Combination Chart
A Combination Chart is a Salesforce report and dashboard chart that plots two or more measures on one chart canvas, with at least one of those measures rendered in a second visual form.
Definition
A Combination Chart is a Salesforce report and dashboard chart that plots two or more measures on one chart canvas, with at least one of those measures rendered in a second visual form. The most common shape is a line drawn on top of a vertical column chart, so one metric reads as bars and the other reads as a line. Salesforce builds these by letting you add extra measures to an existing bar, column, or line chart, and (for column charts) plot one of those measures as a line, optionally on its own right-side axis.
A Combination Chart is useful because not every question maps to a single number. A sales manager wants bookings next to deal count, a service lead wants case volume next to resolution time, a marketer wants lead volume next to conversion rate. Putting each metric on its own chart hides the relationship between them. Overlaying them keeps the relationship visible. The second axis option is what makes two very different scales (currency in the millions versus a count in the dozens) readable in the same frame. Combination Charts are a standard option in the Lightning report builder and render the same way inside dashboard components.
How combination charts are built and read in Salesforce
What counts as a combination chart
Salesforce does not present "Combination Chart" as a single picklist value. Instead, a combination chart is any report chart where you have added more than one measure, and where the visual forms differ or sit on different scales. The official documentation describes three building blocks. You can add a line to a line, vertical column, grouped column, or stacked column chart. You can add a cumulative line to a cumulative line chart. And you can add up to three additional columns to a vertical column chart, or up to three additional bars to a horizontal bar chart. The line-on-column shape is what most people mean when they say combination chart, because it pairs magnitude (the bars) with a trend or rate (the line). The grouped-column shape, where two or more measures sit side by side as bars, is also a combination chart in the sense that it shows several values against one axis. Knowing this matters when you search the chart editor and cannot find a "combination" option. You are not looking for one chart type. You are looking for the Add Measure control and, on column charts, the option to plot a measure as a line.
Single axis versus a second axis
The single most important decision on a combination chart is whether the measures share one Y-axis or need two. Use one axis when every measure lives in the same numeric range. Sum of opportunity amount and sum of expected revenue both run in dollars, so they read fine on a single axis as two columns. Use a second axis when the measures have very different scales. A bar series counting from zero to ten thousand and a line series running from zero to one hundred percent cannot share an axis without the smaller series flattening into a straight line near the bottom. On a vertical column chart, you enable this by plotting the second measure as a line and turning on the option to plot it on the second axis, which adds a separate scale on the right side of the chart. The official line-on-column example pairs sum of opportunity amount as columns against deal count as a line on the second axis, so total value and total count read clearly in one view. If your line disappears, a missing second axis is almost always the reason.
Report format and grouping prerequisites
A combination chart needs a report that is grouped, so the format must be Summary (grouped by rows) or Matrix (grouped by rows and columns). Tabular reports have no groupings and cannot carry a chart at all. The row grouping field becomes the X-axis, which is why a sensible grouping (by stage, by close month, by owner) is the first thing to get right. Each measure you add to the chart has to be a summary value that the report already calculates, such as sum of amount, record count, or average of a number field. If a measure is not summarized in the report, it will not be available to plot. There is also a rule worth remembering in the chart editor: the X-axis and Y-axis cannot both be set to Auto at the same time, so you will set at least one of them explicitly. For the line-on-line pattern, the documentation shows summing opportunity amount against a date grouping and adding a calculated moving average as the second line, which is a clean way to compare actuals against a smoothed trend.
Behavior inside dashboard components
A dashboard component reads from a source report and renders that report chart, so a combination chart you build in the report shows up the same way on the dashboard. This is how most production dashboards put sales and service KPIs side by side: a single component shows volume as bars and a rate or count as a line. One behavior to plan around is that filtered drilldown does not work for combination charts on a dashboard. With a simpler single-measure chart, a viewer can sometimes click a segment to drill into the filtered records. That interaction is not supported once the chart becomes a combination. If click-through drilldown is a hard requirement for a given component, either keep that component single-measure or provide a separate view-report link. The trade is usually worth it, because the combined view answers the "how much and how well" question in one glance, and the drill-down can live on a companion report. Dashboard filters still apply to the underlying report data as normal.
