Four Lenses on the Same Data

The Data Perspective Problem — and Four Solutions

It’s 11 PM. You’ve finally sat down to look at a company you’ve been meaning to research for weeks. You pull up the quarterly P&L on Screener.in. Revenue: ₹23,451 Cr. Year before: ₹18,932 Cr. Year before that: ₹17,200 Cr. Year before that: ₹14,800 Cr.

You squint at the numbers. Is growth speeding up or slowing down? You pull out the mental abacus. 23,451 minus 18,932... divide by 18,932... that’s about 24%. And the year before... 18,932 minus 17,200... divide by 17,200... about 10%. So growth accelerated. But then you need to check if Operating Profit is keeping pace. And margins. And whether this quarter’s results follow the same pattern. Forty-five minutes later you’ve done a lot of arithmetic and very little actual analysis.

This is The Mental Abacus Problem. Raw financial tables are data-dense but insight-poor. They show you size. They hide trends. And answering the most important analytical questions — is growth accelerating? are margins expanding? is operating leverage real? — requires calculations that your brain shouldn’t be doing manually.

Finmagine v2.6.0 solves this with four Display Modes. Instead of one view of the data, you get four purpose-built lenses, each designed to answer a specific analytical question:

Version 2.7.0 adds a fifth dimension — not to the tables, but to the charts themselves:

This guide covers every one of these features in depth: how they work, what they reveal, and when to use each one. A live case study using Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) demonstrates the full 6-step workflow on real data.

The Display Mode Toggle: A New Way to Read Your Tables

The Display Mode toggle appears as four buttons directly in the Charts tab panel header, next to the existing section controls:

Clicking any button instantly transforms all visible financial tables into that perspective. The chart above the tables updates simultaneously to reflect any data that has been selected for charting. Clicking Values returns to the default raw number view at any time.

The Dark-Green View Table — Separation of Concerns

This is the most important design principle to understand about Display Modes. When you activate YoY%, QoQ%, or % of Sales, the extension does not modify your original financial tables. Instead, it creates a separate read-only "view table" displayed with a dark-green theme, rendered below the mode toggle buttons.

Your original tables remain exactly as Screener.in rendered them — intact, untouched, ready to be charted from. The view table is purely a derived display layer. This means:

• You can chart raw values AND view them as YoY% simultaneously
• Switching modes never breaks your selected metrics
• The original data is always recoverable by clicking "Values"

Here is what the dark-green view table looks like in YoY% mode for a hypothetical P&L table:

YoY% view table — dark green theme, read-only, does not affect original charting tables

How to Activate Each Mode

YoY% Mode — Spotting Growth Inflection Points v2.6.0

Year-over-year percentage change is the most fundamental measure of business momentum. A company growing revenue at +25% this year vs +8% last year tells a completely different story than the raw numbers alone. YoY% mode transforms every cell into a growth rate, making inflection points immediately visible.

What You See in YoY% Mode

Each cell shows the percentage change from the same period in the prior year:

Green = positive growth, Red = contraction, — = base year (no prior data)

Color Coding

The Inflection Point Signal

Practical Applications

• Revenue acceleration: Are YoY% growth rates climbing? The business may be hitting a flywheel moment.
• The operating leverage check: Is Net Profit YoY% consistently higher than Revenue YoY%? If so, costs are growing slower than revenue — operating leverage is real. In YoY% mode, this comparison takes seconds: you just scan two rows and compare the numbers.
• One-time spike vs sustained growth: A single year of exceptional YoY% surrounded by average growth years is likely a one-time event, not a trend. YoY% mode makes this pattern immediately obvious — a lone green spike in a sea of moderate numbers.
• COVID base-effect warning: FY2021 often shows large negatives in YoY% (pandemic impact), followed by large positives in FY2022 (base-effect recovery). Seeing this pattern in “All” filter view helps you avoid mistaking base-effect rebounds for genuine business acceleration.

QoQ% Mode — Catching Quarterly Acceleration v2.6.0

While YoY% is ideal for annual trend analysis, QoQ% is the pulse monitor. It measures how each quarter performed relative to the immediately preceding quarter — not the same quarter a year ago. This distinction matters enormously: QoQ% captures momentum as it builds in real time, quarter by quarter.

