What a pivot table does
A pivot table excel report summarizes thousands of rows into counts, sums, or averages—without writing formulas. It is one of the top rising how-to searches this year.
Create your first pivot
- Click anywhere in a Excel Table (Insert → Table if needed).
- Insert → PivotTable → choose New worksheet.
- Drag fields:
- Rows – categories (Region, Product)
- Columns – optional split (Month)
- Values – Sum of Amount, Count of Orders
- Right-click a value → Number Format for currency.
Refresh when data changes
Paste new rows into the source table, then PivotTable Analyze → Refresh. For files from multiple exports, merge first with Excel Merge and dedupe keys with Remove Duplicates.
Pivot vs online tools
| Task | Pivot | ComTools online |
|---|---|---|
| Explore sums by category | ✓ Best | Compare tool for two files |
| Clean CSV before analysis | Prep step | Merge / dedup / to CSV |
| Repeat on new exports weekly | Refresh | Or automate with VBA AI |