Tableau Cloud Help

The Relationships setting allows you to assign relationships between measures in a Tableau Data Story that has multiple measures. To configure Relationships, your story must have one dimension and multiple measures. For more information, see Create Custom Measure Relationships in Your Tableau Data Story.

There are two types of relationships:

• Actual vs. Benchmark
• Current/Most Recent vs Previous Period

Use Actual vs. Benchmark when you want to know if you’re performing above or below your performance benchmarks, for example, when performing quota reporting. This type of relationship is also helpful for identifying data points that require additional analysis because they’re significantly above or below your benchmark. To use Actual vs. Benchmark, the measures you’re comparing must have the same value type.

Use Current/Most Recent vs. Previous Period when you want to see if your key performance indicators (KPIs) are increasing, decreasing, or remaining consistent over time. To use Current/Most Recent vs. Previous Period, you must use a discrete story type. For more information, see Choose the Right Story Type for Your Tableau Data Story.

Additionally, you can use Actual vs. Benchmark and Current/Most Recent vs. Previous Period relationships simultaneously. Measures in your viz that aren’t part of the configured relationships are written about in separate paragraphs.

Create Actual vs. Benchmark relationship for continuous or discrete stories

Use the Actual vs. Benchmark relationship when one measure is a benchmark for other measures. For example, you could compare actual sales to a sales target, so your story writes insights about whether you outperformed or underperformed your goal. When you use this type of relationship, the story removes unnecessary content and focuses on what's most important–comparing a metric to its associated benchmark.

1. Add a Tableau Data Story to a Dashboard.
2. From your dashboard, click the Settings icon at the top-left corner of your Data Story object.
3. In the Data Story dialog box, click the Relationships tab.
4. Check the box for Actual vs. Benchmark.
5. First, select the measure that is the benchmark.
6. Then, select the measure that you want to compare against the benchmark.
7. Click Save.

Create Current/Most Recent vs. Previous Period relationship

Use the Current/Most Recent vs. Previous Period relationship to compare the performance of two measures over a period. For example, you could compare two products to see which product generated the most revenue over the last year.

1. Add a Tableau Data Story to a Dashboard.
2. From your dashboard, click the Settings icon at the top-left corner of your Data Story object.
3. In the Data Story dialog box, click the Relationships tab.
4. Check the box for Current/Most Recent vs. Previous Period.
5. First select the measure for the previous period.
6. Then, select the measure for the current period.
7. Enter the label for the period that you’re measuring, for example, year.
8. Choose the number of periods to measure.
9. Click Save.