Where does my money go: the Sankey diagram of your spending
A pie chart tells you what percentage each category is. A Sankey tells you where the money comes from, where it passes through and where it ends up, with the width of each flow proportional to the amount. It is the chart people share most when they show their finances, because it needs no legend.
What a Sankey diagram is
It is a flow diagram. Nodes are boxes and the connections between them are bands whose thickness represents the quantity. It was invented in the nineteenth century to show the energy of a steam engine. Applied to money, each band is an amount and each node is a source, a category or a destination.
How to read it
Left to right. On the left is income: salary, invoices, rent. In the middle there is usually a total node. On the right, the destinations: housing, food, transport, leisure, savings, taxes. The wider the band, the more money. If a band is thin and goes somewhere you did not expect, that is where to look.
- Band width = amount.
- Left node = source. Right node = destination.
- What enters a node equals what leaves it.
Why it works better than a pie
The pie loses the origin. It tells you 30% goes to housing, but not which income it comes from or how much is left afterwards. The Sankey keeps the chain: this comes in, this goes out, this remains. The savings node sits at the end, and seeing it thin hurts more than seeing 8% in a legend.
The monthly Sankey in Fider
Fider draws a Sankey from the transactions of the month or quarter you pick. Income enters on the left, joins in a total node and splits into categories on the right. What was not spent shows up as savings. You can view it for one wallet or all three, and compare it with the previous period.
The tax quarter Sankey
For the freelance wallet there is a second Sankey. On the left, what you invoiced. From there flow the output IVA, the IRPF withholding, the autónomo quota and deductible expenses. What remains on the right is your real net. It is the fastest way to understand why 10,000 € invoiced leaves you 6,000 €.
Export to MakeCharts
Fider uses the chart library from MakeCharts, its partner. Any Sankey opens in makecharts.ai with one click to change colours, labels and size and download it as an image. It is what people share when they show their year's finances.
How to make yours today
Log a month of transactions, by hand or by importing the statement, and open the flow view. If you have never seen your money this way, the first time usually brings a surprise: a forgotten subscription, a category weighing twice what you thought, or thinner savings than you believed.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Sankey diagram?
A flow diagram where the width of each band is proportional to the amount. Applied to money, it shows where it comes in, where it passes through and where it ends up.
How do I read a spending Sankey?
Left to right: income on the left, spending categories and savings on the right. The wider the band, the larger the amount.
Why is it better than a pie chart?
Because it keeps the origin of the money and what is left at the end. The pie only shows percentages without context.
Does Fider draw a Sankey of my spending?
Yes, one per month or quarter from your transactions, and another for the tax quarter of the freelance wallet with IVA, IRPF, quota and deductibles.
Can I download the chart?
Yes. It opens in MakeCharts, Fider's partner, where you can customise it and export it as an image.
Do I need to connect my bank to see it?
No. Logging transactions by hand, importing a CSV or uploading the PDF statement is enough.