Tip #18: 6 Trendlines and when to use them in your spreadsheet data?

Tip #18: 6 Trendlines and when to use them in your spreadsheet data?

Charts are a great tool for visualizing and interpreting large chunks of data in spreadsheets. Zoho Sheet offers you 35+ chart options, along with AI-powered chart recommendations based on the data set you select. There are various chart elements that can help you format and add additional details to your charts based on how you'd like to visualize the data.
 
A trendline is one of the chart elements that helps you visualize the general direction or trend of the data points plotted on the chart. It helps you observe the overall movement, pattern, or tendency of data over time to support analysis and forecasting. For example, let's take a chart indicating the sales of product X increasing over the given number of years. By adding trendlines to your chart, you can easily deduce the increasing sales.


What are the different types of trendlines and when should you use them? 

  • Linear
  • Power
  • Exponential
  • Logarithmic
  • Polynomial
  • Moving average

Linear


Linear trendlines are suitable for data sets that indicate a steady increase or decrease over a given period of time and are often straight lines.



In this example, an employee's annual salary has steadily increased in relation to their work experience, indicating a linear trendline.


Power


Power trendlines are helpful in predicting data sets that increase at a regular interval and result in a curved line.



In this example, the number of people following a Twitter account has increased rapidly over the course of a year.

Exponential


Exponential trendlines form a curved line representing values that increase or decrease at an accelerating rate. It's used for data with exponential growth or decay.



In this example, bicycle usage decreases rapidly over the given years.

Logarithmic


Logarithmic trendlines are suitable to represent data sets that show an increase or decrease and then gradually stabilize.



In this example, the person's height increases as he grows and then levels out as he reaches maturity.

Polynomial


Polynomial trendlines are appropriate capturing complex relationships between variables in data sets that keep oscillating or have intricate fluctuations.This type of trendline is classified into different types based on the degree or order. In Zoho Sheet, you can select the degree of the polynomial (2 to 10) based on how perfectly the trendline fits the given data set.



In this example, electricity consumption gradually increases and then decreases over the given months.

Moving average


The moving average trendline takes the fluctuations in the given values, averages them, and uses the average values to plot the trendline.
Moving average trendlines are useful for showing the overall trajectory of data sets with a lot of ups and downs. 

The stock market is a perfect match for the moving average trendline because stocks generally fluctuate on a regular basis.




Zoho Sheet offers multiple chart elements, like trendlines, data labels, legends, and gridlines, to help you customize the way your charts visualize information and ideas. You can also check out our post on the 3 important chart customizations.

 

Follow our Tips and Tricks forum to explore similar tips on using Zoho Sheet for your business. You can also join our community to stay informed on the latest updates and feature enhancements.






        • Recent Topics

        • Integrate QuickBooks with Bigin and streamline your sales and accounting!

          If your business relies on Bigin for customer management and QuickBooks for accounting and invoicing, this new integration is here to make your operations more efficient. By connecting these two platforms, you can now manage your CRM and financial processes

        • Very limited support for MCP

          Has anyone else noticed how limited the MCP support for Zoho People currently is? Right now only a small set of read-only actions (exactly 15) seem to be available. At the same time Zoho CRM supports over 700+ functions. It makes it almost impossible

        • How has Zoho still not resolved Daylight Savings Time?

          According to these forums Zoho has been working on DST for 12 years. Totally unacceptable. Am I missing something? Why are other customers who observe DST not screaming for this to be fixed? Are there reasonable workarounds? This is a must-have for us. 

        • ZOHO Desk attachments support

          Hi I just setup MCP with claude, it works well, but it can't read attachments... which makes it kind of useless... Will you be adding attachment capabilities anytime soon?

        • How to Generate Separate Labels for Each Invoice SKU Line Item in Zoho Books?

          Hi everyone, I’m trying to implement a requirement in Zoho Books where separate labels need to be generated for each SKU/item from an invoice. Scenario: One invoice can contain multiple products/SKU items Each item/box should have its own separate label

        • HTML PDF Templates / Build From Scratch option not visible for Custom Modules

          Hi everyone, I am working with Zoho Books Custom Modules and trying to create a custom 4x4 package label PDF template using HTML/CSS. According to the official Zoho Books documentation for HTML PDF Templates, there should be an option like: Settings →

        • Updating Sales orders on hold

          Surely updating irrelevant fields such as shipping date should be allowed when sales orders are awaiting back orders? Maybe the PO is going to be late arriving so we have to change the shipment date of the Sales order ! Not even allowed through the api - {"code":36014,"message":"Sales orders that have been shipped or on hold cannot be updated."}

        • Direct Integration Between Zoho Cliq Meetings and Google Calendar

          Dear Zoho Team, We’d like to submit the following feature request based on our current use case and the challenges we’re facing: 🎯 Feature Request: Enable meetings scheduled in Zoho Cliq to be automatically added to the host's Google Calendar, not just

        • billable_expense_id in Invoice API does not set invoiced=true on bill line items — causes duplicates in Projects > Create Invoice

          Hi Zoho Community, We are running an automated batch invoicing system using the Zoho Books API and have hit two critical bugs that are causing duplicate invoice risk in production. Raising this here for visibility alongside a support ticket already filed.

        • New fields : radio button

          Hi, when customizing a module (eg: Candidates), we are able to select different types of fields (check box, currency, list, ...). However there is no "radio-button" component. This type of fields is often used in Web pages and will be certainly a plus-value

        • Huge confusion in zoho crm and zoho analytics

          Context => We have reporting based hierarchy in zoho crm and basically there will be one sales head and couple sales managers and 10 pre sales excutives divided between 2 sales managers we have maintained that in zoho crm and there is complex reporting

        • Huge confusion in zoho crm and zoho analytics

          Context => We have reporting based hierarchy in zoho crm and basically there will be one sales head and couple sales managers and 10 pre sales excutives divided between 2 sales managers we have maintained that in zoho crm and there is complex reporting

        • Import KB template OR Export template for zoho desk?

          Greetings. Can you tell me if there is a way to get an EXPORT of my KB articles? OR is there a template you supply for importing KB articles into my zoho desk? I am looking for a method of understanding what fields can be imported, and what their possible

        • Choice Availability Reset

          If an entry is deleted which included a response to a field with choice availability enabled does that increase the number of remaining times the choice can be selected?

        • Rich Text Type Format for Notes Field

          Has it been discussed or is there a way to insert a table in the notes field? We sometimes receive information in a table format, and it would be beneficial to have it in the same format as a note on a record.

        • [Bug] WebAuthn passkey registration blocked on rpIds with TLDs longer than 6 characters (.accountant, .technology, etc.) — isValidDomain regex too strict

          Hi, Filing on behalf of an enterprise customer where Zoho Vault is deployed across the company. The Chrome extension blocks WebAuthn passkey registration on legitimate sites whose Relying Party ID (rpId) has a TLD longer than 6 letters. This affects every

        • [Heads Up] Upcoming update to field values in Zoho Books - Zoho Analytics integration

          Hello Users, We'd like to inform you of an upcoming update to the Account Type field values in the Zoho Books integration for Zoho Analytics from June 1, 2026. What's Changing? The following values under the Account Type field are being renamed to align

        • Important update: Migrate to the new SalesIQ live chat widget before May 15, 2026

          The old SalesIQ live chat widget will be deprecated on May 15, 2026. This is a final reminder to migrate to the new SalesIQ live chat widget before this date. After May 15, 2026, the old widget will no longer be maintained, which can lead to slower performance

        • Zia Agent built in ChatKit UI does not render markdown

          Hi, You have a major shortcoming in the Zia Agent UI. The test UI that is embedded in agents.zoho.com allows you to test the agent has full support for rendering markdown, but your ChatKit UI does not have support for rendering markdown. If I embed it

        • Team folder not created when creating project using zoho flow

          When I try to automate project creation using zoho flow, and I have enabled workdrive integration to automatically create team folders to attach to the project, this only works when I create a new project through the UI. But I am trying to automate project

        • Zoho Projects - Email notification relabelling of modules not present on default templates

          Hi Projects Team, I noticed that in the default email template notification, the word "bug" was not renamed to the lable I am using in my system. As many users may used the Bugs modules for various purposes including Changes, Revisions, Issues, etc...

