The sales details sheet has lots of information in it. The reason for importing the data was to use Calc's analytical tools to better understand sales patterns and trends at the garden center.

Creating subtotals

One of the easiest and most useful tools Calc offers is the subtotals feature. As its name suggests, subtotals will allow you to break data down into logical groups and calculate subtotals for each of those groups.

The subtotals feature also leverages Calc's outline functionality so you can analyze summary information and quickly drill down to the details upon which the summaries are built.

Let's take a look at how to build a subtotal report.

First, select the cells you want to subtotal. Then select the subtotals function from the data menu.

Next, select a “group by” column. Calc will create a subtotal for each distinct value in the column. In this example lets group by category. This will group all of the values together for each category in the list and create a subtotal.

The next step is to tell Calc how to calculate the sub total. In this case we’ll sum all of the entries in the “Amount” column together for each group. To do this, check the Amount field, then select sum.

Let's add a few more subtotal calculations, let’s create a sum of total cost and a sum of quantity.

Click the OK button and Calc will subtotal our spreadsheet grouped by category, with a subcategory calculation for each of the items we specified - amount, total cost, and quantity.