Maximize Excel: Pivot Table Basics

CPE Credit: 2 hours
 
Pivot tables are one of the most underutilized features in Excel, primarily because users often believe there’s a long learning curve. But once you’ve completed this empowering course by Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, you’ll know how to transform data into a pivot table–ready format and instantly create reports by simply dragging and dropping fields with your mouse. David explains how to avoid the quirks and nuances of pivot tables, initiate a pivot table from a list of data, expand and collapse pivot table elements, dig deeper into the numbers, and more. 
 
David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in Excel 2016. He draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2013, 2010, or 2007 during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples used in the course. 


Topics Covered

• Compiling unwieldy data into the format required for pivot table analysis quickly and easily.
• Using Excel’s PivotTable feature to quickly identify anomalies within QuickBooks data.
• Adding fields to pivot tables.
• Discovering how pivot tables differ from worksheet formulas and learning the importance of the Refresh command.
• Identifying the requirements of ideal data sets to be analyzed within your pivot tables.
• Avoiding frustration by understanding the nuances of pivot table formatting.
• Learning the nuances associated with subtotaling data within a pivot table.
• Creating a macro that will automatically remove the words “Sum Of” from your pivot table fields.
• Filtering pivot table data based on date ranges by way of the Timeline feature in Excel 2013 and later.
• Learning multiple ways to remove fields from a pivot table.
• Disabling the GETPIVOTDATA function if it’s not needed for your analysis.
• Understanding why numeric data may appear in a pivot table more than once and how to correct the problem.

• Recall how to expand and collapse groups of data within a pivot table.
• Identify the best approach for formatting numbers within a pivot table.
• List multiple ways to remove fields from a pivot table.