Basis points are a common unit for measuring interest rates and other percentages in finance. They are mostly used in big companies where margins don’t grow by many percents, but rather by fractions of a percent.
Learn how you can apply basis points to visualize the absolute variances with Zebra BI Tables and convey the right message to your audience.
⚠ Note: this feature is available with the 6.1 update of the Zebra BI Tables visual.
One basis point is equal to 1/100th of 1%, or 0.01%, or 0.0001, and is used to denote the percentage change in a financial instrument. The relationship between percentage changes and basis points can be summarized as follows: 1% change = 100 basis points and 0.01% = 1 basis point.
It is much easier and clearer to say, that the operating margin grew by 30 basis points than to say it grew by 0.3% which in big companies can represent a huge number (in millions).
If you want to display your variances with basis points, you can find a step-by-step guide on how to do that in the article below.
First, create a table using Zebra BI Tables visual by adding the needed data into the right placeholder.
![](https://help.zebrabi.com/wp-content/uploads/Tables-basis-points-step-1.gif)
Now let’s go under Data labels in the formatting pane and search for the ‘Use basis points format‘ setting.
![](https://help.zebrabi.com/wp-content/uploads/Basis-points-data-labels.png)
Turn this setting on and you can immediately observe the changes on the visual.
![](https://help.zebrabi.com/wp-content/uploads/Basis-points-turn-on.gif)
Additionally, you can also apply a few other settings to make a report with basis points even more detailed.
First, you can rename the default value ‘bp’ by simply entering a new word under ‘Basis point’.
![](https://help.zebrabi.com/wp-content/uploads/Basis-points-rename.gif)
Next, you can suppress the relative variances to remove the clutter from the fields containing basis points. Simply toggle on the setting next to ‘Suppress relative variances.’
![](https://help.zebrabi.com/wp-content/uploads/Untitled-design-5.png)
Lastly, you can adjust the number of percentage point decimals or remove them completely by changing the number under this setting.
![](https://help.zebrabi.com/wp-content/uploads/basis-poits-decimals.gif)
If you want to switch back to percentage point view, simply toggle off the feature ‘Use basis points’.