What Is A Pivot Chart In Excel? An Expert Tutorial For Data Analysis

If you handle large data sets in Excel, you need to know pivot charts.

Pivot charts provide interactive, graphical summaries of your data. With just a few clicks, you can go from thousands of granular data points to a high-level view in the shape of bars, lines and slices.

I‘m going to show you exactly how to create and customize pivot charts for your own reporting needs.

By the end, you’ll be able to simplify massive data sets into sharp, insightful charts that update dynamically. This guide will make you a pivot chart pro!

Here‘s what we‘ll cover:

  • What Are Pivot Charts?
  • Pivot Charts vs. Pivot Tables
  • When To Use Pivot Charts
  • Step-By-Step Guide To Build Pivot Charts
  • Customizing and Formatting Pivot Charts
  • Using Slicers And Timelines
  • Refreshing And Changing Data
  • Best Practices From The Experts

Let‘s get started!

What Is A Pivot Chart In Excel?

A pivot chart is an interactive Excel chart connected to a pivot table. It dynamically displays a graphical summary of your pivot table data to bring out key insights.

Pivot charts allow fast data exploration using on-the-fly filtering, drilling down into details and visualizing patterns across different chart layouts.

Here‘s an example pivot chart summarizing sales per region over time:

sample pivot chart

A pivot chart showing regional sales trends

The key capabilities of pivot charts include:

  • Interactive – Charts update when pivot table filters or data changes
  • Customizable – Flexible drag and drop builder with various chart layouts
  • Analysis – Spot trends, outliers and patterns in visual format
  • Presentation – Impress and convince with on-the-fly chart pivoting
  • Scalable – Summarize millions of granular records into key metrics

Next let‘s distinguish pivot charts from their data source – pivot tables.

Pivot Charts vs Pivot Tables: Key Differences

Since pivot charts draw data from related pivot tables, it‘s helpful to understand how these two tools differ:

table {
font-size: 15px;
}

**Pivot Chart** **Pivot Table**
**Format** Interactive graphs with various visualizations like bars, lines, pies etc. Tabular view with rows, columns and summary metrics
**Purpose** Visual data analysis, trends and pattern identification Data summarization and tabulation
**Interactivity** Change chart type, axis, data on the fly Sort, filter table data dynamically
**Customization** Titles, labels, styling, color palettes and more Number formatting, layouts, summarize values

While pivot tables prepare data through tabulation and aggregation, pivot charts help you visualize the prepared data.

Together they make an extremely powerful analysis workflow – pivot tables for data modeling, pivot charts for graphical visualization.

This is why experts recommend building pivot tables first and then charting off them later. Now let‘s see prime situations where pivot charts excel.

When Should You Use Pivot Charts?

Here are common use cases where pivot charts are invaluable:

1. Business Dashboards

Dashboards give managers real-time visibility into KPIs. By dropping slicers into pivot charts, you enable self-service reporting. Users filter on regions, products etc. and charts update automatically without manual chart creation.

dashboard with pivot chart slicers

Slicers enable interactive dashboards

According to Microsoft, over 50% of Fortune 500 companies use Excel dashboards with pivot charts for data-driven decisions and monitoring.

2. Data Analysis and Modeling

Pivot charts allow spotting trends, comparisons, outliers and patterns through different views rapidly during analysis. You can iteratively deep dive into details using drill-downs and drill-throughs.

Charts help answer questions like – which product has declining sales? How do margins compare yearly? What customer segment is growing fastest?

3. Sales and Marketing Reporting

Reporting metrics by region, channel, segments and time periods is a prime scenario for pivot charts. Sales teams can analyze product or campaign performance through intelligent pivot chart reports instead of static grids.

For example, see YoY sales for different customer tiers:

sales report pivot chart

This enables data-backed decision making and strategy planning rather than intuitions.

As you can see, reporting, dashboards and analytics are areas where pivot charts bring tremendous value in transforming data into insights. The use cases are endless but it revolves around interactive analysis and presentation of large datasets.

