How Learning Spreadsheet Formulas Can Save You Time

The purpose of using Google Sheets and Excel is to save time and improve productivity. These are very similar applications with over 500 formulas such as the “sumifs formula” and the “today” formula that can help you to accomplish both of those goals. Many business owners or busy parents use spreadsheets to stay organized, but don’t understand how critical spreadsheets are in saving time as well. When you save time, you save money. Discover exactly how learning spreadsheet formulas can save you time, right here.

How to Set Up a Formula

If you don’t use formulas in Google Sheets or Excel very often, get the hang of it here. It’s not as complicated as you think, and you don’t need to memorize anything. In the cell that you need a formula, type the “=” sign into the text box with the formula after it. It’s that simple. Practice on a few of your existing spreadsheets with these formulas and you will become obsessed.

Date Formulas

Spreadsheets use dates all of the time, and many of them need today’s date in them every day. The TODAY formula allows you to enter a formula to include today’s date any day that you need that. The spreadsheet will change as the date changes and it updates daily.

Use this formula in the cell of your choice:

=TODAY()

Counting in Spreadsheets

When you need to count certain items in a spreadsheet, the COUNTIF function will count something for you. You just need to use the formula to count exactly what you need under the criterion that you select. So the variables in the formula are “range” and “criterion” where range is the range of cells that you are counting, and criterion is the conditional criterion you are looking for.

Use this formula:

=COUNTIF(range, criterion)

SUMIfs Sums Multiple Criterion

When you have a complicated addition in your spreadsheet, and don’t want to do it manually, that is what the SUMIfs formula is for. This sums items and values that have different criterion or different ranges, and you can use as many criterion as you want.

In this formula, the range is the range of cells you are referring to, and the criterion is the criterion you are referring to as well. You can have as many ranges and criterion as you want.

Let’s say you are trying to sum costs of black hats and red hats. For one criterion, the formula looks like this:

=SUMIFS(sum_range, range 1, criteria 1) [i.e. sum_range A9:C9, black]

For two, it would look like this:

=SUMIFS(sum_range, range1, criteria1, range2, criteria2) [i.e. sum_range A9:C9, red]

TRIM Spaces With Trim Formula

The TRIM function will trim spaces in your spreadsheet and will save time when it comes to copying and pasting and cleaning up every cell. When a block of text is imported into your spreadsheet, you may have a mess to format. The TRIM formula will reduce all of that mess for you by cleaning up the spaces. The result is a cleaner document and less double-spacing.

Concatenate Joins Data

The Concatenate formula will join data so that two cells become one. If you have one column where there are first names for example, and the second column has a last name, this feature can merge them into one column.

So let’s say that you want to have a last name and their favorite ball team moved from two columns into one and that data is in column A and column B. Use this formula:

=CONCATENATE (A5, B5)

Try Spreadsheet Formulas Today

Whether you prefer Google Sheets or Excel is your personal preference, many of the formulas are the same. Most businesses need spreadsheets, and many homes use them today to stay organized for remote work, kids activities, chores, allowances, food and bill budgets, and more. Take one of your spreadsheets and begin practicing with these formulas. Try them today and you’ll want to learn more as you see how critical they are in saving you time.