        • GLM 5 not available

          Hello, I am trying to setup a Zia Agent using agents.zoho.com. The settings says that GLM5 is among the list of free zoho hosted models available. However, when I try to setup an agent and pick a model from the list only GLM 4.7 Flash is available. How

        • Set Custom Icon for Custom Modules in new Zoho CRM UI

        • Can not send or reply to mails

          Hello, I can not send mails or reply. If I try to send a mail i get "Unable to send message;Reason:553 Replaying disallowed. Invalid Domain - invata-programare.ro" Can you help me, please? Thank you!

        • Kaizen #241: Automating Deal risk escalation using Workflow APIs, Connected Workflows, and Functions

          Hello everyone! Welcome to another Kaizen week. In many organizations, sales teams work in Zoho CRM, finance teams manage invoices in Zoho Books, and support teams handle customer issues in Zoho Desk. Now consider this scenario: A sales representative

        • Upload own Background Image and set Camera to 16:9

          Hi, in all known online meeting tools, I can set up a background image reflecting our corporate design. This doesn't work in Cliq. Additionally, Cliq detects our cameras as 4:3, showing black bars on the right and left sides during the meeting. Where

        • Allow Super Admins to Edit Task “Created By” and Issue “Reporter” Fields

          Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding the ability to manage and correct system ownership fields in Zoho Projects, specifically: Task → Created By Issue → Reporter / Reported By Current

        • The Social Wall: April 2026

          Hello everyone, This month, we’re excited to bring you a set of new updates for Threads in Zoho Social, designed to make publishing, monitoring, and managing your content much easier Threads updates You’ll now see a few useful improvements in the compose

        • Sort or filter CRM report by count value

          Hi there, I'm trying to create a report that will show me high frequency bookings (leads) coming through within a time period for any particular account - this is so we can proactively reach out to these accounts. I have a report that shows the information

        • Error when changing user permission from read only to user.

          Hi there, Ive tried to change one of my users to be able to edit, however i kept getting the error user license exceed.

        • Marketing Tip #30: Promote your brand differently on each social platform

          Not all social platforms work the same way. Posting the same content in the same way across every channel can limit your reach. Each platform has its own discovery system, and understanding what it prioritizes can dramatically improve how your brand is

        • Whatsapp Limitation Questions

          Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based

        • **Building Role-Appropriate Accountability Layers in Zoho Projects - Looking for Real-World Experience**

          We're a small ISP/telecom operator on Zoho One and I'm trying to solve what I think is a common organizational problem. Would love to hear from others who've tackled it. **The Core Problem** Staff will only consistently use a project management system

        • Duplicate entries for contacts birthdays

          Good morning I have recently started to use my Zoho calendar and noticed that there are multiple birthday events showing for some of my contacts. I have checked my contacts and there were duplicates for some contacts which I have now rectified but the

        • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

          Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

        • What's New in Zoho Billing | March 2026

          March is here with a fresh wave of updates to Zoho Billing. From making compliance easier, reporting more flexible, to making day-to-day workflows smoother across the board. Here's everything that's new this month. Introducing Usage-Based Billing Reports

        • Subforms in Creator-Lookup Price

          I've got a modular called Price List with items and prices. Ive got another module called Estimates with a subform that looks up that Price List. I am trying to get the "Price" to auto-enter based on the Lookup field of the item name. Anyone know how

        • Feature request - pin or flag note

          Hi, It would be great if you could either pin or flag one or more notes so that they remain visible when there are a bunch of notes and some get hidden in the list. Sometimes you are looking for a particular name that gets lost in a bunch of less important

        • Tip #20 - Three things you probably didn't know you can do with picklists

          Hello Zoho Sheet users! We’re back with another quick tip to help you make your spreadsheets smarter. Picklists are a great tool to maintain consistency in your spreadsheet. Manually entering data is time-consuming and often leaves typos and irregular

        • Map Dependency Upgrades in Zoho CRM

          Map Dependency Fields enhancements are available in CA, SA, JP, CN, UAE, AU and EU DCs. Latest update: Also available in IN and US DCs. Hello everyone, We’ve introduced a set of enhancements to Map Dependency Fields to make setup simpler, faster, and

        • Next Page