This is quite clever but there's one additional tip that takes it from "clever" to "really, truly useful".

Supposing you're using the bar chart to show a project schedule. If you're doing that then ...

column A contains the task names

column B contains the number of days/weeks/months before the task will begin.

column C contains the number of days/weeks/months a task will take.

And cell D1 contains the formula:

=Rept(" ",B1)&Rept("|",C1)

Now just copy the formula down column D. You'll get staggered "bars" showing when tasks will begin and how long they will take.

Some further minor enhancements: a column with task start dates and another with task end dates means that the number of days before the task starts can be calculated dynamically and the duration of the tasks can also be calculated dynamically and that means the bar chart can be generated dynamically.

With a bit of tidying up, some nice headers, perhaps a bit colour, you'll have something to impress management (and also be quite useful). I will definitely be using this tip. Thank you, Gus!