This mode is most valuable on quarterly P&L tables, where you have 12–20 data points per metric. The extension calculates each cell as:

Each metric row shows a badge indicating its most recent momentum trend based on the last three QoQ values

Acceleration Badges: ⬆ Accelerating / ⬇ Decelerating / → Stable

The most powerful feature of QoQ% mode is the automatic acceleration badge appended to each metric row label. The badge summarizes the direction of momentum — not just whether growth is positive, but whether it is speeding up, slowing down, or holding steady.

How Badges are Computed

The extension examines the last three consecutive QoQ values for each metric. Specifically:

1. Take the three most recent QoQ% changes: Q(n), Q(n-1), Q(n-2)
2. Compare the most recent value against the older two
3. Assign the badge based on the overall direction of change

When Acceleration Badges Are Most Useful

• Early recovery detection: A company showing “Decelerating” YoY% but “Accelerating” QoQ% may be in early recovery — the quarterly trend is improving before the annual comparisons show it.
• Earnings preview: If the last two quarters show Accelerating badges for Net Profit, the upcoming quarterly result may surprise positively.
• Sector comparison: Use QoQ% with acceleration badges to quickly compare which companies in a sector are gaining momentum vs losing it, without digging through numbers.

% of Sales Mode — The Margin Telescope v2.6.0

When you look at a company's P&L, every line below "Sales" is ultimately a fraction of that top line. Raw material costs, employee expenses, EBITDA, Net Profit — these numbers only tell part of the story. Their relationship to Sales reveals the structure of the business model: how much of every rupee of revenue becomes profit, how cost-efficient the operations are, and whether margins are structurally expanding or contracting over time.

% of Sales mode divides every cell by the Sales/Revenue value in the same column (same year or quarter), expressing the result as a percentage of the top line.

What % of Sales Reveals

Sales always = 100.0%. All other rows are proportional. Raw Material declining from 38.4% to 35.9% = direct margin improvement.

From this table, the narrative is clear: Raw Material costs as % of Sales have been falling consistently (from 38.4% to 35.9%), EBITDA margins have expanded from 19.2% to 23.6%, and Net Profit margin has grown from 8.4% to 12.9%. Without % of Sales mode, deriving this from raw numbers alone would require years of calculations.

The YoY Percentage Point Delta

The most powerful feature within % of Sales mode is the YoY percentage point (pp) delta. Every cell in the view table shows not just the current % of Sales value, but also how it has changed vs the prior year in percentage points.

The cell format is:

Color Coding of the Delta

Quarterly % of Sales Delta Logic

In quarterly % of Sales mode, the delta compares the current quarter's % of Sales to the same quarter one year ago (4 quarters back), not to the immediately preceding quarter. This eliminates seasonal distortions:

Reading the Margin Structure

The % of Sales view is particularly effective for answering:

• Is operating leverage real? If Revenue is growing and EBITDA as % of Sales is also rising, yes — fixed costs are getting leveraged.
• Where are costs compressing or expanding? Scan every cost row for the delta sign — rising cost percentages need an explanation.
• Is the bottom line improving faster than the top line? If Net Profit as % of Sales is rising while raw material costs are falling, the company is keeping the gains.
• Structural vs cyclical margin improvement: A consistent multi-year trend of rising EBITDA % is structural. A single year of improvement may be cyclical (commodity tailwind, one-time cost cut).

Period Filter — Zoom In or Out v2.6.0

The Period Filter works alongside Display Modes (or independently in Values mode) to control how many years or quarters of data are shown in the view table. It sits adjacent to the mode toggle buttons in the panel header.

Period Filter with Display Modes

The period filter and display mode work independently — you can combine any filter with any mode. Common combinations:

• Last 8 + YoY%: An eight-year growth trend — removes the "noise" of the company's early years while still covering a full cycle
• Last 8 + % of Sales: Eight years of margin structure — enough to see operating leverage build and test across different market conditions
• Last 4 + QoQ%: Tight quarterly momentum view — the last 4 quarters with acceleration badges to assess current trajectory
• All + YoY%: Full growth history — ideal for understanding business cycles and identifying long-run growth rates

The period filter also applies to the charting tables. When combined with a Display Mode, charts are redrawn with only the selected number of data points — making trend lines cleaner and easier to read without the full historical dataset competing for visual attention.

CSV Export — Data Beyond the Browser v2.6.0

Every Display Mode view can be exported to CSV with a single click. The Export CSV button appears in the panel header when any non-Values mode is active (or can export the current period-filtered Values view as well). The exported file captures exactly what you see in the dark-green view table.

