the line is, exactly.

    Report authors see the full premium set in edit mode, so you can evaluate every feature on your own data before assigning a single licence. Unlicensed viewers always get a working chart.

    Free tierevery viewer
    • Honest by defaultSlices sorted from 12 o'clock, labels rounded by largest remainder so they add up to 100 %, negatives and blanks counted in the footnote instead of silently dropped.
    • Top N + OtherShow at Most or Group Items Below (%), with Other's members listed on hover and in the data table.
    • ShapesPie, donut, semicircle, 270 degrees or a custom arc; start angle, gaps, rounded corners and the selected slice pulled out.
    • Bar of pie and nested donutBar of pie breaks Other out into a bar; Segment draws an outer ring or shades inside each slice.
    • Labels and centreInside, outside or auto with leader lines; labels that do not fit are dropped whole. The centre shows the total, the hovered slice, the largest share or a measure of your own.
    • Small multiples, freeOne donut per region or quarter with a shared legend, each panel's total in the centre, optionally sized by its total.
    • SpotlightPull out the largest slice or one by name and mute the rest; the donut names it in the centre.
    • Colour and imagesA colour per category, conditional formatting (fx), colour rules by value, share or rank, fill patterns, images in slices from an Icon field, and a straight-on depth style (no 3D tilt).
    • Smart caption and footnote"Chicago is the largest share at 30 %. The top three make up 53 %." and a footnote that says how the numbers were made.
    • Power BI featuresTooltips and report page tooltips, highlight and cross-filter with Ctrl to add, bookmarks, context menu, drilldown, a show condition, six templates, four themes, four fonts, on-object formatting and 20 languages.
    Premium$1.99 /user/mo · first month free
    • Last period's ring and share shiftLast year's or the plan's ring around this year's, the share shift in points on every slice, and slices that entered or left.
    • Share bridgeA waterfall of share points from last period's mix to this one, biggest movers first.
    • Volume vs mix vs priceHow much of the change came from the whole growing and how much from the mix moving, in currency, with price split out when Units are bound.
    • Targets per sliceBudget vs actual: a tick where each slice's budget sits, a met, close or missed band and the % of target on the label.
    • Significance of the shiftChi-square on the composition and a z-test per slice when the measure is a count; amounts are never tested as counts.
    • Concentration, play and findingsHHI and top-3 share change vs last period, play over periods, and up to five findings with how each was calculated.
    Getting started

    From empty canvas to first chart.

    1. 01

      Add SmartVisuals Pie & Donut to the page and put a field such as Plant in Category.

    2. 02

      Add a measure such as Revenue to Values: the donut opens sorted, with Other and labels that add up to 100 %.

    3. 03

      Choose Pie or Donut, the arc and the gaps under Pie & Donut, and how many items to keep under Sorting and Other.

    4. 04

      Optional: a second field in Segment for a nested donut, or a field in Small multiples for one donut per value.

    5. 05

      Add last year's measure to Compare and the budget to Target for the mix review, or pick a style under Templates.

    Get Pie & Donut

    On its way.

    Installation instructions for both paths are on the download page.

    Microsoft Marketplace (recommended)

    The offer is prepared for Microsoft Marketplace and not published yet. This page will link to the listing the moment it is live.

    Coming soon
    Documentation

    Everything else about Pie & Donut.

    The guide, use cases, questions and the full settings reference. Open what you need, or search.

    Search all visuals

    Pie & Donut in Power BI, explained

    6 short chapters: what the visual does and why

    How do I make a pie or donut chart in Power BI that people can actually read?

    Drop the parts into Category (plants, products, regions) and a measure into Values. SmartVisuals Pie & Donut opens as a donut sorted largest first from 12 o'clock, groups the long tail into a labelled Other, rounds the percentages by largest remainder so they add up to exactly 100 % and puts the total in the centre. A smart caption above the chart says what matters in one sentence: "Chicago is the largest share at 30 %. The top three make up 53 %."

    Labels sit inside, outside with leader lines, or wherever they fit (Data Labels > Position > Auto), and a label that does not fit is dropped whole instead of cut. Negative and blank values cannot be part of a whole, so they are left out of the shares and counted in the footnote rather than silently dropped. With more than seven slices, an edit-mode hint suggests grouping the small ones into Other or showing them as a bar of pie.

    How do I group small slices into Other and still show what is in it?

    Sorting and Other > Group Small Items Into Other is on by default. Show at Most (items) keeps the largest six and Group Items Below (%) folds anything under 3 %; Other Label renames the slice. Other states how many items it holds ("Other (4 items)"), lists them on hover and keeps every member in the data table, so nothing disappears from the report.

    Pie & Donut > Bar of Pie (Expand Other) opens the Other slice into a bar next to the pie, with each member's share, and Spotlight pulls one slice out (the largest, or one by name such as Hamburg) and mutes the rest, naming it in the centre of a donut. Both are free.

    How do I draw a nested donut or one donut per region?

