Instead of creating formulas in the source data for your pivot tables, you can create formulas in the pivot table, by using calculated fields and calculated items. In this example, we'll create a calculated field, to show the number of tasks per hour that are completed by each worker.

In the source data, each record has the task date, worker name, minutes spent on the task, and the task name.

The Calculated Field Problem

In the pivot table, the following fields are added to the layout:

• worker name is in the Rows area
• Sum of Task Time is in the Values area, formatted to show hours, minutes and seconds
• Count of Task is in the Values area

To calculate the tasks per hour, you would divide the number of tasks, by the TaskTime multiplied by 24.

=Tasks/(TaskTime*24)

If you wanted to calculate the tasks per hour on the worksheet, outside of the pivot table, the formula in cell D5 would be:

=C5/(B5*24)

In a pivot table, you can summarize data by Sum, Count, Average, and several other functions. However, when you create a calculated field, the SUM of the fields are used in the calculation, even if another summary function, like COUNT, is used in the pivot table.

In this pivot table, the Sum of Tasks will always be zero, because Tasks is a text field, and the numeric value of a text entry is zero.

Add a Task Count Field

Instead of using a text field to count the tasks, you can add a numeric field to the pivot table source data. In the screen shot below, you can see the new field -- TaskCount -- and a 1 has been added in each record.

To show the new field in the pivot table:

• Change the data source, to include the new column
• Refresh the pivot table
• Remove the Count of Task field
• Add the TaskCount field, as Sum of TaskCount, in the Values area.
• (optional) Change the heading for Sum of TaskCount to "Task Count"

Create a Calculated Field for Tasks Per Hour

To create a calculated field,

• Select a cell in the pivot table
• On the Excel Ribbon, click the Options tab, under PivotTable Tools
• Click Formulas, and then click Calculated Field

In the Insert Calculated Field window:

• Type a name for the calculated field, e.g. TasksPerHr
• In the formula box, enter the following formula (double-click on the field names to add them to the formula):
• = TaskCount/( TaskTime*24)
• Click OK, to complete the calculated field.

In the pivot table,

• format the TasksPerHr field with the number format that you want, e.g. 2 decimal places,
• (optional) change the column heading.

Download the Sample File

To see the pivot table and formulas, you can download the Pivot Table Calculated Field sample file. It is in Excel 2007 format, and zipped.
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If you're working with pivot table calculated fields in Excel VBA programming, or trying to use the Orientation property for data fields, you might encounter some problems. Here's how I managed to work around an error that occurs when you try to remove a calculated field from the pivot table layout with Excel VBA.

Strange Results for Orientation Property

I encountered the first oddity with Orientation while working with pivot table field names. I wanted to see a bit of information about each pivot field, so I wrote some Excel VBA pivot field code, to show the caption, source name, location (orientation), position, sample data, and a formula (calculated fields).

The code worked well, but the Orientation property gave some strange results for the fields in the Values area. Instead of listing the field location as Data, they were shown as Hidden. At the top of the screen shot below, you can see the field names circled in the pivot table layout, but the list says they're hidden.

Removing the Data Fields

I experimented with the Orientation property in the code, but had no success in getting it to display correctly when looping through the PivotFields. When I tried to change the Orientation for the data fields, things got even stranger. I could change the regular data fields to xlHidden, to remove them from the pivot table layout, but those calculated fields weren't removed.

Instead of changing the calculated field Orientation to xlHidden, Excel displayed the error message "Run-time error '1004': Unable to set the Orientation property of the PivotField class"

On the Excel worksheet, you can manually uncheck the calculated field boxes, and remove them from the pivot table, then check the box again, to put it back into the layout. However, if you record a macro while removing the calculated field, that recorded code shows the same error message when you try to run it.

Remove the Calculated Fields

A Google search showed that many other people had encountered this problem, and the only solution was delete the calculated field, instead of trying to remove it from the layout. That approach is okay if you want to permanently remove the calculated field, but wouldn't be much help if you wanted to keep the calculated field in your pivot table, for use later.

So, I wrote the following code that deletes each calculated field, then immediately adds it back to the pivot table field list, but not into the pivot table layout. If you've had trouble removing calculated fields from the pivot table layout, please let me know if this code helps you.

