The truth of the matter is that when it comes to large amounts of data sets and analysing them quickly, there is no greater feature in Excel than the Excel Pivot Table tool. Versatile, easily used, speedy and accurate when executed correctly, the tool is one that you will find yourself using to sort your data often. If you are new to Excel Pivot Tables, there are 5 helpful tips that you should definitely incorporate into your work:

1. Grouping

The data in your Pivot tables can be grouped using numbers. With this capability, you can actually make use of it to customise your group by a lot of things. For example, data ranges for age, for price, for numerics and so on so forth as long as it allows easy deciphering for your reports. Simply make use of the Excel Pivot Table tool to create a PivotTable and add your relevant elements into the relevant labels provided. You can then right click any data value and select Group. This will enable a dialog box that will let you enter different intervals (in the BY section) as you require.

2. Syncing

To save yourself a lot of time, maximise the use you get out of the Excel Pivot Table tool by making tables your source data. When you do that, Excel automatically helps you expand/shrink your table with every addition or decrease of data. Your PivotTable will always be in sync with the changes. Select the data range you want and create your table first, then choose to summarise with the pivot table tool.

3. Naming/Renaming

Excel PivotTables usually display names that are in it’s source data. So if you run into cases where you have to change the field names, you can actually do so easily without having to redo the table again. Simply choose the field name that is displayed in the PivotTable and manually type in your new name. However, do note that you cannot use the same field name twice. A feasible alternative to that would be adding spaces towards the end of your field name. You can also consider adding fields as a value.

4. Formatting

Automatically format the value fields of your PivotTable by ensuring that the number format on the relevant fields are already set. Choose the cells directly and apply the format first or use the field settings (Value field settings) from the menu to format as you desire.

5. Data Removal

If the data in your PivotTable is no longer necessary, then you can actually choose to remove it without compromising the functioning ability of your PivotTable. PivotTables come with something known as the pivot cache- which contains a duplicate of the data that was used to create the table. Make sure to refresh so that your pivot cache is up to date then delete the data you do not need. You will still be able to make use of your PivotTable as usual.