Quick Start Guide: Create Your First Sankey Diagram in 5 Minutes

Welcome to Sankify

You're about to discover a faster, more intuitive way to understand company financials. In just five minutes, you'll go from zero to generating your first Sankey diagram—a visual representation of how money flows through a company's income statement.

No finance degree required. No complex setup. Let's get started.

Step 1: Enter a Ticker Symbol

On the Sankify homepage, you'll see the chart form with a ticker box. This is where your journey begins. Charts need a free account, so sign in first.

What's a Ticker Symbol?

A ticker symbol is the abbreviated code used to identify publicly traded companies. For example:

• AAPL = Apple Inc.
• MSFT = Microsoft Corporation
• TSLA = Tesla, Inc.
• AMZN = Amazon.com, Inc.
• NVDA = NVIDIA Corporation

How to Search

1. Type the ticker symbol into the ticker box (like "AAPL")
2. Pick the fiscal year and the period
3. Press the button to generate the chart

That's it. Sankify fetches the company's filing straight from SEC EDGAR and draws it.

Pro Tip

Not sure of the ticker? Once you're on a chart, the company switcher at the top searches by ticker or company name and suggests close matches, so you don't need to memorize symbols.

Step 2: Select a Time Period

Once you've selected a company, you can choose which financial period to visualize.

Available Time Periods

Sankify offers two types of financial periods:

Quarterly Reports (10-Q)

• Q1, Q2 and Q3 for each fiscal year, plus Q4, derived from the 10-K minus the first three quarters
• Shows three months of financial activity
• Great for tracking recent performance and trends

Annual Reports (10-K)

• Full fiscal year results
• Comprehensive yearly overview
• Best for understanding the big picture

How to Switch Periods

Use the dropdown menu near the top of the visualization to select different periods. You can switch between:

• Different quarters within the same year
• Annual vs. quarterly views
• Historical periods going back several years

When to Use Each

• Quarterly: Tracking recent trends, earnings season analysis, comparing sequential performance
• Annual: Year-over-year comparisons, understanding overall business structure, long-term analysis

Step 3: Understanding the Visualization

Now for the exciting part—the Sankey diagram itself. Here's how to read it.

The Flow Structure

A Sankey diagram shows financial flows from left to right:

Left Side: Revenue Sources

• Total revenue enters from the left
• Different revenue streams appear as separate flows
• Width represents the dollar amount

Middle: Costs and Expenses

• Cost of goods sold (COGS) branches off first
• Operating expenses (R&D, Sales & Marketing, General & Administrative) follow
• Each cost category has width proportional to its size

Right Side: Profits

• Gross profit (Revenue minus COGS)
• Operating income (Gross profit minus operating expenses)
• Net income (after taxes and interest)

Reading the Diagram

The width of each flow tells the story:

• Wide flows = Large dollar amounts
• Narrow flows = Smaller amounts
• Converging flows = Money combining (like multiple revenue sources)
• Diverging flows = Money splitting (like costs being deducted)

Color Coding

Different colors help distinguish between:

• Revenue streams
• Cost categories
• Profit levels

Hover over any node or flow to see its dollar value and its share of revenue.

Interactive Features

The diagram isn't just for looking—you can interact with it:

• Hover over any flow to see detailed values
• Click a node in edit mode to relabel or recolor it
• Resize the chart with the Chart scale slider in edit mode

Step 4: Exporting Your Diagram

Created a visualization you want to keep or share? Sankify makes it easy.

Export Options

Look for the Export button above the chart. What you can export depends on your plan (the Free plan doesn't include export):

Images

• Starter: PNG with a small Sankify watermark
• Pro and up: PNG and JPEG at up to 4x resolution, or SVG, which stays sharp at any size
• Canvas sizes for slides and Instagram

Data

• Business and Enterprise: a CSV of the figures behind every chart

Embeds

• Pro and up: an iframe snippet that puts the live chart on your own site

Best Uses for Exports

• Presentations: Drop the PNG into PowerPoint or Google Slides
• Reports: Include in investment memos or analysis documents
• Social sharing: Post insights on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Team discussions: Drop the image into Slack or email

What You've Learned

Congratulations! You now know how to:

1. Pick any company on Sankify's roster by its ticker
2. Select quarterly or annual time periods
3. Read Sankey diagrams to understand financial flows
4. Export visualizations for presentations and sharing

Next Steps

Now that you've mastered the basics, here are ways to go deeper:

Compare Companies

Chart competitors one at a time for the same period. For example:

• Apple vs. Microsoft (tech giants)
• Tesla vs. Ford (automotive)
• Netflix vs. Disney (entertainment)

Notice how different business models create different flow patterns.

Track Trends Over Time

View the same company across multiple quarters or years. Watch how:

• Revenue streams evolve
• Cost structures shift
• Margins expand or compress

Explore Different Industries

Each industry has unique financial characteristics. Explore:

• Tech: High R&D spending, strong gross margins
• Retail: Thin margins, high volume
• Manufacturing: Significant COGS, capital intensity
• Services: High labor costs, recurring revenue

Common Questions

Why don't I see data for some companies?

Sankify covers a fixed roster of about 200 large US-listed companies (the first 25 on the Free plan), each checked against its own filings. A ticker outside that roster can't be charted.

How current is the data?

Data updates as companies file with the SEC. Quarterly reports typically appear within 45 days of quarter end, and annual reports within 60-90 days of fiscal year end.

Can I see historical data?

Yes! Use the time period selector to access several years of historical filings.

You're Ready

That's everything you need to start exploring company financials with Sankey diagrams. The visual approach makes patterns obvious that would take much longer to spot in traditional financial tables.

Go ahead—search for a company that interests you and see what the money flow reveals.