What Gets Exported

Use Cases for CSV Export

• Offline comparison: Export YoY% for 5 companies in the same sector, paste them side by side in Excel/Sheets to compare growth trajectories
• Investment notes: Export % of Sales data to document the margin structure at the time of investment decision, for review at future results
• Peer analysis: Build a sector dashboard by exporting the same metrics (e.g., EBITDA margin, Net Profit margin as % of Sales) from multiple companies
• Teaching tool: Export YoY% data for classroom or blog use without needing to compute it manually

Lines/Bars Toggle — Chart Type Freedom

By default, the Charts tab assigns chart types intelligently: absolute values (Revenue, Net Profit, EBITDA) become bar charts on the left Y-axis; percentages and ratios (OPM%, ROE%, ROCE%) become line charts on the right Y-axis. This gives you a clear visual separation — bars for scale, lines for trend.

But preferences vary. Some analysts prefer an all-line view — cleaner trend lines without the visual weight of bars. The Lines/Bars toggle respects that preference.

The Lines Button

The button appears in the panel's chart action row alongside the existing Reset and Clear controls:

When to Use All-Lines Mode

• Trend comparison: When you want to compare the trajectory of Revenue, EBITDA, and Net Profit as trend lines on the same scale, without bars competing for visual space
• Presentation mode: Line-only charts screenshot more cleanly for shared analysis or blog posts
• Multiple metrics in a tight view: With 5–7 metrics selected, bars can overlap and obscure each other. Lines give each metric clear visual separation
• Long time series: With 15+ annual periods, bars become narrow and hard to read. Lines communicate the trend more clearly

When to Keep Bars

• Sizing the business: When absolute scale matters (visualizing revenue in Cr, not just trend direction), bars communicate magnitude better
• Bar + Line dual-axis: The default mixed view is purpose-built for combining absolute values (bars/left axis) with ratios (lines/right axis) — this is the classic revenue-with-margins chart and is most readable in its default mixed form
• Teaching and explanation: When explaining how a metric grew from one year to the next, bars are more intuitive for audiences unfamiliar with charts

Per-Metric Chart Type Toggle — Fine-Grained Control v2.7.0

The global Lines/Bars toggle handles all metrics at once. But sometimes you want only one metric to switch type — for example, showing Revenue as a line while keeping Net Profit and OPM% in their original formats. The per-metric toggle gives you exactly that control.

How to Toggle a Single Metric

Look at the chart legend below the chart. Each metric entry shows three elements:

1. A colored square (the metric color)
2. The metric name (click to toggle visibility)
3. A small type badge showing the current chart type: Bar or Line

Click the Bar or Line type badge for any metric to flip just that metric between bar and line format. The badge updates to reflect the new type, and the chart redraws immediately.

Common Per-Metric Use Cases

• OPM% already a line, Revenue needs to be a line too: Click Revenue's "Bar" badge → Revenue becomes a line. Both Revenue and OPM% now show as clean trend lines for a trajectory comparison.
• All lines active, one metric needs to stay as a bar: Activate Lines mode globally, then click the "Line" badge on that specific metric → it reverts to Bar while others remain as lines.
• Building a custom mixed view: Start with defaults, selectively toggle individual metrics until the chart layout is exactly right for your specific analytical question.

The Complete Workflow — All Modes, One Company

These features are not independent tools — they form a sequential analytical workflow. Here is how to use them together when analyzing a new company on Screener.in:

Panel Navigation — Scroll Buttons & Back to Top

As the extension has grown to five tabs with increasingly rich content — Display Mode view tables, metric lists, Quick Analysis scores, DuPont decompositions — navigating within the panel on a single screen became cumbersome. v2.7.0 adds two dedicated navigation controls to solve this.

↑ / ↓ Scroll Buttons

Two arrow buttons are permanently visible on the right edge of the panel body. Each click scrolls the active tab's content by 200px — up or down — with smooth animation. This is useful when you want to nudge through a long metrics list or step through a Display Mode view table without losing your place.

Back to Top Button

A floating "↑ Top" pill button appears in the bottom corner of the panel once you have scrolled more than 300px within any tab. Click it to instantly jump back to the top of that tab's content with a smooth scroll.

It is context-aware: the Back to Top button tracks whichever tab is active and scrolls that tab's container back to position zero — not the browser page, and not a different tab. Switch tabs and the button's visibility resets based on the scroll position of the new active tab.

Live Case Study — Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) Step-by-Step

Abstract concepts are best understood with real data. The following walkthrough uses Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) — one of the most data-rich companies available on stockanalysis.com — to demonstrate the full analytical hierarchy in practice. This is the same stock used in the video walkthrough and the Deep Dive audio above.

Step 1 — Values: Anchor to Scale

Before any analysis, establish what you are dealing with. GOOGL’s Q1-21 quarterly revenue was $55,314M. That single number tells you this is a mega-cap technology company. You set your mental frame: this is not a company that grows 50% per year. Single-digit to mid-teen growth at this scale is actually impressive. This context — sizing the business — is what Values mode is for.

Step 2 — YoY%: Spot the Growth Inflection

Switch to YoY%. The numbers are now growth rates. Here is what the quarterly P&L shows:

GOOGL Quarterly P&L — YoY% from stockanalysis.com

The YoY% view tells a very clear story in seconds:

• Revenue is re-accelerating. After dipping to +11.8% (Q4-24) and +12.0% (Q1-25), growth has climbed back to +13.8%, +15.9%, and +18.0% in recent quarters. The inflection point is visible — no calculation needed.
• Cost of Revenue is growing slower than Revenue. Every quarter: Revenue +12-18%, Cost of Revenue +8-13%. Gross Profit consistently grows faster than Revenue. This is operating leverage at the top of the P&L.
• Operating Income and Net Income grow much faster than Revenue. Revenue at +12%, Operating Income at +14-46%, Net Income at +19-57%. The profit lines are consistently darker green and showing higher numbers than the revenue line — a healthy, leveraged business.

Step 3 — QoQ%: Check the Quarterly Pulse

On the quarterly P&L section, switch to QoQ% with Last 4 filter active. This strips the view to the most recent four quarters and shows acceleration badges for each metric. For GOOGL, you would expect to see Revenue with an ⬆ Accelerating badge (revenue growth rate has been climbing), while Operating Expenses may show a ⬇ Decelerating badge (SG&A was actually declining YoY in several quarters: -8.2%, -3.0%, -9.0%).

The QoQ% mode confirms the YoY trend is not just annual averaging — the momentum is present quarter by quarter. This matters especially for investor timing: the accelerating revenue signal is visible in QoQ% before it shows up clearly in annual comparisons.

Step 4 — % of Sales: Audit the Margin Structure

Switch to % of Sales. The Gross Margin row across these quarters shows positive YoY pp deltas: ↑+3.6pp, ↑+1.5pp, ↑+3.5pp, ↑+2.6pp, ↑+2.7pp — consistent margin expansion for five consecutive quarters. Gross margin improved by roughly 2-3pp per year. In raw Values mode, detecting this requires dividing Gross Profit by Revenue for each quarter, then computing the difference. In % of Sales mode with pp deltas, it is a single green cell reading.

Step 5 — Period Filter: Focus for Decisions

Apply Last 4 to confirm the most recent signal. With only the most recent 4 quarters in view, the re-acceleration in revenue (+13.8%, +15.9%, +18.0%) is unambiguous. Export as CSV if you want to document this analysis or compare GOOGL against META or MSFT side-by-side in a spreadsheet.

What the 6-Step Workflow Revealed About GOOGL

This is the power of four lenses on the same data. Each mode eliminated a different type of analytical friction. Together, they turned a 45-minute mental arithmetic exercise into a 3-minute structured workflow.

Which Mode When? A Decision Guide

Display Modes vs Charting: Complementary, Not Competing

A common question: if I am viewing the table in YoY% mode and charting Revenue, will the chart show raw Revenue or YoY% growth rates? The answer depends on the mode: when Display Modes is active, the chart reflects the current view — YoY% mode will chart growth rates, % of Sales will chart percentage ratios.

This means you can combine the two tools powerfully: switch to YoY% mode, select Revenue and Net Profit, and the chart becomes a growth rate comparison chart — showing whether Net Profit growth consistently exceeds Revenue growth (a sign of operating leverage) or lags behind it (a sign of cost pressure or margin dilution).

Platform Availability

Display Modes require structured table data from the financial statements. Google Finance does not expose its data in an extractable table format for this processing, which is why Display Modes are unavailable there. The Lines/Bars toggle works on all platforms because it operates entirely on the charted data, regardless of source.

Continue Learning: Related Guides