Can we make a calendar using Pivot Tables?!?
Of course we can. Today let us learn a simple technique to create calendar style reports using Pivot tables.
Thanks to Rob for inspiration
Before making any progress, let me thank Rob from PowerPivotPro for the inspiration. Recently he wrote an article explaining how to use PowerPivot & DAX formulas to create calendar charts in Excel. I applied similar technique to Pivot tables.
Demo of Pivot Calendar
See a quick demo of pivot calendar chart before learning how to do this.
Creating a Pivot Table Calendar
Step 1: Set up an entire year of dates in a list
Lets assume, we want to make the calendar for year 2012. So write that in a cell (G3). Now, in a range of 366 cells, generate all the dates for the year (2012) using simple formulas.
- First date will be =DATE(G3,1,1)
- Next 365 dates will be previous date + 1
Step 2: Calculate Day, Month, Year and Weekday
Using DAY(), MONTH(), YEAR(), WEEKDAY() calculate the day, month, year and weekday for each of the 366 days.
Step 3: Determine the week number in a month
Now comes the tricky part. We need to find out which row each date should be displayed. First take a look at this illustration.
The logic for calculating row numbers is very simple:
- First day of a month is always in row number 1.
- If a day is not Sunday, we just use previous row number
- On Sundays, we just increment the previous row number and use it.
All of this can be expressed in a simple IF formula =IF(D7=D6,IF(F7=1,G6+1,G6),1)
- D7 contains this month, D6 is previous day’s month
- F7 contains weekday, will be 1 for Sunday and 7 for Saturday
- G6 contains previous row number (weeknum)
Step 4: Dealing with Leap years
So far we are good, except for a minor glitch. Certain years have 366 days (for example 2012) while others dont. That means, depending the year, we need to either use 365 rows or 366 rows of our data while generating the pivot report. To do this, we create a named range tblDates that refers to below formula:
=IF(Calcs!$D$3,Calcs!$B$5:$G$371,Calcs!$B$5:$G$370)
Note: D3 is TRUE when an year is leap year.
Step 5: Create pivot table that shows calendar
Now, we need to create a pivot table from the range tblDates.
Set up your pivot table like this:
Step 6: Add a slicer
To enable users to select a particular month interactively, just add a slicer on months. For this,
- Select any cell in the pivot table and go to Options Ribbon > Insert Slicer
- Select Month as field to insert a slicer.
- Adjust slicer properties to show items in 6 columns (Slicer Options Ribbon > Columns)
- Done!
At this point, you can interactively select a month & see the corresponding calendar.
Related: More examples on Slicers
Further Enhancements
Now that the basic Pivot Calendar is ready, try these ideas:
- Use a spin button / slider control to interactively adjust the year. Remember, when you do this, you need to refresh the pivot table in background using a simple macro.
- Adjust week start to Monday: Likewise, you can modify your formulas to adjust weekstart to Monday or any other day you fancy.
Using Pivot Calendar as a Chart
Of course, having a mere pivot calendar is not much fun. But you can apply this idea to create a calendar chart. See this:
Calendar Chart Demo:
How to create this Calendar chart?
To keep things simple, lets understand how to create this chart with just one metric – Employee productivity.
- Once the pivot calendar is ready, we add extra rows between each line in the calendar.
- Now, lets say, we have our employee productivity details listed by date in a table.
- Then, using lookup formulas, we fetch productivity for each day in the cell below.
- Once all the values are fetched, just select all these cells and add conditional formatting > color scale to them.
- Format the color scale settings so that you get desired colors.
- And you are done!
More on Conditional Formatting
Video Explaining Pivot Calendar & Chart
Like this concept? Watch below video to understand how the whole thing is made.
[watch this video on our youtube channel]
Download Pivot Calendar Template
Click here to download pivot calendar & calendar chart templates. Play with them. Plug your own values and see what happens.
PS: You need Excel 2010 to view this file. Please enable macros to get full effect.
Do you like Pivot Calendar Idea?
I am very excited to try this out in a client project sometime soon. I think a set up like this can be used when analyzing monthly data like employee attendance, vacations, productivity, shipments, meeting schedules, project milestones etc. Since such data is represented in calendar format in real life, your audience would find calendar metaphor easy to understand. That said, any data like KPI trends, sales, visits, calls etc. should always be represented as a line /bar charts rather than calendar charts.This way, we can spot trends quickly and understand data better.
What about you? Do you like this idea? Are you planning to use a pivot calendar / calendar chart sometime in future? Please share your thoughts using comments.
