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Business Data Analysis with Excel PivotTables

By Ian Littlejohn Reportingskills.com

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Copyright

Copyright 2013 Ian Littlejohn Reportingskills.com

All Rights Reserved

About the Author

Ian Littlejohn is a Partner at ReportingSkills.com and has over 15 years of experience


working with a range of businesses and industries teaching and implementing the ability to
analyze data. Ian was responsible for developing classroom training that taught Business
Data Analysis with Excel PivotTables. This course fundamentally changed business users
skills and capabilities in terms of the ability to analyze and ask questions of their business
and marketing data.

To share these fundamental skills and capabilities that have become so important in todays
business world an online video series was created and hosted on ReportingSkills.com. The
purpose of the online video series is to show business users how to use the power of Excel
PivotTables to easily summarize data and ask important questions of their data.

This book series was developed to work hand in hand with the online video series to teach
the step by step processes required to use Excel PivotTables. The Kindle book series has
three titles:

Business Data Analysis with Excel PivotTables


Visual Data Analysis with Excel PivotTables
Business Data Analysis with PowerPivot

E-mail: ian@reportingskills.com

Web: www.icpconsulting.co.za

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Table of Contents

Copyright ............................................................................................................................................... 2

About the Author ................................................................................................................................... 2

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. 3

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 5

Downloading the Training Data File .................................................................................................... 7

What are PivotTables?.......................................................................................................................... 8

Important Points .................................................................................................................................. 10

Accessing the Show Values As Calculations .................................................................................. 10

Correctly Structuring Your Data ........................................................................................................ 12

Creating the First Pivot Table ............................................................................................................ 13

Formatting Numbers ......................................................................................................................... 15

Creating Custom Number Formats ................................................................................................... 16

Changing the Values used in PivotTables ........................................................................................ 20

Creating PivotTables with more than one Dimension ..................................................................... 22

Creating PivotTables with more than One Measure ........................................................................ 24

Format the PivotTable ........................................................................................................................ 26

Formatting Sub Totals and Grand Totals ......................................................................................... 28

Different Methods of Calculation ....................................................................................................... 30

Ranking Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 33

Sorting and Filtering .......................................................................................................................... 33

Filtering Data ..................................................................................................................................... 34

Top 10 Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 36

Largest to Smallest ........................................................................................................................... 38

Analyzing Data by Time ...................................................................................................................... 40

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Contribution Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 45

Calculating the Parent Percentage ................................................................................................... 47

Accumulative Percentages................................................................................................................ 48

Calculating Variances ......................................................................................................................... 50

% of Calculation ................................................................................................................................ 51

Calculating Frequency Occurrences ................................................................................................ 52

Creating Calculated Fields ................................................................................................................. 54

Updating Data ...................................................................................................................................... 56

Review .................................................................................................................................................. 57

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Introduction

Organizations and companies are facing a flood of data from the numerous business
systems that collect data on an ongoing basis. No matter which area of business that you
work in; it is important to base your decisions on data. In this book we will teach you how to
analyze business data and improve your business decisions.

Traditionally IT has developed reports and dashboards for business users. This tended to
be frustrating for business users who wanted to explore and understand their data in more
detail. However this is now changing with a number of new technologies and tools being
developed that allow the business user to access vast quantities of data and to ask
questions about their data in ways that was not previously possible. In this series we will be
focusing on the Microsoft Excel PivotTable technology; however there are a number of other
tools that are worth investigating and researching such as Tableau software.

PivotTables provide new capabilities to the business user. Instead of using spreadsheets
and formulas to try and understand business and marketing data, PivotTables easily
aggregate and summarize data in a couple of clicks. In my training courses I tell the
delegates that instead of you doing the work for Excel, with PivotTables you get Excel to do
the work for you.

As your PivotTables skills improve you will learn different types of calculations and analysis
that will provide even deeper insight into business and marketing data. To start with users
will create comparisons these tend to be reports such as Sales by Country, Sales by Product
or Profit by Customer. Comparisons are primarily the main type of reporting that most users
will produce, but to create these with spreadsheet technology is laborious and time
consuming.

The next level of analysis is to understand how data changes over time. Time analysis
provides an understanding of trends, seasonality and cycles, which is important for
developing forecasts and future scenarios. Excel PivotTables make it easy to view data by
Year, or Month, or Quarter or any other combination of date formats.

Ranking analysis makes it easy for business users to perform Top or Bottom 20 analysis or
to easily rank customers and products. Ranking analysis allows business users to
understand which items contribute the most important amounts and which items dont.
Ranking analysis is an important tool for managers to identify key areas to focus on.

Contribution analysis converts amounts and figures into percentages. Analyzing


percentages makes it easy to understand relative contributions and it is normally easier to
comprehend percentages rather than looking at large numbers. Another form of contribution
analysis is to use accumulative percentages. Accumulative percentages allow Pareto
analysis to be performed allowing managers to focus on the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule is an
important concept in business that often shows that a small percentage of your customers or
products may be responsible for a much larger proportion of profit. Evidence often shows
that 20% of customers can be responsible for 80% of profit. This type of analysis provides

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managers with important insight to understand which customers or products they should be
focusing on.

Frequency analysis is another powerful form of analysis that allows the user to understand
the frequency of events or occurrences. Frequency analysis groups data into buckets or
bins. A common example is for companies to analyze how many employees they have
between the ages of 20 and 30, 31 and 40, 41 and 50, and so on. The company could also
analyze how many employees earn salaries between $10 000 and $ 20 000, $20 000 and $
30 000, and so on.

Frequency analysis allows you to do some further interesting analysis such as


understanding how many sales orders earn profit between $ 0 and $ 50, $ 50 and $100, and
so on. This provides an understanding of how many orders are producing profits at which
amounts.

Learning these forms of analysis will enable business users to ask better questions about
their data. Better questions leads to new insight and intelligence which leads to better
decision making. Business users who are able to discover and understand new patterns
and relationships within data will be able to develop new opportunities and create
competitive advantage for their companies.

