1.

Drill down on your Pivots with Double click

This is by far the simplest and most powerful pivot table trick I have learned. Whenever you want to see the values behind a pivot field just double click on it. Lets say, the sales of Lawrence in Middle region is $5,908 and you want to know which items contribute for this total, when you double click on the number $5,908 excel will show a list of all the records that add up to this number, neatly arranged in a new worksheet. Instant drill down. See this magical trick in action.

2. Summarize Pivot Data by Average or some other formula

By default excel summarizes pivot data by sum or count depending on data type. But often you may want to change this to say average, to answer questions like what is the average sales per product. To do this, just right click on pivot table values (not on row or column headings) and select summarize data by and select Average option.

(In excel 2003, you have to do this from field settings menu option)

3. Slice & Dice your Pivot Tables with Grace

Re-arranging pivot table layouts is as easy as shuffling a pack of cards. Just drag and drop the fields from row areas to column areas (vice-a-versa) and you have the pivot table rearranged. Here is a simple screencast explaining the secret

4. Show difference from last month (or year) without bending backwards
We all know that you can show monthly summaries using Pivots. But what if your boss wants you to also include difference from previous month as well? Now, dont rush back to source data and add new columns. Here is the right trick to make you a star.

Just use field settings to tell excel how you want the data to be summarized. Right click on any pivot table value, select value field settings Now go to Show value as tab and Change Normal to Difference from Select Previous from Base-item area. Leave Base field as-is.

Now, your pivot is updated to show difference from previous column.

Bonus: There are quite a few value field settings you can mess with. Go play and discover something fun.

5. Add new dimensions to your Pivot Reports with Calculated Fields

Let us say you have both sale and profit values in your source data. Now, your boss wants to know profit % in the pivot report (defined as Profit/Sales). You need not add any extra columns in your source data, instead you can define custom calculated fields with ease and use them in pivot reports.

To do this, Go to pivot table options ribbon, select formulas > calculated field Now define a new calculated field by giving it a name and some meaningful formula. Make sure you adjust the cell formatting so that output of calculation can be displayed (for eg. change number to % format)

(In excel 2003, the formula option is available from Pivot menu in toolbar) See this tip in action:

What is your favorite pivot table trick?

Do you like pivot tables? What are your favorite tricks? What areas do you face difficulties? Tell me using comments.

Grouping Dates in Pivot Tables

Posted on November 17th, 2009 in Learn Excel , Pivot Tables & Charts - 53 comments

Do you know you can group dates in pivot tables to show the report by week, month or quarter? I have learned this trick while doing analysis on a pivot table today. In this online lesson on pivot tables, I will teach you how to group dates in pivot tables to analyze the data by month, week, quarter or hour of day. Let us say you have a sales transaction database like this:

To show Total units sold by salesperson in each month in pivot table

1. First make a pivot table [video tutorial] with Sales person as column header, Transaction date as row header and total units as pivot values. 2. Now select any transaction date, right click and select Group 3. In the group dialog box, select Months for group by option. Press ok. 4. Presto! your data is grouped by month. No more than 3 seconds and you are ready analyze the data by month and find trends.

I have made a small screen-cast to show how this can be done. See it here:

Special cases for grouping dates in pivot tables

While the above example is simple, there are various things you can do when you are grouping data in pivot reports. Here are some special cases and how to get the grouping in pivot tables.

Group by Quarter & Month:

To group the pivot tables by Quarter and Month,

1. Select group option. 2. Select both month and quarter in the group by option, Click ok.

Group by Week:

To group the pivot table dates by week,

1. Select group option 2. Select day in the group by option. When you do this, the number of days box will be enabled. Enter the number of days as 7 to group your pivot report by week.

Group by Hour of the day:

Assuming your data has dates along with the actual transaction time, you might want to analyze the sales by hour of day, to find out say if one product is selling more than other during certain hours. To group the pivot table dates by hour of the day:
1. Select group option 2. Select hour in the group by option.

Collapsing & Expanding Pivot Table Groups:

When you group pivot reports by more than one group by you will see a little icon with + or sign to expand or collapse the groups. Using this feature, you can easily deep dive in to a particular group to do further analysis. For eg. you can collapse all quarters and just expand Q2 to understand why the sales went up. Another useful feature of these collapse / expand buttons in pivot tables is that, when you make a pivot chart, the collapsed groups are collapsed in the pivot chart too. And it is dynamic, ie, if you expand a group in the pivot table, the chart gets updated and shows more details.

Tell us how you use the group / un-group feature in pivot tables?
I am finding numerous possibilities with the group / un-group feature of pivot tables. I will learn new things and share them with you as we go along. Meanwhile, share your tips, experience and ideas using comments. I would love to learn from you.