Pivot Table Intro: Summarize a Sales Sheet in Five Minutes

A flat sales log is hard to read. A pivot table answers "how much per category per month?" without writing SUMIFS across twelve columns.

Start with clean columns

One row per line item. Headers in row 1, no blank rows in the middle.

Select any cell inside the table (Ctrl+A once if the active cell is inside the data).

Create the pivot (Excel)

1. Insert → PivotTable (or Alt+N, V on Windows)
2. Choose New worksheet (easier to learn) → OK
3. In the PivotTable Fields pane:

- Drag Category to Rows - Drag Date to Columns — if you see individual days, right-click a date → Group → Months - Drag Amount to Values — should say Sum of Amount

You now have categories down the side and months across the top.

Create the pivot (Google Sheets)

1. Insert → Pivot table
2. Choose New sheet
3. In the Pivot table editor:

- Rows → Add Category - Columns → Add Date, then set Show as → Month (or year-month grouping) - Values → Add Amount, summarize by SUM

Format numbers

Pivot totals often show too many decimals.

• Excel: select the value area → PivotTable Analyze → Field Settings → Number Format → Currency
• Google Sheets: select the pivot output range → Format → Number → Currency

Refresh when source data changes

Excel: right-click the pivot → Refresh (or Alt+F5).

Google Sheets: pivots refresh automatically when source cells change. If you added new rows below the old range, edit the pivot Data range to include them.

Common mistakes

Next steps

Build a monthly budget sheet that feeds a similar summary: build a monthly budget sheet.

If SKUs need prices before you pivot revenue, start with VLOOKUP basics.