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Downloading the Training Data File

To follow the activities in this book please download the example Training Data file from

http://www.reportingskills.com/training-data.html

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What are PivotTables?

PivotTables are a powerful technology that has been available in Excel for many years.
PivotTables are able to aggregate data very quickly and allow business users to ask
questions about their data that would take a long time to develop using standard
spreadsheets and formulas.

The capabilities of PivotTables in Excel have developed and have been enhanced
dramatically through the years. The latest versions of Excel now include powerful
calculations that provide business users with the ability to perform complex analysis on their
data in a couple of clicks and a few seconds..

PivotTables use a simple approach of dragging and dropping fields into boxes. The
PivotTable is then created from the fields that have been dropped into these boxes. Do not
worry if this seems a little confusing, it is actually really easy we will go into detail to
explain how PivotTables are created further in the book.

Excel develops the PivotTable in real time displaying the results of the input to the user
instantaneously. The user does not have to go through any long processes to design and
develop reports, and then to run the report. The ease of creating PivotTables makes it easy
for business users to ask questions and to discover new insight from their data.

The PivotTable comprises of two sections. The first section is where the user drags and
drops the fields and the second section displays the results.

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The PivotTable Field List is used to select the fields that will be aggregated and summarized
in the PivotTable. Four boxes are available at the bottom of the Field List. The user is able
to drag and drop fields into the four boxes to create many different aggregations and reports
with a couple of clicks of the mouse.

The second area displays the results of the calculations. The PivotTable is displayed in the
spreadsheet so the calculations from the PivotTable can be used in traditional formulas in
the spreadsheet area.

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Important Points

In this book we can use Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 to create the PivotTables. There are
some important differences between the two versions that we would like to highlight at the
start of the book to assist you with dealing these differences during the exercises that you
will complete.

Accessing the Show Values As Calculations

In the book we are going to use a series of powerful calculations to perform the analysis of
business data. Excel 2007 and Excel 2010 access these calculations in different ways.

Accessing Show Value As Calculations in Excel 2007

To access the Show Values As calculations in Excel 2007 use the Field Settings icon
under the PivotTable Tools Option menu.

1. Select the Show Values As tab

2. The Show Values As calculations are displayed in the dropdown list

Accessing Show Value As Calculations in Excel 2010

In Excel 2010 the Show Values As calculations can be accessed from the ribbon under the
Show Values As icon.

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A second method to access the Show Values As calculations is to use the Right Click
context menu when the cell selector is on a Measure in a PivotTable.

Another important difference is that Excel 2010 introduced a number of powerful calculations
that are not in Excel 2007.

% of Parent Row Total


% of Parent Column Total
% of Parent Total
% Difference From
% Running Total In
Rank Smallest to Largest
Rank Largest to Smallest

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Correctly Structuring Your Data

The first step to creating amazing data analysis and business discovery is to correctly
structure your data for PivotTables. The data needs to be in an Excel spreadsheet before
you can create the PivotTable. Reports from business systems and databases normally
provide good data for analysis.

The structure of the data needs to be in a specific format to be able to create PivotTables.
The first rule is that each column represents a field of data. It is a good idea to give each
column a meaningful name as this will help when you are creating PivotTables. For example
Customer Name, Region, Order Date and Sales.

The second rule is that each row represents a record of data. If you are using sales data
then a row may represent a sales order. The row may include information such as the Order
number, who the customer is, what was the order date, what was sold, how many and the
total value.

The third rule is that the data must only include the raw data that you would like the
PivotTable to calculate. The table of data must not include sub totals or grand totals. If you
import data from other systems or download reports from business systems it is important to
clean up any totals, header or footer information.

The fourth rule is that there should be no blank rows or blank columns in the table of data. If
there are any blank rows or columns please delete them so that the data is continuous.

Please review the data in the training data file to see an example of how data should be
structured.

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Creating the First Pivot Table

Great; we now have our first data source to be able to ask questions and discover new
insight from. The Sales Manager phoned first thing in the morning and requested that you
develop the following reports that must be presented at the 3 pm sales meeting.

Show Total Sales by Country


Show Total Profit by Country
Show Total Sales by Product

At this point you need to have the training data loaded into Sheet 1 of an Excel workbook.
Developing a PivotTable is straight forward. Make sure the cell selector is placed on a cell
that is part of the training data that you want to analyze. In this case place the cell selector
on A1. Click on the Insert menu option and then select the PivotTable icon. Select
PivotTable.

Excel will ask where the data is that you would like to use for the creation of the PivotTable.
Excel will normally correctly enter the cell references for the table of data. If Excel does not
have the correct cell references then you will need to enter the cell references or use the
mouse to select the table of data.

We suggest that you select a New Worksheet for the PivotTable to be placed. It is always a
good idea to keep analysis separate from the source data. As you will see later in the book
it is extremely easy to add new data to existing source data and be able to refresh existing
PivotTables.

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The PivotTable screen is opened. The screen consists of two main sections. The first
section to the right of the screen is a listing of the fields in the data source. Remember we
said that it was a good idea to name the fields in a meaningful way.

Below the list of fields are four boxes named Row Labels, Column Labels, Values and
Report Filter. Lets look at an example of using the different boxes to create PivotTables.

1. Select the Country field


2. Drag the Country field into the Row Labels box

The second part of the screen is used to display the results of the PivotTable.

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When the Country field was selected in the Row Labels box, the PivotTable display is
updated to show each unique record of the Country field from the data source. In this case
Excel goes through all the records in the Country field and determines that there are six
unique values and displays these on the PivotTable.

The Values box is usually used to display numeric values such as Order Quantity, Sales
and Profit.

1. Drag and Drop the Sales field into the Values box

Excel calculates the total Sales for each of the Countries. This provides the information for
the first report that was requested by the Sales Manager.

Formatting Numbers

The display of the numbers is currently not very easy to read and understand. Some
numbers have two decimal places and others one decimal place. The numbers need to be
cleaned up to make them easier to read and understand.

Please become familiar with this method of formatting numbers as you will find yourself
formatting number fields often when you create PivotTables.

