We, data junkies, love pivot tables. We think pivot tables are solution for everything (except for may be global warming and that broken espresso machine down stairs).
Today, we are going to learn 5 awesome pivot table tricks that will make you a star.
Click on these links to jump to tips.
Drill down pivot tables | Change Summary from Total | Slice & Dice Pivots | Difference from last month | Calculated Fields in Pivots
(If you are not familiar with basic pivot tables, you should check out this excellent pivot tables tutorial)
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.
Learn More about Pivot Tables:
- Excel Pivot Table – Tutorial (there is a video too)
- Authentic Resource on Pivot Tables from Debra
- Grouping Data in Pivot Tables
Now if you excuse me, I will go check that espresso machine and see if the beans need a refresh.
17 Responses to “Budget vs. Actual Profit Loss Report using Pivot Tables”
Good Work, Yogesh & Chandoo! Thanks.
Hi everybody,
first sorry I am late to say something about this topic;actually I was waiting last part
second I am not accountant I am an Engineer
third """"Very Important""" the idea is not about Loss but I am sure it is profit
Based on third it shows:
1- How to use EXCEL
2- How to use pivot TABLES
3- How to collect and arrange DATA
4- How to make reports
Many Thanks
Hi Yogesh and Chandoo,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
You guys are great!
thanks chandoo and yogesh, thanks for you lessons, are great!....i have a idea for a budget. I try to do it..... thanks for all
Thanks a lot for sharing the most powerful tool worldwide "knowledge"
Warm greetings from Peru
Hi -
This is a really great article because it's a simple and common thing you'd want to do with a pivot table but not at all obvious how to do it! So - muchas gracias to Chandoo and Yogesh!
One thing - I couldn't get past the group error in the sample file. I would click on ungroup but it didn't seem to have any effect. I'd appreciate it if anybody has any pointers here.
-Juanito
Hi Chandoo
I am also having the group error. Can't seem to ungroup? Appreciate if you explain further on the steps required in order to get to calculated items.
Many thanks and keep up the great work.
Cheers
Adam
Hi Chandoo,
I'm struggling resolving the problem depicted below:
I have a set of data, with (among others) a "Region" field (can be APJ, EMEA, or AMS), and a "Country" field.
Unfortunately, I need to group data by the following 4 Regions: APeJ, Japan, EMEA and AMS.
I first tried to make a pivot with Region and Country in the rows (or columns), and then group Country data as per the above.
Alas, as soon as I have a new Country that appear in my data set, my groupings are broken, and I have to redo the job of ungrouping, grouping etc.
I thought I could try to use calculated item, by adding first a new column to my dataset concatenating Region_Country, and create an "APeJ" calculated item that would sum all the "APJ_*" and substract the "APJ_Japan", but again, no clue, as I can't find a way to use any wild card in those formulas.
Given that I already found extremely helpful tips and tricks in your site that helped me manage that bunch of data, I'm pretty sure you'll have a bright idea on how I can solve that one!
Thanks in advance for your lights!
Hi Catherine...
In such cases, I advice using an additional column in the data itself. You can set-up a grouping table else where with country in first column, region in second column. And then in the data, you can add an extra column and use VLOOKUP to fetch the region based on the country.
Then feed this entire data (with extra column) to pivot table and use the extra column to group the data.
Hi Chandoo,
Thank you for your prompt answer.
I finally came to the same conclusion - after a rest 🙂 . I was probably too tired Friday evening (it was rather late), having spent hours in manipulating all my surveys data so as to pull rolling averages, make nice graphs and so on, and was trying to find a complex solution when there was a simple one.
Thanks again,
Catherine
Hey,
Great post!
I for example have different database structure with the following fields :
Date, Expense, Income, Sum (Income - Expense), Category (Sales, Cost of Goods and etc).
Creating a P&L report for the whole year works great. Including gross margin % and etc.
Though, creating P&L report by QTR/Month is becoming impossible since i get the following error : “This PivotTable report field is grouped. You cannot add calculated item to grouped filed.”
Is there a solution for this kind of problem?
Like Adam and Juanito, I also cannot ungroup.
Would appreciate it if you can add a few more lines and a screenshot or two on where to put the mouse cursor to ungroup.
Hi, I have figured out the ungrouping problem. One of the earlier steps was to group by month, if you pull the month back down to the column then right click and then select ungroup, then pull the month back up so you end up with just data source and budget/actual as the headings, then you can continue on.
To solve the ungroup problem, my method is:
Copy the "data" sheet to a whole new Excel workbook
and directly work on Part 6.
And since it is a fresh copy, Excel don't show me the "can't ungroup" problem. Hope this help.
Thank you Yogesh for this wonderful tutorial.
Kent, Malaysia
Just when i thought pivots were awesome i learn about inserting the calculated fields and that makes them more awesome. chandoo where have you been all my life.
Hello - your P&L pivot version has really impressed my boss and would like to use it. I have applied it for a actual vs budget vs forecast model I have created. One problem. In your variance above the operating profit percent % variance shows 33.8% but I want it to show (0.01) point or the true diff from prior budget.
I know I can add calculation to the side but boss would like to see it in pivot table.
Please help
Thanks
I have a further query which may solve my above dilemma. Is it possible to add a column that calculates percent increase. So in the example above a new column would be added to show variance %.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks