The Excel Pivot Table group item options allows us group items from a pivot table field to further summarize our data sets.  In this post we will be looking at grouping our invoice dates into year and month fields

 

GROUPING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The group item Excel Pivot Table option is used in this post to use a simple invoice date field and group these dates by year and then by month.  This will allow us to summarize our data without having to create new custom fields within our raw data set.  This options provides users with the flexibility to build timeline/historical data to decipher trends.  In our case in particular it allows us to quickly monitor our sales trend year to year and month to month.

How to Use the Excel Pivot Table Group Option

The Excel Pivot Table group items option is the ideal tool for quickly grouping items together.  This option can be used to group dates, times, numeric values.  In this post we will be looking at how to use this option to take sales data and use the invoice date to group sales transactions by year and then month.  From here we can then easily identify trends in our sales patterns.

STEP1-2-PIVOT-TABLE-CREATE

 

STEP3-RENAME-PIVOT-TABLE

 

 

STEP4-PIVOT-TABLE-FIELDS

STEP5- SELECT GROUP OPTION

STEP6- GROUPING CRITERIA

 

STEP7- GROUP TIME DATA

 

Now that we've grouped our invoice data into year and month numbers, we can easily map out sales trends by year and month to help with forecasting and to minimize future levels of inventory.

 

The group items option can also be used to group numerical data including categorizing grade distributions, age groups and pretty much just grouping any type of information that would help summarize your data.

 

What would you use the Excel Pivot Table group option for?