Hi Julie,

Method B will have more records but less fields.
Which method will give the best structure for Pivot table?

Go for B. Make sure you have lot's of columns with all the categories
you (might) need. Eg. one for year (2004), one for period (02) and
anotherone for year&period (like 200402), one for type of year
(current, previous, next, cumulated current/previous/next) etc. etc.

For Method B, if the records in my database(DBF format) has more than
65,536
records(exceed Excel maximum rows), will I have problem to link it to
Pivot
table?

You will not have a problem as long as you do _not_ import the data
into an excel sheet. Instead, use your dbf-file as a data-source
directly (odbc or whatsoever).

regards

arno