Advanced Pivot Table

Advanced Pivot Table

This page provides a step-by-step guide of how to create an advanced pivot table in Excel.

Note that the directions on this page apply to current versions of Excel (2007 and later). If you have an earlier version of Excel, go to the page on how to create an advanced pivot table in Excel 2003.

For this pivot table example we use the spreadsheet below, which lists a company's sales figures during the first quarter of 2016. The spreadsheet records the sale date, the invoice reference, the invoice total, the name of the sales person, and the sales region.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Date	Invoice Ref	Amount	Sales Rep.	Region
2	01/01/2016	2016-0001	$819	Barnes	North
3	01/01/2016	2016-0002	$456	Brown	South
4	01/01/2016	2016-0003	$538	Jones	South
5	01/01/2016	2016-0004	$1,009	Barnes	North
6	01/02/2016	2016-0005	$486	Jones	South
7	01/02/2016	2016-0006	$948	Smith	North
8	01/02/2016	2016-0007	$740	Barnes	North
9	01/03/2016	2016-0008	$543	Smith	North
10	01/03/2016	2016-0009	$820	Brown	South

In the following advanced pivot table example we create a pivot table that displays the total sales for each month of the year, broken down by sales region and sales rep. The process for creating this Pivot Table is described in the following steps:

Select any cell within the data range or select the entire data range to be used in your Pivot Table.

Note: If you select a single cell in the data range, Excel will automatically identify, and select the whole data range for your Pivot Table.

                         

Click on the Pivot Table button, which is located within the 'Tables' grouping, on the 'Insert' tab of the Excel ribbon.

You will be presented with the 'Create PivotTable' dialog box (shown on the right).

Make sure that the selected range refers to the range of cells that you want to use for your Pivot Table.

There is also an option asking where you want the Pivot Table to be placed. This allows you to place your pivot table in a specified worksheet. If you are not sure, select the option New worksheet.

Click OK..

                                       

You will now be presented with an empty Pivot Table, and the 'Pivot Table Field List' task pane, which contains several data fields. Note that these are the headers from your initial data spreadsheet.

We want the Pivot Table to show the sums of the sales figures for each month, broken down by region and sales rep.

Therefore, from the 'Pivot Table Field List' task pane:

Drag the 'Date' field into the area marked 'Row Labels' (or 'Rows');

Drag the 'Amount' field into the area marked 'Σ Values';

Drag the 'Region' field into the area marked 'Column Labels' (or 'Columns');

Drag the 'Sales Rep.' field into the area marked 'Column Labels' (or 'Columns').

The resulting Pivot Table will be populated with the daily sales totals for each sales region and each sales rep, as shown below.

However, we want to group the dates by month. To do this:

Right click on any of the dates in the left hand column of the Pivot Table;

Select the option Group...;

The 'Grouping' dialog box for dates will be displayed (see right). Select the option Months
(note that you can also group dates and times by other time periods, such as quarters, days, hours, etc);

Click OK.

As required, the final pivot table (shown below) displays the total monthly sales, broken down by sales region and sales rep.

The Pivot Table might be improved visually, by formatting. For example, if columns B - G are formatted as currencies, this will make the Pivot Table easier to read.

Pivot Table Report Filters

The Pivot Table report filter allows you to view the data for a single value, or a selection of specified values in your data fields.

For example, in the pivot table above, you could view just the data for the North sales region or just the data for the South sales region.

In order to view just the data for the 'North' sales region, return to the 'Pivot Table Field List' task pane, and drag the 'Region' field header into the 'Report Filter' (or 'Filters') area.

You will see that a 'Region' field appears at the top of the Pivot Table. Use the drop-down list of this field to select the Region 'North'. The resulting Pivot Table (shown on the right) displays just the sales for the North region.

You can also quickly view just the sales for the South region by selecting 'South' from the drop down menu.