Sometimes when you add fields to the Values area of a pivot table, they appear as Count of Field instead of Sum of Field. In the screen shot below, the Quantity field shows the COUNT, and the TotalPrice field shows the SUM.

COUNT Summary Function

The COUNT summary function is the default if a field in the pivot table’s source data contains blank cells, or cells with text. For example, in a column of invoice dates, someone might have mistyped a month name, so it isn’t recognized as a valid date. Or, in a column of sales quantities, you might have typed “N/A”, instead of a number, or maybe you left a blank cell to fill in later.

In these cases, where the source column contains blank cells or text, the summary function defaults to Count; otherwise, it defaults to Sum.

Change the Summary Function

You can manually change the summary function from Count to Sum, after the Values fields have been added. Or, to make things easier, you can run a macro to change the summary function.

This sample macro changes all the Values fields in the first pivot table on the active sheet to use the Sum function (xlSum). The code refers to the pivot table by index number (1), instead of using a specific name ("PivotTable1"), and that makes the macro more flexible.

You can type this code on a regular code module in your workbook, and run it when you want to change the summary functions for all the Value fields.

Download the Sample File

You can download the Excel 2007 file with the Change Summary Function to Sum sample code.

The SumAllValueFields macro is stored on the modPivot code module in the sample file. You can run the macro in the sample file, or copy the Excel VBA code to a regular code module in another workbook, and run it there.

Pivot Table Add-in

Another option is to use my free pivot table add-in, that already has the summary function code in it. There’s a feature that changes all the Value fields to SUM, or any other summary function that you’d prefer. For example, you can change all the field to AVERAGE or COUNT, instead of SUM.

1. After you download and install the pivot table add-in, select any cell in the pivot table.
2. Then, on the Ribbon’s Add-Ins tab, click the Pivot drop down.
3. Click Data Fields, then click the Summary function that you want to use. All the Value fields in the selected pivot table will change to that summary function

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

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