Recently I had to create a Pivot report from monthly data. But there is a twist. The data is spread across multiple sheets, one for each month. Let me explain how I built the pivot for that scenario.
Step 1: Load Monthly Data File to Power Query
We can use Power Query and automatically combine all the individual sheets to one big table. For this, you need a monthly workbook that has one tab (sheet) per month. If you need sample data, check out this file.
- Create a “NEW” Excel workbook. We will use this file to combine all the monthly worksheets.
- Go to Data Ribbon and click on Get Data > From File > From Excel
- Select your monthly workbook with all the individual sheets
- In the navigator screen, select any one sheet and click on “Transform” to go to Power Query Editor.
Step 2: Combine & Clean-up Data
Once you are in Power Query Editor (PQE), we can quickly combine all monthly sheets and clean-up the data.
- Using the “Query Settings” panel on the right, delete all the steps except “Source” step. You can use the ❌ mark next to the step to delete the step.
- In the query view, expand the “Data” column so we can get all the monthly data in one big table.
But the data is not clean...!
When you “Expand” the data column, we get all the data, but a ton of problems too. Here is a summary of the key issues.
- Incorrect headers
- Repeated header rows (one per month)
- Incorrect data types (dates, numbers treated as Alpha-numeric by Power Query)
- Unwanted columns
- Null values or blank rows
- Something else?!? 😱
Fortunately, Power Query can solve all these problems quite easily.
- Set first row as headers using Home Ribbon > First Row as Headers option
- To fix nulls & repeated header rows, use filter on a column like “Sales Person” and filter away the null & title words. See this demo:
- Right click on the columns and use “Change Type” to set the correct data type.
- Using Home ribbon > Choose Columns select the columns you want.
Step 3: Load the Data to Excel
Once all the clean-up is done, rename your query to something like “Combined data” and use the Close & Load button in Home ribbon to load this data to Excel.
Pro Tip
Use the "Load to" options to load the data just to your data model instead of Excel grid. This is helpful if you just want to make pivots and don't need to "see" the data.
Step 4: Create Pivot Table(s)
Now that all the data is in one place, you can create a pivot report easily in Excel. Just select the “combined data” table and use Insert > Pivot Table to add the reports you want.
Step 5: How to update when you have "NEW" data?
Come next month, you may have another sheet in the “monthly file”. Just save the file and open the consolidated workbook (with all your pivots) and use the “Data” ribbon > Refresh All button to refresh the queries. You may need to press this twice to update the pivots too.
VIDEO: How to create a pivot table from multiple sheets of data?
Check out this video tutorial to understand how to make a pivot table from multiple sheets of data. (see it on my channel)
📂 Sample File
Download the sample data file (monthly data) to practice this concept on your computer.
What to do when you have an error? ⛔
While this trick works most of the time, you can still get some errors. Use below tips to debug / fix the problems.
- Save & Close the Monthly file: The refresh / update process may throw errors if your file is not closed. So, save and close the workbook.
- Monthly tabs should be consistently formatted: The headers and number of columns in your monthly file should match across tabs. If you have different headers or number of columns, then the combined file may have errors or incorrect values.
- Missing Data: If you notice that some data (a month for ex.) is missing in your consolidated file or pivots, try refreshing the file a few times. If that doesn’t work, go to “Query” ribbon and “Edit” the query. Once you are in PQ Editor, backtrack and locate the step that might be causing the problem.
- Any other problem? Leave a comment with the issue you faced so I can offer some guidance.
Learn More 👩💻
You can use Pivot Tables + Power Query to do so many awesome things in Excel. Check out below tutorials to master the concepts.
💥 Complete Excel + Pivot Tables + Power Query course from Chandoo
If you want to learn all the necessary Excel functionalities and how to apply them for work in one place, check out my Excel School program.
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25 Responses to “Display Alerts in Dashboards to Grab User Attention [Quick Tip]”
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which could also provide another piece of information.
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which can also provide another piece of information.
For Excel 2007, your formula should do the same as the Excel 2003 version, so that non-alert rows are blank - if they are 0, the unnecessary green icon will show
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !!! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
The Complete formula [Don't Know how it got cut ]
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
PS : Use in single line [I have split it to avoid cuts 😉 ]
Hi Chandoo..
why it is not displaying the complete formula..
anyways here is the balance
"=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153), IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155), IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))"
@Rohit... your formulas are fine. Just that the width of comment area is fixed and hence my website is cropping it at 640pixels. I just edited your formula and added few white spaces so that it wraps nicely.
Very good idea btw.. kudos!
Hi,
Maybe just go for 'bold' ; 'underline' or 'italic' to draw the users attention? Those methods (if those can be called methods) are used cross media type (books, journals, blogs, billboards, ...) to guide the readers eye to valuable information.
Just a basic thought
@Tom.. good idea..
[...] has a very nice writeup on how to add such alerts to dashboard sheets. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Divide your data set into workbooksHow to enforce [...]
Hi Chandoo,
You certainly grabbed my attention! although I wasn't sure what my brother (Suresh) and cousin (Shyam) were doing right, and I was doing wrong? 😉
I love your blog btw - Many thanks for all your hard work in unravelling the secrets and mysteries of Excel!
Best regards
Ramesh
I thought I saw an advertisment for a book about learning excel called excel himalaya or something. It cost about 35.00 us money but seemed to have the things I need to have my admin assistant to start to use. I was hoping to start with this book and then send her to school if she shows some interest and aptitude. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks
Great web site and information!!!!
@Jeff... checkout http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/08/25/excel-everest-review/
thanks, your website is awesome!
[...] Alerts to highlight focus areas [...]
[...] There are lots of numbers in this dashboard. I would suggest adding few more visualizations like showing indicators or applying conditional formatting or replacing a table with a chart. This would reduce the [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo
Firstly thanks for all the cool tips on how to use Excel better.
I am new to the site and have a question which you may be able to assist with but dont know if these comment boxes are the best way of asking ?
I am looking at assets and trying to calculate the depreciation total by taking a year (say 2010) adding the expected life of the asset (say 10 years) then comparing that to a future date (say 2015) using an IF statement. The calculation in normal is - IF((year in col B (2010) plus 10years)>year 2015, add a years depreciation, otherwise leave blank). The converted date value does not appear able to add 10 years in order to compare it to 2015. Am I missing something ?
I use the “IF” Statement in conjunction with Conditional Formatting in MS Excel to give verbiage to alert one of a required action, dependant on a review date. This makes a visual stimulus, plus it clues one as to what the conditional format is trying to warn you about and what follow-up actions are required.
Wow, I'm really impressed with dashboards. I had no idea this stuff was even possible with excel. I'd like to offer an interactive dashboard to my customers, showing analytics of their data. I have a .pdf file with the datapoints. I'd like them to enter the data on my website, and be able to see their data. Is something like that possible.
Hi Chandoo,
I've recently purchased the package for both templates.
In the portfolio dashboard,under the calculations worksheet, I'm attempting to change the date range in the gantt chart to show only the range of the project that starts in late 2013. How do I do this?
Thanks
Adam
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo,
I'm new at Excel Dashboard and found your blog really useful and helpful! It's very nice of you that you dedicate your time to do this.
Could you please explain how can I use Alerts based on dates on a Dashboar?
For example, if a target date is coming closer to the actual date, the alert is yellow or red.
I'd really appreciate some help!
Thank you
Where can I download the file Excel of Averall Statistics ???
Thanks a lot.