David Carter's series of Five Minute Tips aims to develop your skill at using Excel pivot tables. To test these formating tips for yourself, try them out on your copy of the pivot_practice.xls ...

Whenever I add a field to a pivot table the default summary function is to count rather than sum (I rarely want to count). Is it possible to change the default summary function from count to sum to ...

Robert L. wins a copy of Excel Gurus Gone Wild for his question, “How can you change a pivot table filter using a formula?” This is a tough question. Whether you are using the Report Filter or the new ...

A pivot table created from a well-formed dataset will automatically sum the numeric fields. When you have a pivot table that counts instead of sums, it is caused by one of three reasons.

Now, Google Sheets is making it easier to pick the right formula by using machine learning to give a collection of suggested formulas based on the data being used.

For example, they can type “what is the sum of revenue by salesperson?” and Sheets will suggest the best pivot table to find the answer to that question.