Forum Discussion
Recording just a month and a year
Hello - Looking to refresh a spreadsheet I have for keeping track of all my books, games and when I complete them and what-not.
One thing I'd like to properly set-up this time is a pivot table of some sort, so I can generate some charts based on what I've completed in a given month.
My first thought is I need a way to make a note of what month I completed something in, alongside the year so I don't get mixed data with this going forward.
Is there a way for Excel to record a month and a year specifically, without needing to specify a date? Or would it make more sense for me just to have a "Jan-2026" as a general entry? Seems simpler, but don't know if it'll auto-sort by month like would be ideal.
1 Reply
May consider below to make things better:
Excel works best when you use a valid date format, please consider to use:
01/01/2026
Then format the cell to display only Month-Year:
Format Steps:
- Select the column with your dates.
- Right-click > Format Cells.
- Choose Custom.
- Enter this format:
- mmm-yyyy
or
yyyy-mm
This way:
- Excel stores it as a real date (which is sortable and filterable).
- You can group by Month and Year in pivot tables.
- You avoid issues with text sorting (e.g., "Apr" before "Feb").
Pivot Table Setup
Once your data is structured with real dates:
- Insert a Pivot Table.
- Drag your completion date into the Rows field.
- Right-click a date > Group > choose Months and Years.
- Add your book/game title to Values or Columns as needed.
