Is there anyone here who can do my excel homework? I've been staring at pivot tables for the past 3 hours and I'm about to throw my laptop out the window. My business analytics professor assigned this project where we need to analyze sales data using pivot tables, slicers, and conditional formatting. I've watched YouTube tutorials but still can't figure out how to get the pivot table to show what I need. Why is Excel so complicated?! Due tomorrow and I'm panicking 😓
What specifically are you struggling with in your pivot tables? I've used Excel a lot and might be able to help. Rather than having someone do my excel homework for me, I found it more useful to understand the concepts. Pivot tables seem complicated at first but they're actually super powerful once you get the hang of them.
What kind of analysis are you trying to do with your sales data? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.
@DarkWolfX Thanks for responding! I need to create a pivot table that shows quarterly sales by product category AND region, with a calculation for % of total. Then add slicers so you can filter by year and sales rep. Every time I try to add the second grouping (region), it messes up my whole layout. And I have no idea how to do the % of total calculation.
Here's what my data looks like:
- Date (daily sales for 2021-2022)
- Product Category (Furniture, Office Supplies, Technology)
- Region (North, South, East, West)
- Sales Rep Name
- Sale Amount
I just finished my excel homework help assignment on pivot tables last week! For your quarterly analysis, try this:
1. Select all your data and insert a pivot table
2. Drag "Date" to ROWS, but right-click it in the pivot table fields and select "Group" - then group by Quarters and Years
3. Drag "Product Category" to COLUMNS
4. Drag "Region" to either ROWS (below the date) or to FILTERS (if you want it as a filter)
5. Drag "Sale Amount" to VALUES
For % of total, click on any value in your pivot table, right-click and select "Show Values As" > "% of Grand Total"
For slicers, with your pivot table selected, go to Insert > Slicer and select Year and Sales Rep.
Does that help?
@Sophia_Frost OMG thank you! The grouping date fields tip was exactly what I needed. I didn't know about the "Show Values As" option either. Let me try implementing this now.
If you're still looking for help with excel homework, here's a trick I use for complex pivot tables: create separate pivot tables for different analyses instead of trying to cram everything into one table. You can then link them with slicers (just select multiple pivot tables when creating the slicer).
Also, for your % of total calculation, you might want to consider whether you want % of grand total or % of row/column totals - they give different insights. Right-click on your values, go to "Show Values As" and experiment with different options.
i was also struggling with pivot tables last semester! ended up checking out https://essays.studymoose.com/ for some excel homework help examples which really helped me understand the logic behind them.
one thing that helped me was realizing that the order of fields in the "rows" section matters a lot - it determines the hierarchy. so if you put date (grouped by quarter) first and then region, you'll get different results than if you put region first and then date.
Update: I've got the basic pivot table working now with quarters, product categories, and the % of total! The date grouping was key. Still struggling a bit with the slicers though - I added them but they're not filtering the way I expected.
@PixelN1nja That's a good point about the hierarchy. I'll play around with the order to see what makes most sense for the analysis.
For do my excel homework problems with slicers, make sure your slicers are actually connected to your pivot table. Sometimes Excel creates slicers that aren't connected to anything. Right-click the slicer, select "Report Connections" and check if your pivot table is selected.
Also, a quick tip about pivot tables that helped me: you can double-click on any aggregate value in your pivot table to drill down to the underlying data that makes up that value. Super helpful for debugging!
When I needed help with excel homework involving pivot tables, I created a checklist approach:
1. Start simple - just put one field in rows, one in values
2. Add complexity one step at a time (new fields, calculations, etc.)
3. Format after your structure is working (don't waste time making it pretty until it works)
For your specific homework, try adding a calculated field for "Quarter" instead of using the grouping feature. Go to "PivotTable Analyze" > "Fields, Items & Sets" > "Calculated Field". This gives you more control sometimes.
Also, check out the PapersOwl website - they have some good Excel tutorials that helped me understand pivot tables.
Here's a screenshot approach that helped me when I was looking for excel homework help with pivot tables. Create a "skeleton" of what you want:
1. Draw out on paper what you want your final pivot table to look like
2. Identify what goes in rows, columns, values, and filters
3. Build it step by step, comparing to your sketch
For your % of total issue, also consider if you need "% of Row Total" or "% of Column Total" rather than Grand Total - depends on what analysis you're trying to show. Right-click on your values field and explore the "Show Values As" options.
late to this thread but want to add that for do my excel homework for me situations, youtube has saved me SO many times. especially ExcelIsFun and Leila Gharani channels - they explain pivot tables way better than my professor ever did.
for your quarterly analysis, make sure your date field is actually formatted as dates in the source data. if excel sees them as text, the grouping won't work properly.
something that helped me with excel homework help for pivot tables was using the "tabular" layout instead of the default "compact" layout. in the design tab, look for "report layout" and try different options.
also, for your regional analysis, you might want to try putting product category in filters, and then do rows as date (grouped by quarter) and columns as region. sometimes flip-flopping the arrangement makes the data tell a different story!
For advanced help with excel homework on pivot tables, look into creating calculated fields. They're like formulas that work within your pivot table.
PivotTable Tools > Analyze > Fields, Items & Sets > Calculated Field
Also, don't forget that you can create pivot charts directly from your pivot table to visualize the data. This often impresses professors and gets you extra points!
Another resource worth checking is edubirdie - they have some great Excel tutorials that break down pivot tables step by step.
I tutor Excel, and here's my advice for anyone who needs do my excel homework help with pivot tables:
1. Make sure your source data has no blank rows or columns
2. Every column should have a header
3. Data should be "clean" (consistent formatting, no merged cells)
These issues cause 90% of pivot table problems.
For slicers, try this trick: right-click the slicer and select "Slicer Settings." Under "Slicer Caption," you can rename it to something more user-friendly. Also change the number of columns to make it more compact.