Why use Pivot Tables for tracking expenses for a budget

1) Track expenses in an efficient manner2) Ability to spot alarming trends in expenses3) Identify Year-To-Date expenses for types and $

paid to vendors4) Other budget analysis functions pivot tables can do

1.1) Track expenses in an efficient mannerThe below tables both show $ expenses for Types( Car Related etc ) for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. How they function is quite different. In the Non-Pivot Table(NPT), summation formulas have to used to add individual rows and columns. 2009’s total, for example, is Sum( B6:B14). If cell B13 is typed instead the total will be wrong. If another Type is added below Utilities by cutting and pasting, the Sum formula will not adjust for it. The total will still be B6:B14. The same type of error can occur for any row or column. The NPT, furthermore, requires manual addition or deletion of a row/column along with entering any new formulas. The Pivot Table, in contrast, adjusts it’s internal formulas to calculate totals. The Grand Totals and cross total can NOT be wrong. This adjusting also applies to other type of calculations such as %s. The Pivot Table, furthermore, does not need manual row or column changes. More about this on the next slide. The user just has to click “Refresh” for the Pivot table to apply adjustments .

Non Pivot Table P I v o t T a b l e

Row/Col A B C D E Amt $ Year      

  2009 2010 2011  Type 2009 2010 2011 Grand Total

Type $ Amt $ Amt $ Amt Total Car Related 1,394 1,735 1,689 4,818

6 Car Related 1,394 1,735 1,689 4,818 Fun 274 199 244 717

7 Fun 274 199 244 717 General 310 373 329 1,012

8 General 310 373 329 1,012 Grocery 1,188 1,257 1,088 3,533

9 Grocery 1,188 1,257 1,088 3,533 Home Repair 253 108 141 502

10 Home Repair 253 108 141 502 Insurance 294 300 80 674

11 Insurance 294 300 80 674 Medical 188 70 9 267

12 Medical 188 70 9 267 Tax 1,575 1,615 1,399 4,589

13 Tax 1,575 1,615 1,399 4,589 Utilities 1,046 1,002 873 2,921

14 Utilities 1,046 1,002 873 2,921 Grand Total 6,522 6,659 5,852 19,033

Grand Total 6,522 6,659 5,852 19,033

1.2) Track expenses in an efficient mannerThe information table shown is organized by Year, Month, Type, Paid-To and Amount categories. The information being together in the same table is needed for the Pivot table to calculate the amount totals and percentages. Even though the Paid-To “Sunoco “and “Threshold …” rows are not next to each other, the pivot table will find them for Type “Car Related” calculations. There is not a need to use the function LookUp to find them or a Sum formula to add them. The pivot table, furthermore, allows row and column selection. If Type “Fun “is not wanted then the pivot table will not show a row for it and adjust all total and percentage calculations. Which Types desired for the pivot table are selected by a drop down list. ( The prompt ) There is no need to either highlight and delete the “Fun “ row or change any formulas.

P   Year Values    

I   2011 2010 

V Type $ Amt Amt % $ Amt Amt %

O Car Related 1,689 28% 1,735 25%

T Fun 244 4% 198 3%

General 352 6% 379 6%

T Grocery 1,095 18% 1,267 18%

A Home Repair 141 2% 108 2%

B Insurance 174 3% 478 7%

L Medical 9 0% 67 1%

E Tax 1,399 23% 1,615 24%

Utilities 873 15% 1,002 15%

Grand Total 5,976 100% 6,849 100%

Year Month Type Paid To Amount

I 2011 10 Utilities Citizens Communication 3

N 2011 10 Utilities Dish Network 18

F 2011 10 Utilities Spot Talk 2

O 2011 10 Utilities PeoplePC 6

R 2011 10 Utilities R G & E 20

M 2011 10 Utilities Village of Asgard (Electric) 10

A 2011 10 Utilities Village of Asgard (Water) 15

T 2011 10 Car Related Threshold Credit Union 80

I 2011 10 Tax Asgard School Tax 265

O 2011 10 General Pet Friendly 10

N 2011 10 Car Related Sunoco 20

2011 10 Grocery ALDI 43

2011 10 Grocery Tops 22

2.1) Ability to spot alarming trends in expenses

Comparing YTD 2009 and 2010 expenses (blue line), expenses decreased from $5,384 to $5,296. There was a $88 improvement from Jan - Oct. Comparing 2010 and 2011 YTD expenses there was an $486 increase in expenses. If this YTD difference(red line) continues then 2011 expenses will likely exceed 2010 expenses. Why improvement for 2009-2010 and the opposite for 2010-2011 ?

