Topic 1: Excel charts

Table used:

Year
Items 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Toothpaste 20,000 23,543 23,875 24,999 27,876 28,768 29,987 32,789 35,786 37,232 40,000
Soap 16,777 18,345 19,543 21,456 23,876 24,999 26,345 27,231 28,987 31,457 33,987
Tea leaves 10,000 11,675 13,435 14,723 16,234 17,896 19,342 20,777 22,651 21,444 23,000
Footwear 40,000 43,789 44,675 46,789 48,999 53,212 55,123 56,678 58,765 61,111 64,098
Stationery 13,433 15,756 17,432 20,000 22,001 23,003 25,909 26,801 27,021 29,435 30,110

Question 1) How to create a chart to compare the sales across multiple categories?

Ans. Creating a chart is a two-step process :

Step 1: Go to the insert tab and select the recommended charts function

Step 2: Depending on the values you want to compare, choose the corresponding chart. For the
above table, we want a pictorial representation which compares the sales of all products over all the
years. Thus the resulting chart obtained is :

Chart Title
70,000

60,000

50,000

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Toothpaste Soap Tea leaves Footwear Stationery

Question 2) Create a chart which depicts the market share of the various products only for the
year 2010. Also create a chart which compares the sales only between Soaps, Tea leaves and
Toothpaste.

Ans. In this case, we have to select only the Items column and the column for the year 2010. As in
the first answer we go to the Insert tab and then choose whatever representation we want to show.
For the sake of variation, we have chosen a pie chart in this case.

To change the name of the chart double click on the Chart title and then type your heading. Legend
names can be changed in the same way.

The final output is as follows :

Sales comparision for 2010

Toothpaste Soap Tea leaves Footwear Stationery

Instead of comparing all five products if we want to compare lesser number of products( In this case
: Soaps , Tea leaves and tooth paste) then we have to follow these steps:

1) Right click on the chart you want to change

2) Select the Select Data option
3) Choose only those items that you want compared

Sales comparision for 2010

Toothpaste Soap Tea leaves

Question 3) How to make the charts more comprehensive? For eg. Add percentage values to each
legend?

Ans. Steps:

1) Right click on the chart

2) Choose the Add data labels option
3) Then right click again and choose the format data labels option
4) Choose whichever format you want, in this case its percentage

The output comes as follows :

Sales comparision for 2010

13%
20%

17%

40%

10%

Toothpaste Soap Tea leaves Footwear Stationery

 Topic 2: Pivot tables
Table used:

Question 1) Use the pivot table to display the region wise distribution of sales by ABC corporation.

Steps :
 1. Create pivot table
2. Put Regions in the column field
3. Put Items in the row field
4. Put units in the sum field
5. The values obtained will show you the region wise distribution

Sum of Units Column Labels

Row Labels Central East West Grand Total

Binder 424 234 64 722

Desk 7 3 10

Pen 27 175 76 278

Pen Set 243 152 395

Pencil 498 130 88 716

Grand Total 1199 691 231 2121

Question 2) What is the amount of revenue generated region-wise by each rep per quarter?

Ans. To show the revenue generation of sales reps per quarter :

1) Add the Quarters option to the row field

2) Add the Rep option to the row field

3) Add the Unit cost option to the sum field

4) Add the Region option to the column field

The answer shows up as follows :

Question 3) What is the total region-wise sales per item during academic season only?

Ans. To solve this question we have to use filters features

1) Put the date option into the filters section

2) Choose only academic months (June-March). April and May is vacation time
3) Put unit cost in the sum field
4) Put region in the rows field

The answer is as follows: