

The beauty of pivot tables is they allow you to interactively explore your data in different ways. You can group data into categories, break down data into years and months, filter data to include or exclude categories, and even build charts. With very little effort (and no formulas) you can look at the same data from many different perspectives. However, unlike a static report, a pivot table provides an interactive view of your data.

You can think of a pivot table as a report. Pivot tables can dramatically increase your efficiency in Excel. Grab the sample data and give it a try. Learning Pivot Tables is a skill that will pay you back again and again. If you need to be convinced that Pivot Tables are worth your time, watch this short video.

With very little effort, you can use a pivot table to build good-looking reports for large data sets. Pivot tables are one of the most powerful and useful features in Excel.
