How To Make a P&L with Pivot Tables in Google Sheets

[Kim Hopkins]

Hello! 

This is more of a spreadsheet question than a real estate theory question, but I'm asking this group since anyone who has tried to make a P&L this way will have run into this problem! 

Problem: How do you insert a calculated ROW into a pivot table in Google sheets?

In my example below, I have a pivot table from a financial database for multiple properties. The pivot table has rows for Income and Expenses by property (simplified for example), with the properties as columns.

I want to insert ROWS (not columns!) into the pivot table to calculate KPIs like Profit (= Income - Expense). (There are more complicated calculations but simplifying here for sake of example).

I know how to insert a Calculated Field, which provides a COLUMN with the specified formula. However, I can't figure out how to insert a calculated field that produces a ROW with a specified formula.

Example below.

Thank you in advance! 

Kim

Example Financial Database: 

Example Pivot Table: 

In the pivot table example above, I would want to add two calculated rows:

1. 1. The first would calculate the Net Operating Income (= Income Total - Expense Total). This would be a row inserted between rows 10 and 11 above.
2. 2. The second would calculate the Cash Flow (= Net Operating Income - Other Expense Total). This would be inserted after row 13. 

[Jeff S.]

You’re asking the wrong website, @Kim Hopkins. We have an Excel spreadsheet we use to evaluate loans, calculate returns, break-evens, create invoices, generate payoff demand letters, and lots more. It’s been a work in progress for many years and I constantly update it with some hard-learned Visual Basic (VBA).

I started using ChatGPT recently and it’s been amazing. As long as I can clearly explain what I want, ChatGPT instantly creates the VBA. It works 98% of the time. Modifications that might take me days now take an hour. It’s also fun.

I cut the problem you defined and pasted it into ChatGPT. Here’s the answer:

In Google Sheets, it is not possible to directly add a calculated row to a pivot table. However, you can use a workaround by adding a helper column to your source data and then use that column in your pivot table to create a calculated row.

Here are the steps:

1. Add a new column to your source data and label it "Profit".
2. In the first row of the "Profit" column, enter the formula to calculate profit for that row (e.g., "= Income - Expense").
3. Copy the formula down to all the other rows in the "Profit" column.
4. Refresh your pivot table to include the new "Profit" column.
5. In the pivot table, click on the drop-down arrow next to "Rows" and select "Create pivot group".
6. In the "Create pivot group" dialog box, enter a label for your new row (e.g., "Total Profit").
7. In the "Formula" section, enter the formula to calculate the total profit for all properties (e.g., "=SUM(Profit)").
8. Click "Create" to add the calculated row to your pivot table.

You should now have a calculated row in your pivot table that shows the total profit for all properties. You can repeat these steps to add additional calculated rows as needed. Note that any changes you make to the source data will be automatically reflected in the pivot table, including any updates to the helper column.

This makes me wonder how ChatGPT will change the lending business and real estate investing in general.