Keep a report chart tied to the numbers it represents

Begin with three distinctive values

Use a fictional table with Apr 4, May 9 and Jun 6 completed items. The expected total is 19, and May is the largest month. Neither statement predicts a real company’s performance. The uneven values help expose a shifted label or an accidentally repeated value.

Use one unit and a defined reporting period. Do not combine percentages and counts under the same unlabelled axis. A chart title should say what is measured; “Results” gives a reader too little context to interpret the shape.

Build both arrays from the same records

CraftMyPDF’s chart documentation describes Categories and Data as one-dimensional arrays and provides the asArray expression for extracting a field from records. For the original fictional shape below, the two extracted arrays should preserve the same order.

Input: [{month:"Apr", completed:4},
        {month:"May", completed:9},
        {month:"Jun", completed:6}]
Expected categories: ["Apr", "May", "Jun"]
Expected values:     [4, 9, 6]

If sorting is needed, sort the complete records first. Sorting labels alphabetically while leaving values in date order gives a plausible but wrong chart. Equal array lengths alone cannot establish correct pairing. We have not executed these settings in a merchant account.

Choose the chart for the comparison

This is a design recommendation, not a ranking of chart libraries. Keep a concise textual takeaway when it can be supported by the approved source, and retain the values needed to check it. Do not write an optimistic business conclusion merely because a line slopes upward.

Use cases that can disprove the mapping

1. Change only May from 9 to 2: confirm the corresponding label retains its value.
2. Remove a required value: apply the declared missing-data rule, not an invented zero.
3. Try an explicit valid zero and distinguish it from missing.
4. Use a long category label and inspect the exported PDF.
5. Check title, units, legend and source table together.

An empty series needs an approved message rather than a blank frame that suggests loading failed. A negative value or an unusual unit needs a representation suited to that meaning; do not force it into a percentage-of-total diagram.

Accept meaning before polish

Inspect the generated report at its intended reading size. Check labels near page edges and whether the legend remains attached to its chart. A screenshot from the editor cannot prove the final PDF has retained them.

Keep the fixture and expected relationships with the template version. If a chart cannot communicate the comparison clearly, use the table. Adding another visualization is not an improvement when it makes the reader work harder to recover the same three facts.