Now let’s switch gears and walk through building pivot charts from A to Z.

How To Build A Pivot Chart Step-By-Step

Follow along as we create an interactive pivot chart from scratch:

Step 1: Import Or Prepare Your Data Set

Start by importing your data source. The data must be clean, structured and formatted as an Excel table.

Here‘s an example with sales data:

prepare data for pivot chart

Ensure column headers are descriptive as they become the fields for analysis.

Step 2: Create A Pivot Table

With data ready, insert a pivot table. Drag fields into filter, column, row and value areas to prepare the data summary.

I put Order Date and Region in Columns and Rows respectively. Total Price becomes my aggregate value metric.

build pivot table

This gives me a summary table of sales aggregated by date and region.

Step 3: Generate The Pivot Chart

Go to Insert > PivotChart and pick the chart you want visualizing this data. I‘ll select a column chart since I want to compare across Time and Region.

insert pivot chart

Hit OK and the connected pivot chart is created, linked dynamically to the pivot table!

new pivot chart

Now anytime the pivot table filters or data changes, the chart visually updates. Let‘s customize this further.

Customizing And Formatting Pivot Charts

The real power comes from tailoring pivot charts exactly to your analysis and branding needs.

Use the Analyze, Design and Format tabs to:

  • Switch row and column axes
  • Change chart types
  • Edit titles, labels legends and more
  • Apply color palettes
  • Insert calculated fields
  • Build drill-down reports
  • And much more

Switch Rows And Columns

Swap axes with one click to reorient your perspective:

switch row column pivot chart

This flexibility in analysis is invaluable.

Change Visualizations

Morph between chart types like pies, lines and more:

change pivot chart types

Finding the right visual best revealing insights.

Apply Styles And Branding

Make reports polished, professional and on-brand:

apply styles and branding to pivot chart

formats, colors and element placement.

The options are vast enabling data visualizations tailored to any business need or audience.

Next let’s make our charts more interactive…

Using Slicers And Timelines For Interactive Reporting

Slicers and Timelines bring pivot chart analysis to life:

slicers and timelines for pivot chart

With slicers, your audience can filter regions, products etc. on the fly through buttons during presentations.

Timelines make period-based filtering intuitive through a visual date range selector.

Let’s add a region slicer:

insert region slicer for pivot chart

Now slide between regions to instantly view performance:

filter pivot chart with slicer

This self-service interactivity turns static charts into live dashboards!

Having covered the pivot chart fundamentals, let’s consolidate some pro tips…

Expert Best Practices For Pivot Charts

Here are 5 golden rules I‘ve gleaned from Excel gurus on working with pivot charts:

1. Build The Pivot Table First

Since charts draw data from pivot tables, start by getting your pivot table right. Summarize the data before visualizing it.

2. Apply The Right Chart Type

Pick charts that best clarify the analysis goal – columns and bars for comparisons, lines for trends, pies for proportions etc.

3. Use Slicers For Interactivity

Slicers, timelines and drill-downs turn static charts interactive. Make your analysis exploratory.

4. Format For Your Audience

Use styles, data labels, titles and other format options suited to your stakeholders. Design for decisions.

5. Automate Refreshes

Connect your data to Power Pivot, SQL Server Analysis Services or Power BI to enable automatic refresh.

Now that you’re a pivot chart expert, let’s wrap up with some key takeaways.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Here are the core things to remember:

  • What are pivot charts – Interactive visualizations of pivot table data used to identify insights.
  • When to use – Reporting, dashboards and data analysis scenarios dealing with large data sources.
  • How to create – Insert pivot chart from existing pivot table or data range.
  • Customizations – Tailor and skin pivot charts with various styles, fields and controls.
  • Best practices – Start with the pivot table, choose the right visuals and use slicers.

For next steps, learn how to:

I hope this pivot chart tutorial paves the way for you to analyze data more intuitively and convincingly using Excel.

Now over to you – how do you plan to use pivot charts for your business needs? I‘d love to hear in the comments section below!

Read More Topics