1. Select one of the Sales cells on the PivotTable


2. Right Click
3. Select Number Format

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4. Select the Number category


5. Select zero decimal places
6. Click the Use 1000 separator tick box

The Sum of Sales amounts are now better formatted with no decimal places and thousand
separators.

Creating Custom Number Formats

Another important technique is to learn how to create custom number formats. It is much
easier to understand $ 310 K then $ 310 143.98 or to understand $ 1.23 M rather than $ 1
232 343.

In this example we are going to create a report displaying Sales by Category and format it
to display a K for the thousands.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Category field to the Row box
3. Drag the Sales field to the Values box

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4. Right Click on one of the Sum of Sales cells


5. Select Number Format

6. Select the Custom category

7. Delete the word General under the heading Type


8. Enter 0, K

The 0 denotes that a whole number is being used by Excel. The 0, denotes that Excel must
move to the first thousands separator. The space with the K means that Excel must place
a K after the first thousand separator.

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Creating Millions

In this example we are going to create a report that displays the Sales by Country and
displays the amount with an M for millions.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Country field to the Row box
3. Drag the Sales field to the Values box
4. Right Click on one of the Sum of Sales cells
5. Select Number Format
6. Select Custom
7. Enter 0,, M

The 0 denotes that a whole number is being used. The two commas denote that Excel will
now go back two thousand separator amounts and will then place the M after a space.

When millions are being displayed it is often a good idea to use decimal points to create a
more accurate display of the numbers.

1. Select Number Format


2. Select Custom
3. Enter 0.00,, M

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Currency Symbols can be easily added to Custom Formats.

1. Select Number Format


2. Select Custom
3. Enter $ 0.00,, M

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Changing the Values used in PivotTables

It is very easy to change the Value that is being used in a PivotTable. In the previous
example we calculated the Sales for each Country. The Sales Manager has now requested
a Sales report showing the total Profit by Country.

Firstly we need to remove the existing Sales value. There are two ways we can do this.
The first is to remove the tick mark next to the Sales value in the fields list.

The second method is to drag and drop the Sales field out of the Values box. Drag the
Sales field into the spreadsheet and drop the field. The Sales field will be removed from the
Values box.

There are two methods to calculate the total Profit by Country. The first method is to tick
the box next to the Profit field. The Profit field is added to the Values box and the Profit
field is also displayed in the PivotTable. Remember to format the numbers using Right
Click, select Number Format, then Number and format to no decimals and use the
thousands separator.

The second method is to drag the Profit field and to drop it in the Values box. This will also
add the Profit field to the PivotTable.

The same method can be used to change the Dimension that is being displayed in the
PivotTable. Lets get to know a little bit of terminology when we are working with
PivotTables. A Dimension is normally a text or a category field. For example Region,
Customer Name, Product Category and Product Name are all examples of Dimensions.
A Dimension can also be a Date field. Date fields normally include Order Date and Ship
Date. We will be looking at using Date fields in a later section. Date fields are very useful
for understanding trends, cycles and seasonality. Dimensions are normally placed in the
Row and Column boxes.

The second type of fields is Measures. Measures are normally numerical fields, for example
Sales, Profit and Order Quantity. Measures are normally placed in the Values box.

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Remember that the Sales Manager wanted to know the total Sales by Product. Use the
Clear icon to clear the data from the existing PivotTable. To access the Clear Icon, go to
the PivotTable Tools menu option. The PivotTable Tools menu will be visible when the cell
selector is on the PivotTable. Please note that if the cell selector is not on the PivotTable
then the PivotTable Tools menu will not be displayed. Select the dropdown and click Clear
All. This will clear the PivotTable.

To create the total Sales by Product PivotTable:

1. Drag and Drop the Product field to the Row box


2. Drag and Drop the Sales field to the Values box
3. Place the cell selector on one of the Sales values in the PivotTable
4. Right Click and select Number Format
5. Select Number
6. Enter no decimals and select the thousands separator

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Creating PivotTables with more than one Dimension

So now you are able to create quick PivotTables that can answer a variety of questions.
You should be able to quickly answer the following questions. What is the total Profit by
Customer? What is the total Sales by Category? What is the total Order Quantity sold by
Product?

Example

As you can see it is easy to get quick answers to these questions. But what happens if you
would like to know the answers to more sophisticated questions. Lets say the Sales
Manager would like to know the total Sales by Country for each Business Segment.

1. Clear the existing PivotTable or remove the fields


2. Drag the Country field to Row
3. Drag the Sales field to Values
4. Drag the Business Segment to Column
5. Format the numbers

Excel creates a PivotTable displaying the Sales for each Business Segment for each
Country. The PivotTable can also be changed to display the Business Segment
underneath the Country.

1. Drag the Business Segment from the Column box to the Row box
2. Make sure the Business Segment is underneath the Country field

This view is called a nested hierarchy and you can add additional fields to show further
levels of detail. For example you could add Category underneath Business Segment. The
PivotTable would now display the Sales for each Country with each Business Segment
and the Categories for each Business Segments.

By changing the order of the fields new reports can be developed. Drag the Business
Segment field above the Country field. The new report now shows each Business

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Segment with the Sales breakdown by Country. As you can see complex reports can be
developed very quickly with PivotTables.

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Creating PivotTables with more than One Measure

When you are creating your management reports or key metrics you may want to compare
more than one Measure. The Values box allows the user to accumulate a number of fields
to show different values such as Sales, Profit and Order Quantity in one PivotTable.

Example

The Sales Manager would like you to develop a report that displays the total Sales and
Profit for each Country.

Creating a PivotTable with more than one measure is very simple.

1. Use the Clear icon to Clear the current PivotTable


2. Drag the Country field to Row
3. Drag the Sales field to Values
4. Drag the Profit field to Values
5. Right Click the Sales field
6. Format the Sales field and Profit field with no decimals and thousands separators

More complex reports can be created by combining more than one Dimension with more
than one Measure. The Sales Manager would like to see a report of Sales and Profit by
Country and Business Segment.

