---
title: "Design Custom Chart"
slug: "design-custom-chart"
description: "Advice on designing (planning) your custom chart before you start creating it."
updated: 2023-05-03T16:26:26Z
published: 2023-05-03T16:26:26Z
canonical: "help.lanteria.com/design-custom-chart"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.lanteria.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Design Custom Chart

Do the following before you create a custom chart in the system:

- Select the lists to be included into the chart
- Choose the chart fields
- Plan how the fields will be grouped, taking into account that there can be several grouping levels
- Think which  totals and subtotals will be included

Here are some points to make the design stage easier.

The **Chart** **Wizard** allows including several lists into a report. Please note that after the first list is selected, only the lists related to it through lookups will be available for the second list selection.

For example, if you select the **Employees** list, only the lists related to the **Employees** lookups will be available for selection.![](https://cdn.document360.io/c315c68d-2799-4fcc-9a39-084315b58f14/Images/Documentation/img114(5).png)![](https://cdn.document360.io/c315c68d-2799-4fcc-9a39-084315b58f14/Images/Documentation/img115(3).png)

When selecting a second list, you can see by which list it has been included and by which lookup it is connected next to the list name. For example, **Job Roles by [Employees].[Job Role]** - the **Job Roles** list is available for selection because the **Employees** list already included into the chart has the **Job Role** lookup field.

If you select **Job Roles** as the second chart list, the lists that are connected to **Job Roles** by lookup will be available for selection as well.

This means that when designing the chart, you should plan to include the “lower” level list first. For example, the chart being designed is to display the employee salaries grouped by job grade. The salary information can be taken from the **Employees** list, and the employee grades are stored in the **Job Roles** list. Since the **Employees** list contains the **Job Role** lookup, select the **Employees** list first and then the **Job Roles** list. If you select the **Job Roles** as the first list, the **Employees** list won’t be available for selection, as the **Job Roles** list doesn’t have the **Employee** lookup.