Chart limits that affect plotting
Combination charts add measures, and every group and value on the chart counts toward the report chart limits. In Lightning Experience, a report chart can plot at most 2,000 groups. In Salesforce Classic the ceiling is lower, with no more than 250 groups or 4,000 values. When a chart exceeds these numbers, Salesforce shows an error that the chart has too many groups or values to plot, and the fix is to tighten the report filters or change the grouping so fewer points render. Because a combination chart stacks several measures onto the same set of groups, it reaches the value ceiling faster than a single-measure chart on the same report. There is also a graceful-degradation behavior to know about: if a user loses field-level access to a field used in the chart, Salesforce substitutes another field or falls back to record count rather than breaking the chart outright. That keeps the dashboard rendering, but it can quietly change what a viewer sees, so field access on charted measures is worth auditing.
Patterns that work and patterns that fail
A few overlays recur because they answer real questions. Bookings as bars with win rate as a line shows pipeline outcome against pipeline quality. Pipeline volume as bars with average deal size as a line shows quantity against value per deal. Case volume as bars with average resolution time as a line shows workload against speed. Lead volume as bars with conversion rate as a line shows top-of-funnel size against funnel efficiency. Each pairs a count or sum with a rate or average, which is exactly what the line-on-column shape is built for. The failures are just as predictable. Forgetting the second axis when the scales differ hides the line. Stacking too many measures onto one chart turns it into noise, so keeping the chart to a volume bar plus one or two overlaid series usually reads best. Default colors are not always distinguishable for color-blind viewers, so a deliberate palette matters on any chart that will sit on a shared dashboard. And mixing units (dollars on one series, percent on another) without formatting each measure explicitly leaves the audience guessing which number means what.
How to build a combination chart in the Lightning report builder
Build a combination chart in the Lightning report builder by adding a second measure to a column chart and plotting it as a line. Start from a Summary or Matrix report that already calculates the measures you want to show.
- Open the chart on a grouped report
Edit a Summary or Matrix report. Click the chart toggle icon to show the chart, then click the gear icon to open the chart editor. The chart editor only appears for grouped reports.
- Set the base column chart
Choose Bar, Column, or Line as the chart type. Set the X-axis to your row grouping field (for example Stage or Close Month) and pick the first measure for the Y-axis, such as Sum of Amount.
- Add the second measure
Click Add Measure to bring in the second value, for example Record Count or Win Rate. A vertical column chart accepts up to three additional measures, and a horizontal bar chart up to three additional bars.
- Plot it as a line on the second axis
On a column chart, set the second measure to plot as a line, then enable the option to plot it on the second axis when the scales differ. The right-side axis gives the line its own scale so it does not flatten against the bars.
- Format and save
Add a chart title, set the value formatting per measure (currency on the bar, percent on the line), and confirm the X and Y axes are not both set to Auto. Click Run Report or Save, then add the report as a dashboard component if needed.
Adds another summary value to the chart. Up to three extra measures on a vertical column chart, or three extra bars on a horizontal bar chart.
Renders a chosen measure on a column chart as a line instead of a bar, which creates the classic line-on-column combination.
Gives the line measure its own scale on the right side of the chart. Turn this on when the bar and line measures have very different ranges.
Draws a horizontal reference value across the chart, useful for marking a target or threshold next to the plotted measures.
- The X-axis and Y-axis cannot both be set to Auto. Set at least one of them explicitly or the chart will not render.
- Filtered drilldown does not work for combination charts on dashboards, so click-through to filtered records is not available on these components.
- Every group and value counts toward the chart limit (2,000 groups in Lightning), and combination charts hit the ceiling faster because they stack measures.
- If a viewer loses field access to a charted measure, Salesforce substitutes another field or record count, which can silently change what the chart shows.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Combination Chart in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Combination Charts (Salesforce Help)Salesforce
- Combination Chart Examples (Salesforce Help)Salesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Combination Chart.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Combination Chart.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What distinguishes a Combination Chart from an ordinary single-series chart?
Q2. On a Combination Chart, which feature keeps a low-range metric from flatlining against a high-range one?
Q3. Which report formats can a Combination Chart be built on?
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