1. Drag the Business Segment field to the Column box

The PivotTable is created displaying the Sum of Sales for each Business Segment. Once
all the Business Segments have been displayed then the Sum of Profit is displayed. The
user may want to change the order so that the Sum of Sales and Sum of Profit are shown
side by side for each Business Segment.

1. Move the Business Segment above the Values field in the Column box

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The order of the fields is now changed so that the Sum of Sales and Sum of Profit are
displayed side by side.

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Format the PivotTable

Excel provides an easy method to format PivotTables. If you are already familiar with
formatting Tables in Excel, then you will find formatting PivotTables very similar.

1. Click on any cell in the PivotTable


2. Select the PivotTable Tools Design menu

The PivotTable Styles options provide a number of predefined style templates that the user
can easily apply.

1. Select one of the predefined PivotTable Styles

The PivotTable Styles can be changed according to the selection of PivotTable Styles
Options. Style options will be enabled according to the selection of specific options.

Row Headers Turns on or off formatting options for the row headers
Column Headers Turns on or off the formatting for the column headers
Banded Rows Turn on or off banded row formatting
Banded Columns Turn on or off banded columns

2. Experiment with the different PivotTable Style Options

Report Layouts

The report layouts option changes the format of how the PivotTable is displayed.

1. Move the Business Segment field from the Column box to the Row box
2. Select the Report Layout icon
3. Experiment with
a. Compact
b. Outline
c. Tabular

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Compact Form Outline Form Tabular Form

Compact form is the default when the PivotTable is created. The Compact form condenses
the row fields into one column. The Outline form displays the Row fields in a separate
column. The Tabular form displays the PivotTable in the same format as the Outline view,
but also formats the PivotTable with gridlines in the same way as a spreadsheet.

There are also a couple of additional options for Excel 2010. Repeat All Item Labels will
display all the item labels in the Outline and Tabular views. This is particularly useful if you
are creating a PivotTable that will be used as a summary table for another PivotTable.
Turning on the Repeat All Item Labels and using the Outline or Tabular form will allow you
to easily copy the PivotTable and use it as a source table.

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Formatting Sub Totals and Grand Totals

Sub totals and grand totals provide an additional level of detail when you are analyzing your
data. Excel provides a number of useful options to change the formatting of the grand totals
and sub totals.

1. Create a PivotTable with Country and Business Segment in the Row box
2. Place Sales and Profit in the Values box
3. Format the Sales and Profit values to zero decimals and thousands seperators

Your PivotTable should look like the following:

4. Select PivotTables Tools


5. Select Design
6. Select the dropdown for the Sub Totals option

Three options are displayed which will change the way that sub totals are displayed in the
PivotTable.

Do Not Show Subtotals Sub totals will not be displayed


Show all Subtotals at Bottom of Group Subtotals are displayed at the bottom of
the group
Show all Subtotals at Top of Group Subtotals are displayed at the top of the
group

7. Experiment with different subtotal options

The display of the grand totals can also be controlled by the user.

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1. Move the Business Segment field from the Row box to the Column box
2. Remove the Profit field from the Values box

3. Select the PivotTable Tools Design menu


4. Select Grand Totals

Off for Rows and Columns Will turn off the grand totals on the PivotTable
On for Rows and Columns Turns on the grand totals for rows and columns
On for Rows Only Only displays the grand totals for rows
On for Columns Only Only displays the grand totals for columns

5. Experiment with different grand total options

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Different Methods of Calculation

It is very easy to ask different types of questions about your data. So far we have only
asked Excel to Sum the total Sales or Profit for a specific category of data such as Country.

We can easily get Excel PivotTables to calculate different methods of calculations such as
Average, Count, Max and Min. Many users will already be familiar with these calculations
having used them in formulas in spreadsheets.

Average Is the same as the =Average formula. Calculates the average amount
Count Is the same as the =Count formula. Calculates the number of occurrences
Max Is the same as the =Max formula. Will identify the highest individual amount
in the range
Min Is the same as the =Min formula. Will identify the lowest individual amount in
the range

Example

The Sales Manager would like to you to calculate the following for each Country:

The number of transactions that have occurred


The average Profit value for each transaction
The highest Profit individual amount for the Country
The lowest Profit individual amount for the Country

Lets start with the first question.

1. Clear any existing PivotTable


2. Drag Country to Row box
3. Drag Profit to Value box

Excel will display the total Profit for each Country. We need to change the method of the
calculation to Count. There are a number of methods we can use to change the calculation
method.

1. Select PivotTable Tools Options


2. Select Field Settings

3. Under the Summarize Values By tab


4. Select Count
5. The method of summarizing will change to Count

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6. The number of rows are now counted and displayed in the results that meet the
criteria. In this case the number of rows will be counted for each Country, which will
count the number of transactions

The next question requires us to change the method of summarizing values by to calculate
the Average Profit amount for each Country.

1. Drag another copy of Profit to Values


2. Place the cell selector on one of the cells for the column
3. Right Click and select Summarize Values By

4. Select Average
5. Right Click and Select Number Format
6. Format the number to zero decimals and use the thousands separator

The third question requires us to identify what the highest Profit amount was for each
Country.

1. Drag Profit to the Values box


2. Click the Profit field that is in the Values box.
3. Select Value Field Settings
4. Select Max
5. Format the numbers to zero decimals and thousand separator

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The final method is to identify the lowest Profit that was generated by a transaction in the
Country.

1. Drag another Profit to the Values box


2. Select the PivotTable Options menu
3. Click on the Summarize Values By icon (Please note that this icon is available in
Excel 2010 and not Excel 2007)
4. Select Min
5. Format the numbers to zero decimals and thousand separator

The ability to change the method summary provides many powerful options for asking
different questions about your data.

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Ranking Analysis

In this section we are going to review a number of different methods to rank data. The first
method is to do simple sorts of data. Sorting makes it easy to rank your data from highest to
lowest or lowest to highest. Another form of ranking analysis is to understand who your top
10 customers are or what the bottom 20 products are. Top 10 analysis is a powerful method
to understand which items are contributing the most or least to the business.

