Don't create formulas

It is very common to see users add percentage formulas out of the pivot table.

For example here, to calculate the percentage for each country, we have created the following formula.

=GETPIVOTDATA("Total",$A$3,"Country",A4)/GETPIVOTDATA("Total",$A$3)

This technique is wrong because when you will refresh your pivot table, the references of the cells will change. And then: the result won't be correct.

How to add percentage in a pivot table?

Adding percentage to a pivot table it's very easy and doesn't need a formula.

1. Drag and drop the same field 2 times

2. Click on the arrow (on the left of the field)
3. Select the option Value Field Settings

4. In the dialog box, select the tab Show Values As

5. Then, in the dropdown list, you select % of Grand Total

AND THAT'S ALL ! 😀😎

Percentage parent

But, if your pivot table presents a hierarchy between your data, the calculation of the percentage could be inaccurate.

For instance, in this example, you have a pivot table for the categories and the sub-categories. We have 2 columns: the sales and the percentage.

In this situation, the option % of Grand Total is correct only for the first level.

When you expand the sub-levels, you can see that the percentages don't represent 100% of the previous level

But you can correct this situation by changing the option of calculation mode in the pivot table. Instead of % of Grand Total, you select % of Parent total.

And you select the upper-level field representing the Grand Total

Then, each sub-level represents 100% of the previous level 😀👍

Related articles about the Percentage

• What is the formula to calculate the percentage of increase or decrease?
• How to add percentages to the chart's data labels?
• How to add filter options to all your pivot table columns?