Pivot tables are very powerful analysis tools. They can summarize vast amounts of data with just few clicks. But they are lousy when it comes to output. Imagine the horror of putting a pivot table right inside your beautiful dashboard. One refresh could ruin the layout and create half-an-hour extra work for you.
How to combine the power of pivot tables with elegance of your dashboards?
The answer is: GETPIVOTDATA()
What is GETPIVOTDATA?
As the name suggests, GETPIVOTDATA gets pivot table data. The best way to understand GETPIVOTDATA is by looking at an example.
Let’s say, you have a pivot table like the one below. And you want to know what is the Amount for Cust Area = Middle & Prod Category = Biscuits combination.
The below GETPIVOTDATA formula should work.
=GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,”Middle“,”Prod Category”,”Biscuits“)
As you can see GETPIVOTDATA has below syntax.
GETPIVOTDATA(value field name, any cell reference in pivot table, [field name 1, value1, field name 2, value 2 …])
Few more examples of GETPIVOTDATA:
Check out below examples to understand how various parameters of the GETPIVOTDATA function behave:
| GETPIVOTDATA function | What it does | Value |
|---|---|---|
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,”South”,”Prod Category”,”Biscuits”) | Gets Amount for South & Biscuits combination | $609.50 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Prod Category”,”Biscuits”) | Gets grand total for Biscuits | $5,251.10 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,”South”) | Gets grand total for South | $4,342.20 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3) | Gets grand total of all amounts | $41,828.00 |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$1,”Cust Area”,”West”,”Prod Category”,”Snacks”) | Gives an error as $A$1 is not part of the pivot | #REF! |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Cust Area”,$P$2,”Prod Category”,$P$3) | Gets Amount for cust area = P2 and pro category = P3 cell values. | depends on variables |
| =GETPIVOTDATA(“Amount”,$A$3,”Prod Category”,category_name) | Gets grand total for category = category_name value | depends on variables |
| =GETPIVOTDATA($P$4&””,$A$3,”Cust Area”,$P$2,”Prod Category”,$P$3) | Gets P4 value field for Cust Area = P2 and Prod Category = P3. Note: $P$4 &”” is used to convince GPD that P4 is a string not number. |
depends on variables |
Using GETPIVOTDATA in dashboards
The idea is simple. Since GETPIVOTDATA can be parameterized with variable cells or named ranges, we can use it in dashboards to get relevant data based on user input.
Sample this:
Or this dashboard powered with GETPIVOTDATA
Things to note when working with GETPIVOTDATA:
GETPIVOTDATA is a very useful function, but it does have a few quirks.
- If your pivot table has slicers linked to them, GPD will reflect the results based on slicer selection.
- If your pivot table has any items filtered (say category Biscuits is filtered out), then GPD will return #REF error when you try to get any value corresponding to Biscuits.
- If you change the pivot table structure, your GETPIVOTDATA functions may not work as you expect.
- If you turn off grand totals or sub-totals, you can no longer get them thru GPD.
- GPD requires that your original pivot tables remain intact and visible all the time.
- If you want to completely get rid of pivot tables and still get answers to questions, then you should use CUBE formulas along with Workbook data model feature (more on this in a future post).
- The best & easiest way to write GPD is by pressing = and referencing a cell inside the pivot. This will automatically write the GPD for you. You can then customize the parameters as you need.
- You can turn-off GPD by going to Pivot Table Analyze ribbon tab & unchecking “Generating GETPIVODATA” option from PivotTable options area.
Download GETPIVOTDATA Examples workbook
Please click here to download the GETPIVOTDATA example workbook. Refer to various tabs & formulas to learn more. Don’t forget to play with the dashboard powered by GETPIVOTDATA.
Learn more about Pivot Tables
If you are new to Pivot Tables, it’s high time you started using them. Check out below pages and get started.
- Introduction to Excel Pivot Tables – article , Podcast
- Comprehensive guide to Excel Pivot Tables
- Slicers – Introduction, what are they, advanced scenarios
- Building dashboards with Pivot Tables + Slicers
- Convert regular pivots to GETPIVOTDATA – 3 part tutorial from Mike Alexander, part 2 & part 3
How do you use GETPIVOTDATA?
Let me be honest. For my dashboards, I usually write direct cell references (=A7) instead of GPD. This keeps my formulas short. For dynamic / parameterized setups, I usually write INDEX / MATCH formulas that talk to Pivot Table data. But occasionally I use GETPIVOTDATA because it is very easy to setup and does what it says on the sticker.
What about you? How do you use GETPIVOTDATA? Please share scenarios in the comments section.
31 Responses to “Beautiful Budget vs. Actual chart to make your boss love you”
Would be considerably easier just to have a table with the variance shown.
On Step 3, how do you "Add budget and actual values to the chart again"?
There are a few ways to do it.
Easy:
1) Copy just the numbers from both columns (Select, CTRL+C)
2) Select the chart and hit CTRL+V to paste. This adds them to chart.
Traditional:
1) Right click on chart and go to "select data..."
2) From the dialog, click on "Add" button and add one series at a time.