Sorting and Filtering

Now that we have started creating some basic forms of analysis the Sales Manager would
like us to start answering some further questions:

Which Product had the highest Sales


Which Product had the lowest Sales
Which Products had over $ 100 000 of Sales
Which Products had below $ 2 000 of Sales
Which Products had over 500 transactions
Which Products had an average Profit below $ 10

The filtering and sorting capabilities within PivotTables provide the ability to answer these
questions. Lets start with the first question of which Product has the highest Sales

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Place the Product field in the Row box
3. Place the Sales field in the Values box
4. Format the Sales field with zero decimal places and thousand separator
5. Place the cell selector in the Sales field
6. Select the PivotTable Tools Options menu
7. Select the Sort options

8. Select the Z to A option to sort the Sales from highest to lowest

The Sales field is sorted from highest to lowest showing that Mountain-200 has the highest
Sales amount.

To find which Product has the lowest Sales, select the A to Z option. The Sales amounts
are now sorted from lowest to highest displaying that LL Road Seat/Saddle 1 has the lowest
Sales.

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Filtering Data

PivotTables provide powerful filtering capabilities for users who have used the Tables
feature in Excel. To access the filtering capabilities the user needs to click on the dropdown
that appears in the first column.

The dropdown provides a number of options. The first couple of options provide sorting
capabilities which are the same as the ones on the PivotTable Tools Options.

Label filters are used with text fields. Label filters allow the user to filter text according to
different criteria such as Begins With, Contains or Ends With.

Value filters are used to filter the data according to Measures. Users can find data that
equals certain amounts, does not equal certain amounts, is between specific amounts,
greater than or less than specified amounts.

To find which Products had Sales over $ 100 000 we will use the Values filter.

1. Select the Values filter


2. Select greater than or equal to

3. Select Sum of Sales is greater than or equal to $ 100 000


4. Click Ok

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The next question is to identify the Products with Sales less than $ 2000.

1. Select the Values filter


2. Select less than or equal to
3. Select Sum of Sales is less than or equal to $ 2000
4. Click Ok

To identify Products which have over 500 transactions we need to change the method of
summary to Count.

1. Place the cell selector on one of the Sum of Sales amounts


2. Select Field Settings
3. Select Count
4. Remember that the filter is still in place
5. Select the dropdown
6. Select the Clear Filter from Product option
7. Select Value Filters
8. Select greater than or equal to
9. Select Count of Sales is greater than or equal to 500
10. Click Ok

The last question is to identify Products which have an average Profit of less than $ 10.
Remove the Sales field from the Values box

1. Place the Profit field in the Values box


2. Change the method of Summary from Sum to Average
3. Format the Profit field to no decimal places and thousand separator
4. Select Value Filters
5. Select Less than
6. Select Average of Profit is less than $ 10

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Top 10 Analysis

Another popular form of analysis is to identify the Top 10 or 20 of an item or the bottom 10 or
20 items. Top 10 analysis allows the user to easily understand which items, customers or
products are contributing the most to Sales or Profit. For example we may be interested in
who are our Top 20 Customers for the Year for Sales.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag Customer to the Row box
3. Drag Sales to the Values box
4. Right click the Sales field
5. Select Number Format
6. Select Number
7. Select no decimals and tick the thousands box

Excel will create a PivotTable that displays the total Sales by Customer. However the table
is sorted by Customer so it would be difficult to find the Top 20 Customers. We could use
the Sort function and sort the Sales from highest to lowest. This would then list the
Customers according to their Sales from highest to lowest. However this does not solve
our problem as we still have the full list of Customers and we do not have a Total for the
Top 20 Customers.

8. Select the Filter dropdown button next to the Row Labels heading
9. Select Values Filters
10. Select Top 10

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At the bottom of the list is an option called Top 10. Select the option and a new dialog box
opens.

The first option allows the user to select between Top or Bottom. For this example we will
keep it as Top. In the second field you need to enter the number of items that you would like
to display. In this case we would like to see the Top 20 Customers. The next field allows
the user to change between the number of items or percentage that they would like to
view. This is a useful option when you would like to see how many Customers make up
your Top 20% of Sales. We will look at this option in more detail later in the section. The
last field allows the user to change the field that is used for the analysis. This is useful if you
have more than one measure in your PivotTable. For example you may have a PivotTable
with Customer, Sales and Profit, you can then do a Top 10 analysis and display the
Customers with the top Profit. The PivotTable will now display the Customers Sales and
Profits values.

To summarize:

1. In the first field select Top


2. In the second field select 20
3. In the third field select Items
4. In the fourth field select Sum of Sales

Notice how the table is filtered and only the Top 20 Customers are now displayed. A nice
touch is the grand total which displays the total sales for the Top 20 customers.

In this example we have displayed the Top 20 Customers by Sales for the Year. We can
just as easily display the bottom 20% of Customers by Sales.

1. Select the Filter dropdown next to the Row Labels heading


2. Select Values Filters
3. Select Top 10
4. Change the first option from Top to Bottom
5. Change the second option to 20
6. Change the third option to percentage
7. Keep the fourth option as Sum of Sales

The PivotTable will now display the bottom 20% Customers by Sales. A total of 448
Customers contribute the bottom 20% of Sales in the organization. This means that 448
out of 633 or 70.7% of the Customers contribute only 20% of Sales. This type of outcome
is quite common in companies you tend to find that a large number of Customers or
Products contribute only a relatively small proportion of results. This is important as a

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manager, the manager is now able to know which Customers and Products they should be
focusing on. If we do the same exercise, but this time we look for the Top 20% of
Customers by Sales we see that 23 Customers out of 633 or 3.6% contribute the Top 20%
of Sales.

In this example we have used the Sum of Sales to do the analysis, however using Profit is
actually a better method for doing this form of analysis. Profit will give you better insight into
which Customers and Products are actually contributing to the bottom line. You may often
find that specific Customers or Products may contribute a large amount of Sales, but very
little Profit.

Experiment with changing Customers to Products and Sum of Sales to Sum of Profit.
See what new insight you can generate.