Update: If multiple pivot tables share the same pivot cache, calculated field is removed from all. To prevent accidental deletion from other pivot tables, go to this article for sample code: Check for Shared Pivot Cache

Sub RemoveCalculatedFields()
Dim pt As PivotTable
Dim pf As PivotField
Dim pfNew As PivotField
Dim strSource As String
Dim strFormula As String

Set pt = ActiveSheet.PivotTables(1)
    For Each pf In pt.CalculatedFields
        strSource = pf.SourceName
        strFormula = pf.Formula
        pf.Delete
        Set pfNew = pt.CalculatedFields.Add(strSource, strFormula)
    Next pf

End Sub

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You can create a calculated field in a pivot table, to perform calculations based on the Sum of a pivot table field. For example, this formula would calculate a bonus based on the total number of units sold for each product. If 60 or more were sold, then the salesperson would receive a 3% bonus on the sales amount for those products.

=IF(Units>= 60,Total* 3%,0)

In the pivot table shown below, Andrews sold 150 binders, and earned a bonus of 22.46 on that product. Gill only sold 10 pens, so there is no bonus earned for that.

The headings in the pivot table have been changed:

• Sum of Total --> Sales
• Sum of Units --> Units Sold
• Sum of Bonus -->Bonus Amt

Calculated Field Totals

After creating the Bonus calculated field, you might expect to see a sum of the bonus amounts, in the subtotal and grand total rows. However, the calculated field uses the same calculation in the subtotal and grand total rows, instead of showing a sum.

In this pivot table, Gill had two bonus amounts -- 11.98 and 5.38, for a total of 17.36. However, the subtotal for Gill shows a bonus amount of 26.21, which is too high.

The grand total for a calculated field performs the same calculation that’s defined in the calculated field. So, for Gill, instead of summing the bonus amounts, it calculates 3% of Gill's total sales -- 874 * 3% = 26.21

Calculate Outside the Pivot Table

Unfortunately, there's no setting that you can change in the pivot table, to sum the calculated fields, instead of using the calculated field formula on the totals.

As a workaround, you could use formulas outside the pivot table to extract the bonus amounts, and sum those amounts.

• To create blank cell in the product column, the report layout was changed to Outline Form.
• To create salesperson groups, in cell F5, the formula is: =--(B5="")+F4
  • (Note: there are 2 minus signs after the equal sign in the above formula)
• In cell G5: =IF(B5<>"",E5,0)
• The bonus calculation in cell H5 is:
  =IF(A5="Grand Total",SUM(G:G),IF(B5="",SUMIF(F:F,F5,G:G),G5))

Then, hide the pivot table column that contains the Bonus calculations, so only the column with the correct subtotals and grand total is visible.

Download the Sample File

To work with the data in this example, and create the calculated field, you can download the Calculated Field Bonus sample file. The file is in Excel 2007 format, and zipped.

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After you create a calculated field in an Excel pivot table, you might want to remove it from the pivot table layout. You can temporarily remove a calculated field, or you can permanently remove it.

In this example, the pivot table has a calculated field named Bonus. It appears in the Values area as Sum of Bonus. You could hide the Bonus calculated field, or delete it from the pivot table.

Temporarily Remove a Calculated Field

To temporarily remove a calculated field from a pivot table, follow these steps:

1. In the pivot table, right-click a cell in the calculated field. In this example, we’ll right-click the Bonus field.
2. In the popup menu, click the Remove command that shows the name of the calculated field.  

   

The calculated field is removed from the pivot table layout, but remains in the PivotTable Field List.

Later, you can add a check mark to the calculated field in the PivotTable Field List, to return it to the pivot table layout.

Permanently Remove a Calculated Field

To permanently remove a calculated field, follow these steps:

1. Select any cell in the pivot table.
2. On the Ribbon, under the PivotTable Tools tab,  click the Options tab.
3. In the Tools group, click Formulas, and then click Calculated Field.
4. From the Name drop down list, select the name of the calculated field you want to delete.

   
    

5. Click Delete, and then click OK to close the dialog box.

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For more information on Pivot Tables, please see the Pivot Table Tutorials on the Contextures Website.

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If you’ve used calculated items and calculated fields in your pivot table, you can automatically create a list of all the formulas.

List the Formulas in Excel 2007

1. Select any cell in the pivot table.
2. On the Ribbon, under the PivotTable Tools tab, click the Options tab.
3. In the Tools group, click Formulas
4. Click  List Formulas.

A new sheet is inserted in the workbook, with a list of the calculated fields and a list of the calculated items.

List the Formulas in Excel 2003

1. Select any cell in the pivot table.
2. On the Pivot toolbar, click PivotTable.
3. Click Formulas, then click  List Formulas.

A new sheet is inserted in the workbook, with a list of the calculated fields and calculated items (see the Excel 2007 example above).

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For more information on pivot tables, see the Pivot Tables on my Contextures web site.

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