One more way to accomplish it is just select the columns into chart. Press Ctrl+C and then press Ctrl+V
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work for me in Excel 2010. The "Var 1" and "Var 2" columns cannot combine two fonts to display the symbol and the figure side-by-side.
Secondly, there is no option to Click on “Value from cells” option when formatting the label options. The only options provided are Series Name, Category Name or Value.
@TheQ47... the emoji font also has normal English letters, so if you use that font, then you should be ok. I am assuming your computer doesn't have that font or hasn't been upgraded for emoji support.
Reg. Excel 2010, you can manually link each label to a cell value. Just select one label at a time (click on labels, wait a second, click on an individual label) and press = and link it to the label var 1 or var 2.
I am using excel 2010, please explain how to apply Step 12
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Hi Neeraj,
"Value from cells" option is only available in Excel 2013 or above. In older versions, you have to manually adjust the label value by linking each label seperately.
Read this please: https://chandoo.org/wp/change-data-labels-in-charts/
Sir, you are just awesome.
Your creativity has no limit.
Regards
Neeraj Kumar Agarwal
Hi Chandoo,
I just found your website, and really love it. It helps me a lot to be an Excel expert 😉
Currently I am facing with a problem at step 11:
Var1 Var2
D30%
A5%
B0%
B4%
B7%
C10%
C13%
D27%
I42%
Though at mapping table, I used windings, here formula uses calibra. How I can change it? I am able to change only the whole cell. In this case numbers will be Windings too.
Thanks for your help!
Hi Mariann... Welcome to Chandoo.org and thanks for your comment.
If you wanted to use symbols from wingdings and combine them with % numbers, then you need to setup two labels. One with symbol, in wingdings font and another with value in normal font. Just add the same series again to the chart, make it invisible, add labels. You may need to adjust the alignment / position of label so everything is visible.
[…] firs article explains how you can enhance your charts with symbols. You can simply insert any supported symbol into your data and charts. To some extend you can […]
You're a good person, thank you to share your knowledge with us, I will try to do in my work
Great visualization of variance. My question is that is this possible in powerbi?
How would you go about it?
HELLO, WHY CANT I FIND VALUES FOR LABELS IN EXCEL 2013
Dear chanddo sir,
What to do if we have dynamic range for Chart. How this will work. can you able to make the same thing works on dynamic range.
Sir Chandoo,
Good Day!
First, I'd like to say that I am very grateful for your work and for sharing all these things with us.
I tried to do this chart but it seems that the symbols don't work with text (abs(var%),"0%") unless we keep the Windings font style.
The problem is, it converts the text into symbol as well and you wont see the 0% anymore. I'm using Windows 7.
WOW - Segoe UI Emoji
This is the greatest discovery for me this month 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Here's my two-cents:
https://wmfexcel.com/2019/02/17/a-compelling-chart-in-three-minutes/
Sir This is awesome chart, and very easy to made because of your way to explain is very simple , everyone can do. Thank you
one problem i am facing, I hv made this chart , but when i am inserting data table to chart it is showing two times , how can i resolve this
in this chart when i am adding new month data for example first i made this chart jan to mar but when i add data for the apr month graphs updated automatically but labels are missing for that new month
Hi Renuka,
Please make sure the formulas for labels are also calculated for extra months. Just drag down the series and set label range to appropriate address.
So I am playing with the Actual chart here - but amounts are bigger than your - you have 600 as Budget - my budget is 104,000 - is there a way to shorten that I am unaware of
thank you - I LOVE YOUR SITE
Thanks for the tips and tricks on Excel. In the Planned versus Actual chart examples, you use multiple values (ex. multiple Categories in above). How can this be done when we have only 1 set of values? For example if I have only this:
Planned Actual
SOW Budget 417480 367551
How can I create a single bar chart like the one above?
Thank you Chandoo.
This one is just perfect for my Quarterly Review presentation on Operational Budget against Actual Performance for the Hospital I'm currently working with.
Just Subscribed today (10 minutes ago)
Is there a way to make the table of data into a pivot table to be able to add a slicer for the graph due to many different categories and months?
Hi, I tried to modify you template with something appropriate for me, and I found a problem. this template was modified by me started with excel 2010, then 2016 and finally 2019. Same thing - somehow appear an error - or didn't show the emoticons for positive percentage or doubled the emoticons for some rows. I suspect to be from excel. if is need it I can sand you my xlsx for study. Please help if you can.
Hi Chandoo,
Could you please check the Var Formula in Step1. You have mentioned budget-actual and when i did this i got different values but when reversed like actual-budget i got the actual value what you have demonstrated in step1.
Please share your view.
This is a great chart (budget vs. actual). However, in trying recreate it, I cannot color in the UP Down bars individually, and they all become formatted with the same color. I'm using Office 365. Look forward to the feedback.
Thanks.
Dan
pls explain in detail step 7
While in the Excel sheet you have used following formula for Var
Var = Actual - Budget
But
in the note, you have written
Var = Budget - Actual
Good Presentation and Data information.thank you so much chandoo.