Largest to Smallest

A powerful function in Excel PivotTables is the ability to Rank items from largest to smallest
or from smallest to largest. Please note that this function is available in Excel 2010 and not
in Excel 2007.

Example

The Sales Manager would like to see a report listing the Customers in alphabetical order.
The report must display the total Sales and Profit for the Customer. The report must also
display the Ranking for the Customers from largest to smallest in terms of the Sales and
Profit.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag Customer to Row
3. Drag Sales to Values
4. Format the Sales value
5. Drag another Sales to Values
6. Select Show Values As
7. Select Rank Largest to Smallest

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8. Select Base Field - Customer

Excel calculates the Ranking for the Customer dependent on the Sales versus all the other
Customer Sales.

9. Drag Profit to Values


10. Format the numbers
11. Drag another Profit to Values
12. Select Show Values As
13. Select Rank from Largest to Smallest
14. Select Base Field - Customer

The report now displays a listing of Customers in alphabetical order. The total Sales and
Profit for the Customer is displayed along with the Sales Ranking and Profit Ranking.

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Analyzing Data by Time

Trends are an important tool in any business users decision making process. Trends
provide an understanding of how data moves or changes over time. Excel PivotTables
provide some nifty tools to assist the business user to analyze data over time.

Trends provide important insight into whether a trend is increasing, decreasing or staying
stable over time. Using our example of the Sales Manager; trends will assist the Sales
Manager to understand which Products and Customers are increasing in revenue and
profitability and which ones are decreasing. Trends can also show up when there are cycles
or seasonality happening with Sales of Products. The Sales Manager can pick up that
certain Products only sell well during certain months of the year and not during others. This
helps with forecasting requirements and demands for these Products.

Example

The Sales Manager would like to see the following reports:

Sales by Year
Sales by Quarter
Sales by Month
Sales by Year and Quarter
Sales by Year and Month
Sales by Quarter by Country
Sales by Month by Business Segment

Lets look at the first report requirement which is to produce a report displaying Sales by
Year. To create a report over time it is important to use a date field. In the field list we have
the Sales Date field that can be used for the calculations.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Sales Date to the Row box
3. Drag the Sales field to the Values box
4. Format the Sales field to zero decimal places and thousand seperators

Excel will display the Sales Date at the Day level and will Sum the Sales for each day.

The power of the ability to view reports in different date formats comes from the ability to
change how Excel groups date data.

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1. Select one of the cells for the Sales Date field in the PivotTable
2. Right Click on the Sales Date field
3. Select Group

You can also use the Group function under PivotTable Tools Options

1. Select Group

The Group option provides a number of useful methods for grouping the Sales Date data.

Starting At: This is the start date for the data that Excel will use for the PivotTable.
So if you only want data for 2012, then enter 1 Jan 2012
Ending At: This is the last date for the data that Excel will use for the PivotTable.
Enter 31 Dec 2012
By: This option determines how Excel will group the data. We will be analyzing
Months, Quarters and Years.

Sales by Year

1. Click on the Months option to deselect

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2. Click on the Years option


3. Click Ok

The Excel PivotTable now displays the data by Year.

Sales by Quarter

The next requirement is to produce a report displaying the Sales by Quarter. In this
example we are not reviewing the Year, so all the data from the four different years will be
aggregated into the report. This is useful to review whether some Quarters are higher than
others, which would show seasonality and allow more accurate forecasting.

1. Right Click on one of the Years displayed in the PivotTable


2. Select Group
3. Click on Years to deselect the option
4. Click on Quarters to select
5. Click OK

Sales by Month

In the same way we can also analyze the Sales by Month to see if there is seasonality for
certain months. Again this will help managers be able to plan and forecast better.

1. Right Click on one of the Quarters displayed in the PivotTable


2. Select Group
3. Click on Quarters to deselect the option
4. Click on Months to select
5. Click OK

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Sales by Year and Quarter

In the next report the Sales data is summarized by Year and Quarter. This provides an
understanding of the Sales over the years and can be graphed to show the trend over time.

1. Right Click on one of the Months displayed in the PivotTable


2. Select Group
3. Click on Months to deselect the option
4. Click on Years and Quarters to select
5. Click OK

Years and Months

Displaying Sales by Years and Months is a popular management report to understand the
performance of the company. As you have seen it is really easy to change the way that we
view date data with PivotTables.

1. Right Click on one of the Quarters displayed in the PivotTable


2. Select Group
3. Click on Quarters to deselect the option
4. Click on Years and Months to select
5. Click OK

Sales by Quarter by Country

A popular method of developing management reports is to have the Quarters or Months


across the columns in the report and to have a Dimension such as Country in the Row.

1. Right Click on one of the Months displayed in the PivotTable


2. Select Group
3. Click on Month and Year to deselect the option

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4. Click on Quarter to select


5. Click OK
6. Move the Sales Date field from the Row box to the Column box
7. Drag the Country field to the Row box
8. Click OK

Sales by Month by Business Segment

In a similar way we can easily create management reports that display the Months across
the top of the report. Remember that if you have multiple years of data then you need to
produce this report with Years and Months and then filter the Years to show only the Year
that you want to include in the report.

1. Right Click on one of the Quarters displayed in the PivotTable


2. Select Group
3. Click on Quarter to deselect the option
4. Click on Month to select
5. Click OK
6. Drag the Country field out of the Row box
7. Drag the Business Segment to the Row box

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Contribution Analysis

When analyzing data it is often easier to understand percentages than it is to understand


large numbers. Percentages provide an easier more manageable way for business users to
understand and digest data.

Percentages can be quite painful to calculate in standard spreadsheets. We need to take a


cell divide it by another cell and then times it by a 100. We then have to copy this formula to
other cells. Luckily in PivotTables we do not need to go through this type of hard work.

Example

The Sales Manager would like you to create the following reports:

Percentage contribution of Sales for each Country


Percentage contribution of Sales for each Business Segment in each Country

Percentage contribution of Sales for each Country

The first report is to understand the percentage contribution of Sales by each Country.