    Put a second field in Segment. Pie & Donut > Segment Field As draws it as an outer ring (a nested donut, for example product lines around each region in shades of the region's colour), as shades inside each slice, or ignores it.

    Put a field such as Quarter or Region in Small multiples and the visual draws one donut per value with a shared legend and each panel's total in the centre; Small Multiples > Size Pies by Their Total makes a larger quarter a larger pie. Small multiples are free in Pie & Donut.

    How do I compare this year's mix with last year? (premium)

    Put last year's measure, or the plan, in Compare. The donut draws last year's ring around this year's and labels every slice with its share shift in percentage points, over each year's own total: Chicago 30 %, +3.5 pp; Hamburg 12 %, -4.0 pp. Slices that entered or left are named, and Compare > Sort by Change orders them by the move.

    Compare > Share Bridge (points won and lost) adds a waterfall of share points from last year's mix to this one, biggest movers first. Volume vs Mix Split separates how much of the change came from the whole growing and how much from the mix moving; with Units and Compare units bound it also splits out price, using the same engine as SmartVisuals Waterfall & PVM. Concentration (HHI, top 3) puts the HHI and its change in the centre.

    Is the change in mix real, and did each slice reach its budget? (premium)

    Significance > Test the Change runs a chi-square test on the composition and a z-test per slice when the measure is a count (orders, people, opportunities). Amounts such as revenue are never tested as counts; Significance > Values Are tells the visual which one your measure is. The level is 90, 95 or 99 %, and every statistic is golden-tested against scipy and statsmodels.

    With a budget in Target, each slice gets a tick where its budget sits, a met, close or missed band along the slice (Targets > Met at and Close at) and the % of target on its label. A Play axis plays the mix through the periods, and Findings lists up to five things that changed, each with how it was calculated.

    Pie & Donut or the Part-to-Whole multi-view?

    SmartVisuals Pie & Donut is the single-view edition at $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, with the first month free. SmartVisuals Part-to-Whole, at $4.49 per user per month or $45 per user per year, holds this view plus rose, radial bar, waffle, pictogram, funnel and Marimekko over the same fields, with the same free tier and premium layer. Licences do not carry across offers: for one or two chart types the single views cost less, for three or more the multi-view does.

    Use cases

    Where Pie & Donut earns its place

    Revenue mix by plant, against last year

    Helios puts Plant in Category, Revenue in Values and Revenue LY in Compare. The donut keeps the six largest plants and Other (4 items), draws last year's ring around this year's and labels every slice with its share shift: Chicago 30 %, +3.5 pp; Hamburg 12 %, -4.0 pp. Compare > Share Bridge lists the points won and lost, Valencia's gain shown as "Valencia (in Other)".

    Product mix per quarter, in one visual

    Product line (Pumps, Valves, Motors, Controls) in Category, Revenue in Values and Quarter in Small multiples: four donuts with a shared legend and each quarter's total in the centre. Small Multiples > Size Pies by Their Total makes the strongest quarter the largest pie. Small multiples are free in Pie & Donut.

    Revenue by plant against budget

    Finance adds the budget measure to Target (premium). Every slice gets a tick where its budget share sits, a met, close or missed band along the slice and the % of target on its label (Chicago 123 % of target, Hamburg 82 %), with a check mark, approximate sign or cross so the status does not rely on colour.

    Region and product line in one chart

    Region in Category and Product line in Segment, with Pie & Donut > Segment Field As set to Outer ring (nested donut). Americas and Europe form the inner ring and each region's product lines sit around it in shades of the region's colour.

    Questions

    12 questions asked before you did

    More questions? Write to us.

    Every shape and layout is free: sorted slices, Top N + Other, labels that add up to 100 %, bar of pie, nested donut, spotlight, centre value, small multiples, colour rules, templates, themes and every accessibility feature. Premium (the mix review) adds last period's ring and the share shift, the share bridge, volume vs mix vs price, targets per slice, significance tests, concentration, play over periods and findings, for $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, with the first month free. Premium previews in full in Power BI Desktop and edit mode; readers without a licence see the free chart, with no watermark and nothing blocked.

    SmartVisuals Pie & Donut has been submitted to Microsoft Marketplace and is not published yet. This page will link to the listing once it is live.

    Category and one measure in Values. Optional: Segment (nested donut or shades), Compare (last period or plan), Target (budget per slice), Units and Compare units (price in the volume and mix split), Icon (images in slices), Annotation (a callout from a text measure), Play axis, Small multiples, Tooltips, Centre value and Show condition.

    Labels are rounded by largest remainder: every share is rounded down, and the missing points go to the shares with the largest remainders. The labels never total 99 % or 101 %, and the footnote says how they were rounded. Data Labels > Percent Decimals sets the precision.

    Negative and blank values cannot be part of a whole, so they are left out of the shares and the footnote counts them. If every value is zero, blank or negative, the visual says "Nothing to divide". Check also Sorting and Other: the slice may be inside Other, which lists its members on hover.

    Yes, with premium: put last year's measure in Compare. The donut draws last year's ring and labels each slice with its share shift in percentage points, over each year's own total. Compare > Change Labels switches to the value change or the % change.