Calendars & Similar ideas:
Please go thru below links to learn more about calendars & visualizing data:
27 Responses to “9 Box grid for talent mapping – HR for Excel – Template & Explanation”
Great stuff! I can understand how to add a slicer to the pivot table, but how do you implement the departmental selector on the 'Filter' formula scheme?
Just saw this on your Youtube channel, and it’s areat idea...!
An easy way to overcome the "ugliness" of pivot tables and get it to look nice (in the format of the Output sheet), would be to simply build a sheet with the nice map at the top, a pivot underneath it and a slicer next to formatted map and then reference each of the 9 cells in the formatted map to the “related” cell in the Pivot.
Keep up the good work!
/Claus
Thanks Claus. That is a great idea 🙂
Hi Chandoo,
This is great! Curious how to make additional columns operate the same as the Department column (ex. have a "manager column") that would allow you to sort a 9 box by manager, area, or team in addition to department?
Feel free to email me if needed! mfry01@minnetronixmedical.com
Happy New Year
Madison Fry
I am curious about the smae thing. I would like to populate the 9 box with other views as well by adding additional columns. IE., I would like to add location, region, etc. Thank you.
This is great, thank you!
How can i see the whole data set of all the teams in the output table. Need a formula that will pick up all the employees
Hello,
Love the template. Thank you. Question - the drop down to pick a department on the Output tab does not seem to work on the downloadable template. Am I doing something incorrectly?
Thank you!
Hi Heather... Thank you. I am using Excel 365 to make the calculations. If you are using an older version of Excel, then the drop-down filter won't work.
Hi
I was able to follow your 9 box grid and modified based my needs. However, you tutorial did not show how to you create the filter for the "Pick a department. Can you kindly share how to create that filter that updated the grid. Thank you.
I am working on this project but I am struggling with the data validation for the department. I copy the worksheets data entry and output as the managers want to see different tabs for each managers.
I updated the source reference for each tab but It does not update the grid based on the new source. The list was updated but it does not populate the grid based on the performance and potential listed.
In addition the hyperlink Update Data and View Talent Map no longer works. Can you please help me.
I keep getting this error message in the pivot table:
This formula is invalid or incomplete: 'The expression is not valid or appears to be incomplete. Please review and correct the expression.
The following syntax error occurred during parsing: Invalid token, Line 1, Offset 14, ‘.
Hi, I used your 9-box excel template with excel 365. First off, thank you so very much. It is incredibly helpful!! My only question is that the boxes aren't big enough for all of the employees (specifically the middle which we call 'Core Employee'). Is there a way to make the boxes larger? Even though it is in excel, I am not able to increase row height (like I normally do in a speadsheet). Any ideas? Thanks again, Jody
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the great content. Re. 9 box grid, pls advise how do I increase the size of the box to accommodate more names?
Hi Chandoo,
I figured it out. Excel 365 has the format row height on the ribbon. Thank you
Merci Chandoo pour le modèle proposé,
j'ai une question et un souhait est il possible de développer davantage ce modèle en insérant la photo de chaque employé.
Hi Chandoo!
Great tutorial and tool, thank you! Your tutorial didn't include how to create additional filters on the "Output" tab. Could you please share how you did it?
Can this be done exactly in google sheets?
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the video it was really helpful. Is there any way to multi select the dropdown to display multiple or all departments rather than just one at once?
Hello Prish
I have Microsoft 365 and I am struggling to make the boxes larger/unable to increase row height; any idea how you made this work? Specifically in the Output tab where the map is?
Many thanks
Hello Jody, I have Microsoft 365 and I am struggling to make the boxes larger/unable to increase row height; any idea how you made this work? Specifically in the Output tab where the map is? Many thanks
Is there a way to change the 9 box wording descriptions, i.e. Work Horses, to our own internal langauge?
You can edit the file. The descriptions are textboxes.
Hi Chandoo, this is awesome and has worked perfectly. Due to a big organisation the 9 box grid on the output file is too small. I tried adjusting using the row/width ribbon under the format ribbon however it doesn't seem to work. Is there an easier way to adjust this?
Thanks!
When I drag the formula, it doesn't work, and the order I use with the data changes. In the beginning, the order is it is " candidates," " potential," and " performance," but when it goes to another column, it is " Potential," Performance," and "Candidates."Can you help me? Thank you very much, sending love from vietnam
Hi- I am working on the 9 grid project and I am trying to expand the box since I have over 100 names on a few of the columns. How do I do that?
Hi, Thank you this is great stuff and really useful.
As well as department as demonstrated on your clip, how can I display all candidates on the grid at once?
Many thanks in advance