1. Clear the existing PivotTable


2. Drag the Country field to Row box
3. Drag the Sales field to Values box

Excel will create a PivotTable displaying the Sales by Country.

4. Click on one of the cells that display the Sum of Sales


5. For Excel 2007 - Click on the PivotTable Tools Option menu Select the Field
Settings icon

6. The Field Setting dialog box will open

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7. Select the Show Values As tab


8. Select % of Column Total from the list of calculations

Excel will apply the calculation to the Sales figures and automatically calculate the
percentage contribution of each Country.

To apply the % of Column Total calculation in Excel 2010 uses the PivotTable Tools
Option menu Show Values As icon.

Percentage contribution of Sales for each Business Segment in each Country

In this report we will create a table displaying the percentage contribution of Sales for each
Business Segment in each Country.

1. Drag Business Segment to the Column box (Make sure Country is in Row and
Sales in Values)
2. Select the Field Setting icon (Excel 2007) or the Show Values As icon (Excel 2010)
3. Select % of Grand Total

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In this report we can see the percentage contribution of each combination of Country and
Business Segment to the grand total of Sales. Also try the % of Column Total calculation
and % of Row Total calculation.

Calculating the Parent Percentage

Sometimes its necessary to create a report with more than one level. Lets use the example
of each Country has Sales for several Business Segments. You would like to understand
what percentage of Sales for each Business Segment contributes to the Country total
Sales. In addition you would also like to understand the percentage contribution that each
Country contributes to the total Sales.

This is a two level contribution calculation. At the first level Excel needs to calculate how
much percentage contribution each Business Segment is contributing to the Country
Sales and at the second level Excel needs to calculate the percentage contribution for each
Country to the total Sales. In Excel PivotTables this is called a % of Parent calculation.
Please note that this calculation is available in Excel 2010 and not 2007.

Example

The Sales Manager would like you to create a report that shows the total Sales for each
Business Segment for each Country and to display the total Sales for all the countries. In
addition the Sales Manager would like to have the percentage contribution of each of the
Business Segments to the Sales total for the Country and for the percentage contribution
of each of the Countries to the total Sales.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Country field to the Row box
3. Drag the Business Segment field to the Row box under the Country field
4. Drag the Sales field to the Values box
5. Format the Sales field to no decimals and use thousands separator
6. Place the cell selector on one of the Sales values in the PivotTable
7. Select the PivotTable Tools Options menu
8. Select the Show Values As icon
9. Select the % of Parent Row Total calculation

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Accumulative Percentages

Another powerful form of analysis is to understand the accumulative percentage for an item.
In the ranking analysis we discussed the power of understanding which Products or which
Customers contributed the Top 20 % of Profit or to understand which items contributed the
bottom 20%. This form of analysis is called Pareto Analysis or the 80 / 20 rule. The real
power of the Pareto Analysis is that is allows the business user to understand where they
should be focusing their efforts.

This calculation is available in Excel 2010 and not in 2007.

Example

The Sales manager would like you to analyze the Products. He would like to know what
percentage of Products generate 80% of the Profit and what percentage of Products
generate the bottom 20% of Profit.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag Products to the Row box
3. Drag Profit to the Values box format to no decimals and use thousand separator
4. Drag a second copy of Profit to the Values box
5. Drag a third copy of Profit to the Values box

6. Place the cell selector on the second copy of Sales


7. Select the PivotTable Tools Options menu
8. Select the Show Values As icon
9. Select % of Column Total calculation
10. Place the cell selector on the third copy of Profits
11. Select the Show Values As icon
12. Select the % Running Total In calculation

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13. Select the Base field as Product


14. Click on one of the second Profit cells in the PivotTable
15. Sort the PivotTable from highest to lowest

The PivotTable displays the Profit amount, Profit percentage and the accumulative Profit
percentage for each Product. We can easily see that 80% of the accumulative Profit is
generated by 11 out of a total of 93 Products, which is 11.8%. Therefore 82 or 88.2% of
Products generate the bottom 20% of Profit.

Replace the Products field with the Customer field and perform the same analysis. You
will notice that the third copy of Profit now displays a N/A. To resolve this, select the Show
Values As icon and click on the % Running Total In calculation. Change the Base field
from Products to Customers.

Place the cell selector in the second copy of Profit and Sort from highest to lowest. You
can now do the analysis. The analysis will show that 185 Customers out of 633 (29.2%)
contribute 80% of the Profit. Therefore 70.8% of Customers contribute the bottom 20% of
Profit.

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Calculating Variances

Calculating the difference or the variance between values happens often in management
reporting. Excel provides two calculations that calculate the difference between items in
PivotTables. The first calculation is the Difference From, which calculates the difference
between two values and the second is the % Difference From which calculates the
percentage between two values.

Example

The Sales Manager would like to know the difference between the Sales for February and
January. He would like to know whether the difference in Sales between the two months
was positive, negative or the amounts stayed the same. In addition the Sales Manager
would like to know the difference for every subsequent month and the previous month i.e.
what was the difference between February and March etc.

The Sales Manager would also like to view the percentage differences between the two
months on the same PivotTable (Excel 2010).

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Sales Date to the Row box
3. Group by Years and Months
4. Drag a first copy of Sales to the Values box Format to no decimals and thousand
separator
5. Drag a second copy of Sales to the Values box Format to no decimals and
thousand separator
6. Drag a third copy of Sales to the Values box
7. Place the cell selector on the second copy of Sales
8. Select Show Values As
9. Select Difference From
10. Select Base Field Sales Date
11. Select Base Item Previous

12. Place the Cell Selector on the third copy of Sales


13. Select Show Values As
14. Select % Difference From
15. Select Base Field Sales Date
16. Select Base Item Previous

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% of Calculation

The % of calculation provides a different perspective to the difference between two values.
With the % of calculation the user selects a specific item as a benchmark. Excel then
calculates the difference between the other items and the benchmark as a percentage. This
calculation provides a powerful method to understand how items differ in a percentage
format using a benchmark.

