The new Subtotals feature in Analytics helps track activity across multiple layers of Dimensions at once.
Using it in an analysis will change how your report is displayed and how your data is expected to behave.
Getting the Subtotals button
Subtotals will not be an option on every report. To display subtotals, you need at least two non-pivoted Dimensions on a report. For example, if you open up Recent Sales:
The only checkbox displayed in the data is Totals.
However, if you add another Dimension, like Store:
It will display as an option:
To learn more and test this function, click Run to run a report without Subtotals:
Also, visualize the data on the Table visualization:
The data will display with a line for each Date/Store pairing.
Next, check the Subtotals box and click Run to run the report again.
Now the table will display the data in a very different way:
For each date, the sales Total displays, and below it, each Store's contribution towards that day's sales displays.
Collapsing Subtotals
If you're using the Subtotals feature, you can optionally define whether you want the subtotals expanded:
Or collapsed:
Click the > (arrow) to expand the subtotals:
Downloading Reports with Subtotals
When you choose to format data with subtotals, your downloaded files will behave the same way. For example, if you export the un-subtotalled version of the data:
The data will follow this convention:
Similarly, if you choose to format the table with subtotals:
The downloaded data will follow a similar convention:
For example, blank spaces display where a subtotal is taking place:
The values of subtotals are also displayed in line with the raw data.
Choosing the data formatting for the data action
The above means that the measures displayed in Subtotalled reports are not expected to be summed. This will reference the same activity multiple times across levels of totals.
If you want to use an exported report for further data analysis, creating pivot tables or other reports using spreadsheets, we recommend not using the Subtotals feature, as it creates additional complexity in extracting the nuance of behavior.
If you want simply to have a multiple-level view of the activity, but are not planning on manipulating the data further, using subtotals can be a good way of interpreting the smaller and larger trends in your store at once.