# Excel for the Web: Find Your Top Customers in a Sales Export > A beginner Excel for the web walkthrough on real screens: clean a sales export with Remove Duplicates, total every customer with a PivotTable and sort… Source: https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/excel-web-top-customers · Updated 2026-10-23 · Free from Stepthrough (https://learn.ynteractive.com) ## Practice it step by step [Start the free practice](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/excel-web-top-customers) [Take the free module: why it matters, practice and a quick check →](https://learn.ynteractive.com/courses/excel-for-the-web-jump-start/2) You do every step yourself in a practice copy of Excel. It checks your work as you go, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on. Free, about 12 minutes, and nothing touches your real accounts. [Open full screen](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/excel-web-top-customers) Free · Live now · [Microsoft 365](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/course/microsoft-365) · [Excel](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tool/excel) · ~12 min · 17 steps · Beginner Updated October 23, 2026. Built against the tool’s current screens and checked step by step. [How we check this lesson](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/about#how-we-check) A beginner Excel for the web walkthrough on real screens: clean a sales export with Remove Duplicates, total every customer with a [PivotTable](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/pivot-table) and sort the biggest to the top in about ten minutes. ## At a glance | Question | Answer | | --- | --- | | What you build | A beginner Excel for the web walkthrough on real screens: clean a sales export with Remove Duplicates, total every customer with a PivotTable and sort the biggest to the top in about ten minutes. | | Tools | Excel | | Time | About 12 minutes, 17 steps in 4 parts | | Level | Beginner, no coding needed | | Cost | Free | | Ways to learn it | [Practice it step by step](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/excel-web-top-customers) | ### The 4 parts, in short 1. Bring in the export: Create a blank workbook, Rename the file, Name it Q3 sales export, Paste the export. 2. Remove the duplicate order: Open the Data tab, Remove Duplicates, Keep every column ticked, One duplicate removed. 3. Total every customer with a PivotTable: Insert a PivotTable, Put it on a new sheet, Tick Customer, Tick Amount. 4. Put the biggest customers on top: Select a total, Sort Descending, Select the totals, Open the number format, and 1 more step. **Start here first:** [Excel for the Web: Your First Budget Spreadsheet](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/excel-web-budget) (module 1 of Microsoft 365) ## What you'll build Lena (made up) runs sales at a small office-supply shop. Before Monday's meeting the owner asks who the top customers were last quarter, and the only source is an export of 12 orders with one order in it twice. Adding it up by hand takes an hour, and the duplicate makes Cobalt Legal look $2,310 bigger than it is. In this lesson you clean the export, let a PivotTable total each customer and sort the biggest to the top. Every screen is a real [Excel](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tool/excel) for the web screen. You removed the duplicate order, totalled every customer with a PivotTable ($16,170 in all) and sorted them: Cobalt Legal $4,440, Northside Realty $4,030 and Maple Dental $3,660 bring in three quarters of the quarter. Next quarter it is the same five minutes. Now do it in your own Microsoft account: the lesson page has the checklist. - Tools: Excel - Time: about 12 minutes, 17 steps in 4 chapters - Level: beginner, no coding needed - Price: free ## Practice first, then build it for real Practice copy built from real Excel for the web screens (Microsoft 365, captured 23 October 2026). Nothing here touches your Microsoft account. The shop, its customers and its orders are made up. To build it for real you need your own Excel account, and some services charge once you use them for real work, so check each tool's current pricing. ## Try it yourself, free Reading the steps is a start. Doing them is how it sticks. The interactive module walks you through every click in a practice copy of Excel, checks each step, and never touches your real accounts. [Start “Excel for the Web: Find Your Top Customers in a Sales Export”](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/excel-web-top-customers) ## Step by step: Excel for the Web: Find Your Top Customers in a Sales Export All 17 steps of the interactive module, in order. In the module you watch each one, then do it yourself in a practice copy that checks your work. ### 1. Bring in the export 1. **Create a blank workbook.** Open Excel for the web (from microsoft365.com, or the app launcher in any Microsoft 365 app). Click **Create blank workbook**. This is the Excel start page. 2. **Rename the file.** New files are called "Book". Click the **file name** at the top. Excel for the web saves as you go. 3. **Name it Q3 sales export.** Type **Q3 sales export** and press Enter. 4. **Paste the export.** Click **A1** and paste (Ctrl+V) the export: Order, Date, Customer, Region and Amount for 12 orders. In real life you paste or open the [CSV](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/csv) your sales system gives you. Look closely: order **1006** is in it twice. Twelve orders. Look closely: order ten oh six is in it twice. ```text Order Date Customer Region Amount 1001 7/3/2026 Maple Dental East 1250 1002 7/8/2026 Cobalt Legal West 860 1003 7/15/2026 Northside Realty East 2140 1004 7/22/2026 Maple Dental East 980 1005 8/2/2026 Pine Street Clinic West 1575 1006 8/9/2026 Cobalt Legal West 2310 1006 8/9/2026 Cobalt Legal West 2310 1007 8/18/2026 Harbor Accounting East 640 1008 8/27/2026 Northside Realty East 1890 1009 9/4/2026 Pine Street Clinic West 720 1010 9/12/2026 Maple Dental East 1430 1011 9/19/2026 Harbor Accounting East 1105 1012 9/26/2026 Cobalt Legal West 1270 ``` ### 2. Remove the duplicate order 5. **Open the Data tab.