YTD Expenses Var Jan-Oct    Values  Year Month Amt $ Amt Diff

2009 5,384 2010 5,296 (88)2011  5,852 468

2009 2010 2011

Amt $ 5384 5296 5852

Amt Diff NaN -88 468

-500

500

1,500

2,500

3,500

4,500

5,500

6,500

YTD Expenses Var Jan-Oct

$ Am

ount

2.2) Ability to spot alarming trends in expenses

The Accumulative YTD Pivot Table further shows the $486 increase from slide 1.2.1 being a concern. 2011 accumulated expenses(Green line) exceed those of 2010(Red line) by the end of June. 2011 expenses stay above 2010 expenses through Oct. If 2010 expenses are considered a budget, then 2011 expenses are OVER the budget. 2010 expenses, in contrast, stay close to the 2009 expenses (Blue line) for the entire 10 months and within a 2009 budget. What are the specific expenses that caused the 2011 situation ?

Accumulative YTD  Amt $ Year    Month 2009 2010 2011

1 488 391 3762 1,488 1,258 1,139

3 2,126 1,763 1,7824 2,470 2,441 2,2745 2,846 2,813 2,8316 3,455 3,310 3,3957 3,779 3,919 4,2378 4,115 4,189 4,7339 4,677 4,733 5,338

10 5,384 5,296 5,852

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2009 488 1488 2126 2470 2846 3455 3779 4115 4677 5384

2010 391 1258 1763 2441 2813 3310 3919 4189 4733 5296

2011 376 1139 1782 2274 2831 3395 4237 4733 5338 5852

500

1,500

2,500

3,500

4,500

5,500

Accumulative YTD

$ Am

oun

t

2.3) Ability to spot alarming trends in expenses

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

2009 488 1000 638 344 376 609 324 336 562 707 559 579

2010 391 867 505 678 372 497 609 270 544 563 719 644

2011 376 763 643 492 557 564 842 496 605 514 NaN NaN

100

300

500

700

900

1,100

Year Expenses by Month

$ Am

ount

The Accumulated Expenses slide showed clearly that by July’s end expenses are above those of 2010. This slide further illustrates that 2011 July and August expenses are above those of 2010. What are the specific expenses that caused the 2011 situation ?

The type expenses that caused the 2011 situation are shown by the YTD Expenses pivot tables. The green bars show that Types “Car Related”($205), “General”($167) and “Fun”($76) had the most increases from 2010 to 2011. Since “Fun” is the most controllable, the question becomes what vendors expenses caused the other spikes.

3.1) Year-To-Date expenses for types and who $ paid-to

Car Re-

lated

Fun Gen-eral

Gro-cery

Home Re-pair

In-suran

ce

Med-ical

Tax Utili-ties

2009

1182 269 251 994 253 74 177 1325 859

2010

1484 168 162 1039 108 80 61 1355 839

2011

1689 244 329 1088 141 80 9 1399 873

100

300

500

700

900

1,100

1,300

1,500

1,700

YTD Expenses by Type

$ Am

ount

Car Re-

lated

Fun Gen-eral

Gro-cery

Home Re-pair

In-suran

ce

Med-ical

Tax Utili-ties

2009

NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN NaN

2010

302 -101 -89 45 -145 6 -116 30 -20

2011

205 76 167 49 33 0 -52 44 34

-150

-50

50

150

250

350

YTD Expenses by Type Variances

$ Am

ount

3.2) Year-To-Date expenses for types and who $ paid-to

Car Re-lated

AAA

Car Re-lated

Bob Kaiser

Car Re-lated

Kwik

Fill

Car Re-lated

Mobil

Car Re-lated

NYS -

DMV

Car Re-lated

Sunoco

Car Re-lated

Thres-hold

Sav-ings Ban

k

General AARP

General ABVI Goodwill

General As-gard

Dog Grommer

General Barnes & Noble

General Ben Franklin

General Canel

Pet Sho

p

General CVS

General JC

Penny

General Knights of Columbus

General Koh

ls

General Lisa's

Dance

General Lowe's

General Macy's

General Of-fice max

General Pet Friendly

General Petsmart

General R.I.T.

