Why I Don't Use Pivot Tables for Deliverables (And How It's Helped My Career)

I Don't Hate Pivot Tables in Excel

Let me be clear: I don't hate pivot tables in Excel. They're a wonderful tool for rapid slicing and dicing of data. They're great for exploration.

What I don't like is using pivot tables as deliverables.

The Career Lesson I Learned the Hard Way

Early in my career, I was delivering analyses to a CFO. I would quickly whip up some pivot tables and send them over.

It became very quickly apparent that this was not well received.

It wasn't because the pivot tables didn't answer the question or provide insights. It was because they were lazy. I was whipping something up too quickly without putting thought into it—and certainly no thought into the presentation layer.

This wasn't something the CFO would have been comfortable taking to the CEO. Honestly, I shouldn't have been comfortable presenting it to him.

Now, as a CFO myself, when I receive something that looks like a raw pivot table—something somebody just didn't put any effort into—the buck stops there.

The Magic of Building Your Brand

Here's one of the most magical things that can happen in your career: people start to discover your work.

Everyone talks about building your personal brand on LinkedIn and social media. Not enough people talk about building your brand within your company.

Think about it like your reputation—but there's also branding there. The work you produce? People know it. People see it.

They know what work from Jill looks like. They know what work from Steve looks like. They know what work from you looks like.

If all you're doing is producing pivot tables, people get that. "Oh, if I ask her for something, I just get a pivot table. That's what I get."

The likelihood that your work will ever go beyond that sphere? Slim to none.

When Your Work Reaches the CEO's Desk

If you start putting effort into refining your end product—into creating a brand for yourself—that's when your work starts ending up on the desk of the CEO, the CFO, the COO, the decision makers.

People of influence see it and go: "Wow, this looks great. Who did this? Can we ask them to do X or Y?"

But if all you're doing is spinning off pivot tables? The likelihood of that happening is pretty low.

The Practical Problem with Pivot Tables

Beyond the career implications, there's a practical problem: pivot tables are static.

They query the data and produce an output. Great. But when your underlying data changes, you have to manually refresh.

I've seen this play out badly:

Data gets updated
Dynamic formulas update automatically
Pivot table stays two steps behind
Someone makes a decision on stale data

With dynamic array functions, conditional formatting, and custom formulas, your data is live. It updates on the fly. No refresh button needed.

When Pivot Tables Make Sense

I do use pivot tables. Just not for deliverables.

Use pivot tables for:

Rapid exploration: You're on a call, someone asks a question, you need a number fast
Quick prototyping: You're trying to understand your data before building something formal
Sanity checks: You want to verify your formulas are producing correct results

But when it's time to hand something off? Build a proper schedule.

The Time Investment Myth

People think building custom schedules takes longer than pivot tables.

Here's the reality: it takes about the same amount of time to format a pivot table "just right" as it does to build a custom solution.

And the custom solution is:

Dynamic and live
Exactly the format you want
Something you'd be proud to have land on the CEO's desk

The CEO's Desk Test

There's a saying: Don't do something you wouldn't be proud to see on the front page of the newspaper.

Here's my version: Don't send out work you wouldn't be proud to have show up on the CEO's desk.

That's a mantra I've lived by, and it's served me very well. I try to instill it in everyone who works on my teams.

The Bottom Line

Pivot tables are tools. Great tools. Use them for what they're good at: rapid exploration and quick analysis.

But when you're producing work for stakeholders:

Invest the time in presentation
Build something dynamic
Create work you'd be proud of

A little bit of time invested on the front end not only saves you time on the back end—it also builds your reputation and career.

So use pivot tables for what they're good at. But when it matters? Build something better.

Common Questions About Pivot Tables

Q: What should I use instead of pivot tables for deliverables?

Dynamic array functions (like UNIQUE, FILTER, SORT) combined with SUMIFS, conditional formatting, and structured layouts. Build exactly what you want to see, not what Excel gives you by default.

Q: Won't building custom schedules take longer?

Not really. By the time you format a pivot table the way you want it—adjusting field settings, fixing number formats, hiding subtotals—you've spent about the same time. And the custom version is more maintainable.

Q: Is this just about impressing executives?

No. It's about creating work you're proud of and building a reputation for quality. That reputation opens doors. Pivot tables keep doors closed.