When Should You Use a Pivot Table?

Large datasets, ever-changing impromptu data requests, and multilayered reporting are absolute productivity killers if you have to tackle them by hand. Going hand-to-hand combat with one of these is not only time consuming, but it opens up the possibility of an untold amount of errors in your analysis. So how do you recognize when to use a pivot table before it's too late?

Generally, a pivot table would serve you well in any of the following situations:

• You have a large amount of transactional data that has become increasingly difficult to analyze and summarize in a meaningful way.

• You need to find relationships and groupings within your data.

• You need to find a list of unique values for one field in your data.

• You need to find data trends using various time periods.

• You anticipate frequent requests for changes to your data analysis.

• You need to create subtotals that will frequently include new additions.

• You need to organize your data into a format that's easy to chart.