In Excel 2007, when you create a second pivot table from the same source data, you don't get an option to base the new pivot table on an existing pivot table, the way you can in Excel 2003.

In Step 1 of the Excel 2003 Wizard, you can select the first option, to create an independent pivot table. Or, select the fourth option, for pivot tables that share the same pivot cache.

In Excel 2007, if you create two pivot tables from the same source data, they automatically use the same pivot cache of the source data. You don't have an option to create an independent pivot table.

Grouping Problems

Because the pivot tables share the same cache, this can cause problems if you group the data in the pivot fields.

When you change the grouping in one pivot table, the same grouping appears in the other pivot table. For example, change the date grouping in the first pivot table to Months, and the dates in the second pivot table automatically group in Months.

Because you created the two pivot tables from the same source data, by default they use the same pivot cache, which is where the grouping is stored.

However, you might want different grouping in the two pivot tables. For example, you'd like Month grouping in one pivot table, and Quarter grouping in the other.

Create a Second Pivot Cache

To use different grouping in each pivot table, you'll need to create a separate pivot cache for each pivot table. Use the following easy method, suggested in the Excel newsgroups by Dave Peterson.

To create a separate pivot cache for the second pivot table:

1. Cut the second pivot table, and paste it into a new workbook.
2. Change the grouping of the second pivot table.
3. Cut the second pivot table from the new workbook, and paste it back into the original workbook.

Now there are two pivot caches in the original workbook, and each pivot table can be grouped independently.

Watch the Video

To see the steps for creating a second pivot cache so you can create separate grouping in the pivot tables, please watch this Excel video tutorial.

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In a pivot table, there's no built-in way to group the pivot table data by both weeks and months at the same time. If you want to show sales data by week, you can group the date field in seven-day intervals.

The 7 day grouping works well, but if you try to add grouping by months, the Number of Days option is disabled. If you select Month in the Grouping dialog box, the days will lose their 7 day grouping.

Calculate the Month

Since you can't group by both week and month, you can use a workaround instead. You could create a column in the source data, and then calculate one of the grouping levels there. Then, you could add that field to the pivot table.

For example, you can add a column that calculates the month name for each sales order date, by using the TEXT function:

=TEXT(A2,"mmm")

Add the Month field to the pivot table, above the weeks.

Calculate the Week Number

Another option is to add a column to the source data, with a formula to calculate the week number:

=WEEKNUM(A2).

With the OrderDate field in the Row Labels area, group the dates by months. In the Row Labels area, add the WeekNum field below the OrderDate field, to summarize the data by month and week number.

Note: If a week begins in one month and ends in another, it will appear under both months.

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If you format a column of dates in your pivot table source data, to show as year and month (yyyy-mm), they won't automatically summarize by year and month in the pivot table.

Format the Source Data

For example, in the source data shown below, there are several orders for January 2010, and three different dates are visible.

If you format those records as yyyy-mm, it looks like all the dates are the same.

Summarize Formatted Dates

However, when you add the OrderDate field to the Row Labels area of a pivot table, several items appear as 2010-01, instead of only one item.

The first instance of 2010-01 shows 3 orders, so that would be the Jan 2, 2010 orders. Below it is an item with a single order, and that's a summary of the Jan 3, 2010 orders.

Even though the dates are formatted to look the same in the source data, the underlying dates are still recognized by the pivot table. Those underlying dates are used for the pivot table summary. If you click a date in the Row Labels, you see the underlying date in the formula bar. Because the dates are different, each date is listed individually.

Group the Dates

Instead of formatting, you can group the dates in the pivot table to combine the data by month and year.

1. Right-click an OrderDate row label, and then in the context menu, click Group.

   

2. In the Grouping dialog box, in the By list, select Months and Years, and then click OK.

The orders will be grouped by year and month, showing a total of 38 for January 2010.

Calculate the Year and Month

Grouping can cause some problems in a pivot table, such as preventing you from using calculated items. If you don't want to using grouping, you could add a new column to the source data, and enter a formula that converts the dates to text. Then, all the dates that have the same year and month will calculate to the same text string.

In our example, the order dates are in column A.

1. Add a blank column to the source data table, with the heading YrMth.
2. In the cell below the heading, type the formula =TEXT(A2,”yyyy-mm”)
   
3. Copy the formula down to the last row of data in your table. (Note: If your data is in an Excel Table, the
   formula should fill down automatically.
4. Refresh the pivot table, so you can see the new YrMth field in the PivotTable Field List.
5. Add the YrMth field to the pivot table Row Labels area.
6. Remove the old OrderDate field from the pivot table layout.

The orders are grouped by year and month, showing a total of 38 for January 2010.

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You can group the dates in a pivot table in different increments, such as by year and quarter.

However, the grouping options are based on the calendar year, and there are no options for grouping pivot table dates by fiscal year. If you want to group the dates by your company’s fiscal year, which starts in July, there’s no built-in way to do that.

Fiscal Year Workaround

Because there’s no built-in option to group pivot table dates by fiscal year, you’ll have to use a workaround solution. In the pivot table source data, you can add a column with a formula that calculates the fiscal year, and then add that field to the pivot table.

For example, if your fiscal year starts in July, use the following formula to calculate the fiscal year, where the date is in cell A2:

=YEAR(A2)+(MONTH(A2)>=7)

The formula calculates the year of the date in cell A2. Then, it calculates the month of the date in cell A2, and checks to see if the month number is 7 or higher. If the month is less than 7, then zero will be added to the year, otherwise 1 will be added.

In the screenshot below, you can see the fiscal year formula for dates in June and July.

• The year for all the dates is 2010.
• For the June dates, the month is 6, which is less than 7. So, zero is added to the year, and the fiscal year is 2010.
• For the July dates, the month is 7, so 1 is added to the year, and the fiscal year is 2011.

Fiscal Quarter Workaround

If you also want to group the pivot table dates by the fiscal quarter, you can add another column to the pivot table source data. Use this formula to calculate the fiscal quarter, if the fiscal year starts in July.

=CHOOSE(MONTH(A2),3,3,3,4,4,4,1,1,1,2,2,2)

The Choose formula calculates the month of the date in cell A2. Based on the month number, the formula selects the appropriate fiscal quarter number from the numbers that follow. For example, if the month is June, the month number is 6. In the Choose formula, the sixth number is 4, so June is in fiscal quarter 4.

In the screenshot below, you can see the fiscal quarterformula for dates in June and July.

• For the June dates, the month is 6, and the sixth month in the Choose formula is 4, so June is in fiscal quarter 4.
• For the July dates, the month is 7, and the seventh month in the Choose formula is 1, so July is in fiscal quarter 1.

Add the Fiscal Dates to the Pivot Table

If you had grouped year and quarter dates in the pivot table, ungroup them and remove them.

Refresh the pivot table, and add the fiscal year and fiscal quarter fields to the Row Labels area.

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

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You can group pivot table data, as an easy way to see subtotals. For example, in a pivot table with sales order data, you can group the Order Date field by years and months, to quickly compare the sales totals each month, for a selected year.

In this pivot table example, we have sales data for six stores. Three of the stores are new, and opened in the past 12 months. The other 3 stores are older. You’re doing a presentation to the Board of Directors, and you’d like to compare the sales in the new stores to sales in the older stores.

The new stores are in:

• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• San Diego

The older stores are in:

• Boston
• New York
• Pittsburgh

To group the Order Date field, you clicked on one of the dates in the pivot table, then clicked Group Field on the Ribbon’s Option tab.

However, when you click a label in the City field, the Group Field command isn’t available, so you aren’t sure how to create the Old and New groups for the City field.

Group the Selected Items

The Group Field command is only available for date and number fields in the Row Labels or Column Labels area of the pivot table. Because the City names are entered as text, you can use a different method to group them.

1. Manually select the cities you want in the first group. To select nonadjacent cities, hold the Ctrl key, and then click the city names. In this example, we’ll select the cities with the new stores, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego.

   

2. With the city names selected, on the Ribbon’s Options tab, click Group Selection

   

Name the Group

This creates a new item in the City field, named Group1, with the selected cities listed under that heading. For each of the remaining cities, a heading is created, with its city name.

To change the name of the new group, click on the Group1 heading cell, and then type a name for the group, such as New Stores.

Group the Remaining Items

Next, you can group the remaining stores and name that group.

1. Select the remaining stores, and click the Group Selection command to group them.

   

2. Name the second group as Old Stores.

Alternative Method of Grouping

Instead of grouping the stores in the pivot table, you could add a StoreType field to the source data, and then enter Old or New for each record.

Next, add the new StoreType field as the first field in the Row Labels area. The city names will appear under the correct StoreType heading.

Watch the Excel Pivot Table Grouping Video

To see the steps in action, please watch this short Excel Pivot Table Grouping video.

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

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