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Thomas Zucker-ScharffFlag for United States of America

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Need help with pivot table in excel workbook

I have an excel spreadsheet that tracks usage on our Konica/Minolta Bizhub c654e.  I have a pivot table in the spreadsheet that use to work, but after I added a new user, it no longer works.  I used to be able to just set the data to the new source table and it displayed correctly.  I would prefer to automate this as much as possible.  

ADDED: I forgot to add I tried recreating the Pivot Table, but either I completely forgot how to do this or it was unsuccessful for another reason.

I have attached the spreadsheet I use.  I would prefer to do this using a database but our security team is no longer allowing MS Access (which is easiest for me) on our network.

Currently, I do the following at the beginning of each month:
  • download the usage file from the copier
  • import the usage stats into excel
  • format usage stats as a table
  • rename new tab to the current date
  • copy usage stats to a tab called "current"
  • go to the pivot table tab (named "Pivot Table of Usage") and change the data source to the new table

What am I doing wrong? How do I fix this and make it easier?

Konica usage all copy.xlsx

Avatar of Tom Farrar
Tom Farrar
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Your spreadsheet is password protected.  But I can tell you this right of the bat, you need to look into Excel Power Query functionality.  It is made to automate the download process.  
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Sorry - forgot about the password - here is an unencrypted version.
Konica usage all copy.xlsx
The first thing for a pivot table is to get the data formatted correctly.  The columns should be pivoted to one column.  See what I did on the "current tab" (below your data) using Power Query.  I didn't need to bring the data in as a table, but did so to show you how the data should be formatted as I see it.  Also let me know what about the pivot table didn't work for you.

Konica-usage-all-copy (1).xlsx
Don't freak out on the totals in the pivot table as I see you have some totals in the data.  The formatting concept still holds.
This is what the data looks like when I take out any usage category with "Total" in the name.  Still may not be right, but moving in the right direction.  If you need totals by some categorization of usage type (ex. paper, fax, etc) then it would be easy to add a table to the query showing the usage type (ignoring totals) and what category it goes in...
Oops...  Forgot to add the file.

Konica-usage-all-copy (1).xlsx
@ Tom Farrar,
I am not quite sure what you did.  I see that you 
  • inserted 2 columns
  • looks like the data was transformed
  • pivot table looks like the account name and the overall total
I tried looking at Power Pivot, but am somewhat confused.  I'll have to look further into it.  It does look like it might be able to automate the tasks I want to be done each 1st of the month.
Notice that my tab "Pivot table of usage (2)" was my attempt to get the pivot table to work with the later data.
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Tom Farrar
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Thanks for the explanation.  I am unclear how this will work going forward.  Do I still import the data from the downloaded text file to the excel spreadsheet, then copy it to the current tab, and the rest will be done for me?
The problem with your pivot table of usage (2) is you are trying to sum values that are text, and also I don't think you want your source to be "current", you want it to be the table name on the current tab Table7376.
okay - thanks I didn't realize that I had done either.
So it looks like you didn't just transform the data from rows to columns it also is transformed from text to numbers?
You said:
Thanks for the explanation.  I am unclear how this will work going forward.  Do I still import the data from the downloaded text file to the excel spreadsheet, then copy it to the current tab, and the rest will be done for me?

In theory, yes.  If you paste the new data over the old, the query should work as built.  But you got to remember the steps I took in the query, like taking out zero values (didn't add anything) and filtering out "Total" in the usage type column.  If these are valid steps, then I believe the totals by person are correct.  But someone should validate that.  And, by the way, the pivot table will need to be refreshed (right click, "refresh") after the table is updated by Power Query.  Unfortunately (though not a big deal) the pivot table does not update with the table.
Also, I think you might consider getting more familiar with Power Query and what it can do for you going forward.

Thanks for the points....
Yes, when I took it into Power Query it made the assumption they were numbers, though I could have made that change within Power Query if need be.
When I go into excel I can easily enough get Power Pivot, data streamer and inquire.  I also enabled Power Map and Power view, but I don't see Power Query.
What version of Excel are you using? 
I do sometimes see that orange query wizard when I import data
That is most likely it.  Don't know where you are importing from, but normally you would get there by Data>Get Data>From File (Or whatever the source).
that is what I am doing.  Although the text file itself has text at the top of each column so it detected it as text, not numbers.  I had to change that manually.
Thanks again I'll look at it.