Excel: Practical Pivot Tables for Fast and Flexible Reporting

Pivot Tables are one of Excel’s most powerful and misunderstood tools but once you know how to use them, they can transform how you analyse and report on data. In just a few clicks, you can summarise thousands of rows into meaningful, dynamic reports – no formulas required.

This session will show you how to quickly create and customise Pivot Tables to reveal trends, answer questions, and support better decision-making. You’ll also discover how to turn your Pivot Table into a visual dashboard using built-in charting tools, slicers, and layout options.

If you’ve ever looked at a Pivot Table and thought, “I should really learn that”, this is your moment.

Why you should attend

Manually building summaries and reports from Excel data is time-consuming and error-prone. Pivot Tables eliminate the guesswork, automate the process, and give you instant insights. This session is perfect if you want to save time, reduce complexity, and finally get confident with one of Excel’s most powerful (but underused) features.

Topics covered

• How to structure your source data for best results
• Creating Pivot Tables in just a few clicks
• Summarising data with totals, counts, and percentages
• Formatting your Pivot Table for clarity and impact
• Sorting and filtering with built-in tools and slicers
• Visualising data using Pivot Charts
• Understanding and using (or avoiding) GETPIVOTDATA

Who should attend

This session is for anyone who wants to level up their Excel skills and gain confidence with Pivot Tables. It’s ideal for professionals in admin, finance, HR, operations, or anyone who builds regular reports.

You should be comfortable with basic Excel tasks like entering data, using copy/paste, and applying simple formatting.

The training is delivered using Excel for Windows (Microsoft 365), but most techniques also apply to earlier versions and Excel for Mac.