** With a cell in the data selected (A1 is fine), click the **Data** tab. With a cell in the data selected, click the Data tab. 6. **Remove Duplicates.** Click **Remove Duplicates**. 7. **Keep every column ticked.** Excel selected the whole list. Leave **Select all columns** and **My data has headers** ticked, so a row only counts as a copy when every column matches, and click **OK**. Leave every column ticked, so only exact copies go. 8. **One duplicate removed.** Excel says **1 duplicate values found and removed; 12 unique values remain.** The second order 1006 is gone. Click **OK**. One duplicate removed, twelve orders left. ### 3. Total every customer with a PivotTable 9. **Insert a PivotTable.** Click the **Insert** tab, then **PivotTable**. On the Insert tab, click PivotTable. 10. **Put it on a new sheet.** An **Insert PivotTable** panel opens with the source **Sheet1!A1:E13** and a few suggestions. Under **Create your own PivotTable**, click **New sheet**. (If Excel stays on Sheet1, click the new **Sheet2** tab at the bottom.) The source is the whole list. Under Create your own PivotTable, click New sheet. 11. **Tick Customer.** The **PivotTable Fields** list shows your five columns. Tick **Customer**. It goes into **Rows**: one row per customer. Tick Customer. Each customer gets one row. 12. **Tick Amount.** Tick **Amount**. It goes into **Values** as **Sum of Amount**. Tick Amount. It becomes Sum of Amount. ### 4. Put the biggest customers on top 13. **Select a total.** Every customer now has a total and the **Grand Total** is **16170**. Click a total, such as **B3** (Cobalt Legal, 4440), then the **Data** tab. The grand total is sixteen thousand one hundred seventy. 14. **Sort Descending.** Click **Sort Descending** (Z to A). In a PivotTable it sorts the customers by their totals, biggest first. The biggest customer moves to the top. 15. **Select the totals.** Cobalt Legal **4440**, Northside Realty **4030**, Maple Dental **3660**, Pine Street Clinic **2295**, Harbor Accounting **1745**. Select **B3:B8** (click B3, then Shift+click B8) and click the **Home** tab. Now the biggest is on top. 16. **Open the number format.** Click the arrow on the **number format** box (it says General). 17. **Currency.** Click **Currency**. The totals read **$4,440.00** down to **$1,745.00**, and **$16,170.00** in all. Now it reads like money. ## Screenshots [Start this module free](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/excel-web-top-customers) - Previous in Microsoft 365: [Excel for the Web: Your First Budget Spreadsheet](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/excel-web-budget) - Next in Microsoft 365: [Word for the Web: Turn Meeting Notes into a Client Update](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/word-web-client-update) ## Same business, other tools Maple Dental shows up in these modules too, built with different tools. - [SQL: Build a Monthly Revenue Report from an Orders Table](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/sql-monthly-revenue-report): A beginner SQL walkthrough in the free DB Fiddle: type a small orders table, then filter it, total it and turn it into revenue by month with GROUP BY, typing every line… - [SQL: Find Customers Who Have Gone Quiet with a LEFT JOIN](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/sql-quiet-customers): A beginner SQL walkthrough in the free DB Fiddle: join a customers table to orders, see why a plain JOIN hides customers who never ordered, and list every quiet account… - [JavaScript: Turn Invoice Dates into Due-Date Reminders](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/js-due-date-reminders): A beginner JavaScript walkthrough in the free JSFiddle: work out Net 30 due dates, count the days left and list every invoice as due or overdue, typing every line… - [Python: Total a Sales Export by Customer in Google Colab](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/python-sales-report): A beginner Python walkthrough in the free Google Colab: put six orders in a pandas table, total the quarter and rank customers by revenue, typing every line yourself. - [Python: Combine Monthly Sales Exports into One Quarter](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/python-combine-exports): A beginner Python walkthrough in the free Google Colab: label three monthly exports, stack them into one quarter with pandas concat and total by month and by customer… ## Free cheat sheet Print it or save the PDF: the key steps and checks from this lesson on one page, free. - [Excel PivotTable and Word Client Update Cheat Sheet](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/cheat-sheets/excel-pivottable-and-word-update): A free one-page cheat sheet: clean a sales export and find top customers with an Excel PivotTable, then turn meeting notes into a styled Word update. [All free printable cheat sheets](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/cheat-sheets) ## Terms in this lesson Plain-English definitions, each with an example from a free lesson. [Pivot table](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/pivot-table) · Remove duplicates (deduplication) · [CSV](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/csv) [The full AI glossary](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary) ## Browse related tutorials [Microsoft 365 (3)](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/course/microsoft-365) · [Excel tutorials (2)](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tool/excel) Want AI working like this in your business? Robert Breen, the instructor behind this lesson, helps small and mid-sized teams put AI assistants, agents and automations to work. [AI consulting for small teams](https://ynteractive.com/)