General Sam's Club

General Town of

Brighton

General US Pos

t Of-fice

General Wal Mart

General As-gard

Veteri-nar-ian

2009

50 144 50 25 NaN

113 800 5 2 30 NaN

NaN

11 8 38 NaN

30 NaN

NaN

NaN

NaN

NaN

NaN

8 15 29 2 23 50

2010

50 415 54 NaN

17 148 800 NaN

NaN

30 6 2 10 6 NaN

8 NaN

20 NaN

20 21 7 3 2 NaN

NaN

3 NaN

24

2011

52 644 51 4 NaN

138 800 NaN

NaN

15 NaN

NaN

NaN

NaN

19 8 NaN

NaN

21 10 2 39 5 NaN

15 NaN

3 NaN

192

50150250350450550650750850

YTD Expenses by Type and Who $ Paid-To

$ A

mo

un

t

The two vendors that show significant expense increases for 2010 to 2011(Green bar) are Bob Kaiser($229) and Asgard Veterinarian($168). The bars show that expenses for the other vendors varied little or are under $50. Notice that Threshold Savings Bank’s expenses are quite high. The bank expenses are due to monthly car payments and expected. Whatever caused the Bob Kaiser and Asgard Veterinarian expenses are NOT normal compared to the other vendors. The next question is what the $ was spent for. They were likely unavoidable and need to be identified. This leaves the question could other expenses be adjusted for finishing the year on budget.

3.3) Year-To-Date expenses for types and who $ paid-to

Sam's ClubKwik Fill

Pleasure LanesThor Tax Service

AAACitizens Communication

PeoplePCState Farm Cars

Village of Asgard (Electric)Village of Asgard (Water)

Lowe'sSunoco

Village of AsgardDish Network

Asgard VetinarianTops

R G & EAsgard School Tax

Bob KaiserTown and County Tax Bill

Threshold Credit Union (Chev)ALDI

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

5151515252

6267

80849299

138140

178192196

368530

644677

800847

Top 20 Expenses for Jan-Oct 2011

Total

Besides the previous YTD slides, another way to spot alarming expenses is by what are the 2011 top expenses. Expenses such as ALDI, RG&E, Tops, and Threshold(car payment) are usual monthly expenses and should be high for 10 months. The Bob Kaiser and Asgard Vetinarian expenses, however, indicate unusual activity. One is greater than the school tax and the other almost as much as Top groceries.

4.0) Other budget analysis functions pivot tables can do

$ Amt   Year Month                    2011 2011 TotalType Paid To 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Car Related 93 151 124 103 111 101 560 249 97 100 1,689Fun 25 44 31 26 34 25 38 21 244General 5 61 169 13 18 38 15 10 329Grocery ALDI 91 83 85 103 98 98 70 95 81 43 847  Sam's Club 7 3 8 4 6 8 36  Tops 20 25 14 22 19 35 18 9 21 22 205Home Repair 21 15 27 77 1 141Insurance State Farm Cars 80 80Medical 4 5 9Tax 337 222 170 140 265 265 1,399Utilities Citizens Communication 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 8 3 62  Dish Network 16 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 178  PeoplePC 4 6 6 6 6 6 15 6 6 6 67  R G & E 60 70 47 50 31 21 25 20 24 20 368  Spot Talk 2 3 1 3 3 1 2 3 2 2 22  Village of Asgard (Electric) 10 9 8 8 7 10 3 8 11 10 84  Village of Asgard (Water) 23 27 27 15 92Grand Total   376 763 643 492 557 564 842 496 605 514 5,852

The above pivot table shows expenses for Types and Paid-To Vendors by Month. The pivot table also shows rows and column totals. Which Types, Vendors and Months are completely selective. In this table selection, the vendor detail is shown for Groceries and Utilities from Jan-Oct 2010. Any of the Types could be expanded for detail or collapsed not to show detail. The months, furthermore, can be confined to March, June and September if only quarter trends are desired. In summary, the pivot table can isolate which month(s) a type and vendor expense occurred. The pivot table’s column/row totals can also verify totals shown on the previous chart.