Example

The Sales Manager would like a report displaying the Sales by Country in a percentage
format. The Sales Manager would like you to use the Sales for France as a benchmark and
the French Sales must display as a 100% on the report. The other Countries Sales must
display the percentage difference to the French Sales figures.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Country field to the Row box
3. Drag the Sales field to the Values box
4. Place the cell selector on the Sales figures in the PivotTable
5. Select the Show Values As icon
6. Select % of calculation
7. Select Base Field Country
8. Select Base Item France

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Calculating Frequency Occurrences

Frequency analysis focuses on how often occurrences or events happen. A common


example of frequency analysis is to calculate the number of employees who are between the
ages of 20 and 30, 30 and 40, 40 and 50 and so on. Frequency analysis counts the number
of occurrences that meet the criteria or grouping that is stipulated.

Example

The Sales Manager would like to know the number of Sales Orders that make a Profit
between $ 0 and $ 1000, $ 1000 and $ 2000, $ 2000 and $ 3000 and so on.

1. Clear any existing PivotTables


2. Drag the Profit field to the Row box

All the Profit values will be listed in the row.

3. Right Click on one of the Profit values


4. Select Group

The Group dialog box is opened.

5. Change the Starting at value to 0


6. Change the Ending at value to 3000
7. Change the By value to 1000

The PivotTable creates the frequency groupings of 0 to 1000, 1000 to 2000, 2000 to 3000
and greater than 3000. The second part is to count the number of occurrences of the Profit
being in these ranges.

8. Drag the Profit field to the Values box


9. Make sure that the method of summary is Count

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The PivotTable counts the number of rows where the Profit is in the range of 0 to 1000,
1000 to 2000, 2000 to 3000 and greater than 3000.

In this example 44068 rows have a Profit amount that is 0 to 1000, 8132 rows that have a
Profit of 1000 to 2000, 3924 rows that have a Profit of 2000 to 3000 and 4795 rows that
have a Profit greater than 3000.

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Creating Calculated Fields

Excel PivotTables provide an ability to create your own custom calculations. Calculated
fields allow the user to create new calculations that do not currently exist.

In this example we are going to create a Calculated Field for Profit Ratio. Profit Ratio is
calculated by Summing the Profit and dividing it by the Sum of the Sales. The result is
then multiplied by 100 to calculate a percentage amount.

Example

The Sales Manager would like you to calculate the Profit Ratio for the following:

By Country
By Product
By Customer
By Country and Business Segment

The Profit Ratio is calculated by dividing Profit by Sales.

1. Select PivotTable Tools


2. Select Options
3. Select Fields, Items and Sets

The Calculated Field dialog box displays a list of fields from the PivotTable.

1. Enter Profit Ratio into the Name field


2. Place the cursor in the Formula field
3. Delete the 0

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4. Double click the Profit field. The Profit field is placed in the Formula
5. Enter the divide sign /
6. Double click the Sales field. The Sales field is placed in the Formula
7. Your formula should read = Profit / Sales
8. Click the Add button
9. Click Ok

The calculated field has been added to the list of fields and will also display on the
PivotTable. The value that is displayed in the PivotTable is the Profit Ratio for all the data
in the data source since we do not have any fields in the Row and Column boxes.

To display the Profit Ratio by Country:

1. Drag the Country field to the Row box


2. Click on the Profit Ratio field
3. Right Click
4. Select Number Format
5. Format to 2 decimal places

To display the Profit Ratio by Product

1. Remove the Country field from the Row box


2. Drag and Drop the Product field in the Row box

As you can see it is very easy to change the Dimensions that are used with Calculated
Fields.

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Updating Data

When you design your PivotTable you should keep your source data on a separate sheet to
your analysis. Each PivotTable should therefore be on its own sheet. This important
concept means that you should always separate source data from analysis. A key reason
for separating source data from analysis is to be able to easily update the source data. The
analysis PivotTable can then be easily refreshed with the inclusion of the new data.

Data can be easily added to the bottom of an existing source data sheet. It is important to
make sure that the order of the columns is in the same order as the original source sheet.
Adding data to existing sheets allows the user to create historical data, analysis and
determine trends.

If new data is added to an existing source data sheet then the PivotTable needs to be
updated to know where the new data is.

1. Select PivotTable Tools Options menu


2. Select Change Data Source
3. Enter the range of the new data

Once the Data Source area has been correctly updated, the second step is to refresh the
PivotTable.

1. Select PivotTable Tools Options


2. Select Refresh
3. Select Refresh All

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Review

In this book we have introduced the power of PivotTables to quickly and easily aggregate
and summarize large volumes of data. PivotTables change the role of the business user
from a passive receiver of reporting information to an active participant who is able to
discover and gain new insight from data.

We have introduced new techniques and methods that allow business users to engage in
business discovery and to ask meaningful questions of their data. Techniques such as
comparisons, trend analysis, rankings, contribution and frequency analysis provide powerful
methods to ask questions of data and develop new intelligence.

The skills and capabilities covered in this book will make you a champion of new insight in
your organization. The next set of skills and capabilities to develop are covered in the next
book called Visual Data Analysis with Excel PivotTables. Visual analysis allows people to
easily see trends, comparisons, contributions and frequencies. The Visual analysis book
covers creating the different types of graphs, trends and also using conditional formatting to
highlight data.

Excel is also always developing new tools that will help the business user analyze data
better. PowerPivot was recently launched for Excel 2010. PowerPivot provides some
extremely powerful tools such as a database that can hold millions of rows of data, the ability
to create PivotTables from multiple tables, create relationships between tables and a new
formula language called DAX that includes a number of new powerful formulas. The book
called Business Data Analysis with PowerPivot will detail how to use this powerful product
for data analysis.

The new version of Excel 2013 incorporates PowerPivot into the product without being a
separate add-in. Excel 2013 also introduces PowerView which allows users to create
interactive dashboards of graphs, tables and slicers that can be distributed through the
organization using SharePoint technology.

So as you can see there is an exciting range of products that will only enhance your
capabilities to analyze, understand and generate insight from your data.

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