Excel Formulas Explained: Which Formulas to Use When

Posted on 02/01/2019 by Niko Venev

Excel’s ability to manage and organize data is unmatched, largely due to its functions and formulas. While no formal instruction is necessary to use them, taking courses with Certstaffix Training can teach you basic and advanced software tricks that you can implement in your office. Used in combination with Excel hotkeys, or Excel shortcuts, these formulas, and functions can bolster the efficiency of your business.


       

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“What Excel Formula Should I Use?”

Knowing the right formula to use starts with understanding the task at hand and the possible Excel tools at your disposal. When discussing Excel functions and formulas, it’s important to know that they’re two different things. An Excel function is a predefined calculation that the software is capable of performing, and Excel formulas are calculations that users manually input, which can work in tandem with a function.

Both Excel functions and formulas can make the jobs of a business owner and their staff easier, faster, and more convenient. These formulas and functions just aren’t time-savers: They’re also great for improving the organization, boosting productivity, and creating more accurate record-keeping. Some basic functions and formulas can help you manage employees, keep track of your finances, and even plan for the future.

 

Which Excel Formula to Use for the Job?

COUNTIF and COUNTIFS

COUNTIF can help you manage important human resource duties like creating schedules and operations like tracking inventory. If you find yourself needing to do an advanced search using multiple criteria, opt for the COUNTIFS function. COUNTIFS allows you to track cells that have specified criteria in them. You can even search for cells with a wildcard character, which can make it easier to identify cells within a wide range.

CHOOSE

There comes a point in every business owner’s schedule when some financial modeling is due to take place. While planning your future profit and revenue streams, you may calculate several different projections. If you’d like to run through the various scenarios while aiming for a particular projection, take advantage of the CHOOSE function. It’s a particularly great function to use if you own a corporate establishment with nationwide offices that each perform differently.

NETWORKDAYS

The productivity of a professional environment often hinges on the raw number of days that it’s open for business. Using the NETWORKDAYS function can be smart when you’re attempting to figure out how much profit you can count on or how your employees are faring when working toward their benefits. Simply specify your start and end dates within a determined range and include any potential holidays or expected closures, and you’ll have the number of productive days instantly returned.

 

Typical Excel Formulas to Use Daily

A wonderful aspect of Excel formulas is that the software makes them easy enough to implement on a daily basis. This can be especially convenient for business owners who need to regularly update worksheets in which volumes of data can change. With a couple of common formulas, you’ll always have a good idea of where your business stands within your industry and the market.

Find Your Running Balance With a SUM Formula

Knowing what you have available in your bank accounts can help you plan future expenditures, determine your petty cash budget, demonstrate that your business is profitable, and more. To keep a running balance that you can easily refer to online or on your computer, simply use a modified SUM function. Specify your parameters within the spreadsheet to add your deposits and subtract your withdrawals to keep a running balance.

You can also take advantage of certain Excel shortcuts to make this job even easier. For example, Ctrl+Shift+$ can transform your figures so that they reflect two decimal places, and CTRL+; can add the current date.

Use the CONCATENATE, REPT, and RIGHT Formulas for Extra Security

Excel spreadsheets are often used to work with sensitive information. From employees’ Social Security numbers to customers’ credit card numbers, Excel can record and organize this information for safe keeping. If you’d like to add an extra layer of security to this data, consider creating formulas using CONCATENATE, REPT, and RIGHT. These formulas can reconfigure these types of data so that only four numbers are visible, which can protect data while still keeping it easily identifiable. Excel hotkeys like CTRL+9 and CTRL+0 can hide rows and columns, respectively, for quick fixes until you write the formulas.

– Full Excel Functions List –


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