    A tilted pie makes the front slices look larger than they are. Pie & Donut > Depth Style (no tilt) gives a straight-on raised look with a bevel and a soft shadow, and the angles stay true.

    No. The visual declares no network privileges, makes no external calls and sends no telemetry. Shares, tests and the volume and mix split are computed inside the visual in your report. Images from the Icon field are a built-in name, an SVG path or a data:image URI; web addresses are ignored. The licence is checked through Power BI's own licensing service.

    Pie & Donut is the single-view edition at $1.99. SmartVisuals Part-to-Whole ($4.49) adds rose, radial bar, waffle, pictogram, funnel and Marimekko views over the same fields, with the same engine. Microsoft licenses every offer separately, so a licence for one never unlocks the other.

    Yes. The chart is one tab stop: the arrow keys walk the slices, Home and End jump to the first and last, Enter or Space selects (Ctrl adds), and Escape clears. A polite live region reads each slice, such as "Chicago: $11.9M, 30 %", and the Table button opens an accessible data table.

    20: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), for the format pane and every string the visual writes. Numbers follow the report's locale.

    Post it on the public board at smartvisuals.io/feedback, where other users can vote and comment, or use the Report a bug block on the support page (smartvisuals.io/support) or email hello@smartvisuals.io. A screenshot and the fields you bound help most.

    Troubleshooting

    When it does not look right

    Found a bug or missing something? Post it on the requests board; the developer answers within two business days.

    The visual says "Add a measure to Values".
    A pie needs a measure for the size of each slice. Drop one into Values; the setup guide lists the wells that are still empty.
    A slice is missing, or the visual says "Nothing to divide".
    Negative and blank values cannot be part of a whole: they are left out of the shares and the footnote counts them. "Nothing to divide" means every value is zero, blank or negative for the current filters. Check also Sorting and Other: the slice may be inside Other, which lists its members on hover.
    The edit-mode hint says the slices are hard to compare.
    With many slices a pie stops being readable. Keep Sorting and Other > Group Small Items Into Other on and lower Show at Most (items), then turn on Pie & Donut > Bar of Pie (Expand Other) to show what Other holds. The hint is shown only in edit mode.
    Significance says "not tested: values are not counts".
    The chi-square and per-slice z-tests are for counts such as orders or customers; amounts such as revenue are never tested as counts. Bind a count measure, or set Significance > Values Are > Counts if the values really are counts.
    The centre shows the wrong value for a ratio.
    Centre value sums the parts when they return different values. Make the measure return the same value for every slice, for example with CALCULATE over ALLSELECTED of the category, and the centre shows it as it is.
    Premium features show in Desktop but not for some readers.
    Premium previews in full in Power BI Desktop and edit mode. In reading view a reader without a licence sees the free donut, with the premium layers set aside in memory, and Power BI shows its own licence banner once; nothing is blocked or watermarked. Assign the licence in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
    Further reading

    Accessibility

    Keyboard, screen readers and high contrast
    Tab
    Moves into the chart, which is one tab stop; the first slice gets a focus outline. The Table button, and the sort and play buttons when they are shown, are separate tab stops.
    Arrow keys
    Move to the next or previous slice.
    Home / End
    Jump to the first or the last slice.
    Page Up / Page Down
    Jump ten slices back or forward.
    Enter or Space
    Selects the focused slice and cross-filters the page. Hold Ctrl to add it to the selection.
    Esc
    Clears the selection.

    • Screen readers

      The chart is labelled with its smart caption, a sentence that says what it shows. A polite live region announces the focused slice as you move, with its name, value and share, such as "Chicago: $11.9M, 30 %". Other is named with the number of items it holds, such as "Other (4 items)", and its members are listed in the data table.

    • Data table

      The Table button in the corner of the visual (Data Table > Table Button in the Visual, on by default) switches between the chart and an accessible table of every slice with its value and share; Data Table > Open as Table starts in the table.

    • Not colour alone

      Format pane > Accessibility > Patterns (Tell Items Apart Without Colour) gives every slice a fill pattern. With targets, each slice's status carries a check mark, an approximate sign or a cross next to its label, and share-shift labels carry the sign of the change.

    • High contrast

      In Windows high contrast mode the visual uses the contrast theme's foreground, background and selection colours, ignores the transparent background, and always turns on the fill patterns.

    • Reduced motion

      Accessibility > Reduce Motion, or the operating system's reduced-motion setting, turns off transitions and the play animation.

    • Focus outline and text size

      Accessibility > Focus Outline Colour and Focus Outline Width (2.5 px by default) set the dashed outline around the focused slice, and Minimum Text Size keeps every label at or above the size you set. Labels that do not fit are dropped whole, never cut or overlapped.

    • Context menu

      Right-clicking a slice or the empty canvas opens the Power BI context menu.

    • Languages

      The format pane, captions, footnotes, findings, tooltips, the data table and the screen-reader labels are available in 20 languages: Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

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