A spreadsheet summary that groups rows by one or more fields and totals a value for each group.
A pivot table is a spreadsheet feature, in Excel and Google Sheets, that turns a long list of rows into a summary. You choose fields for rows and columns and a value to total, count or average, and the pivot table groups the data without any formulas. It is the most common way finance and sales teams turn an export into a report.
Each cell is an aggregate, usually a sum, of every source row that matches its row and column labels. The grand total equals the aggregate of the whole source range.
An export of 1,200 invoice lines totaling $700,000 is pivoted by region: East $410,000 and West $290,000. The two add back to $700,000, which is the check that no rows were dropped.
A source range that stops short of new rows, so last week's invoices are missing, and a pivot that is not refreshed after the data changes. Blank or misspelled labels split one group into two. Always tie the grand total back to the source. The step-by-step guide is pivot table in Excel.