Excel Cheat Sheet [With Formulas & Tips]

You’ve just been handed a mountain of data to analyze. You need to make sense of it all, quickly and clearly, and deliver a presentation. 

Starting to feel the pressure? Don’t worry, Excel is here to help!

Excel can simplify a bunch of stuff, from financial modeling to project timelines. Whether you’re a project manager or just want to make sense of your finances, Excel can enhance your productivity while streamlining everyday tasks.

With our Excel formulas cheat sheet, you will be working through your Excel woes faster than ever before. Ready to start? 

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Excel Quick Facts

Back in the 1980s, businesses were struggling to keep up with the demands of faster data processing. Accountants were overwhelmed by the manual number-crunching. 

Over time, it evolved from a generic standalone worksheet software to a cloud-based collaborative tool [Microsoft 365] and quickly became indispensable, especially for professionals like project managers and data analysts.

As of now, Excel comes as a part of the Microsoft 365 bundle and cannot be purchased as a standalone tool. The personal plan of the Microsoft 365 bundle is priced at $6.99 per month, while the enterprise or business plans start from $8.25 to $12.5 per user/month. Of course, the price varies based on the features and services you choose.

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Excel Use Cases

Whether you want to organize information and simplify the tasks you deal with every day, crunch numbers, or automate Excel to perform repetitive jobs, it can do it all. 

Here are a few powerful Excel use cases every Excel user must know. They describe how you can use Excel effectively in various data analysis scenarios. Let’s explore: 

1. Data analysis with pivot tables

Have a pile of data that’s hard to digest? No problem! 

You can slice and dice your data and present it graphically to make sense of it with Pivot tables in Excel. 

Say you’re a teacher who has collected data on student exam scores from multiple subjects. With pivot tables, you can view each student’s performance across various subjects and the entire group’s performance in a particular subject. 

Then, you can visually represent the results in formats like pie charts and graphs. This can help you see patterns in your exam scores and figure out how students are faring.

2. Financial modeling with formulas

Managing a budget, small or big, can be challenging, but Excel can help. 

From simple functions like =SUM to sum up figures to functions like =NPV to calculate the Net Present Value of your assets, formulas are the key to simplified financial modeling. Moreover, Excel can help you visualize all your data with charts, graphs, and advanced diagrams.

3. Inventory management with conditional formatting

Let’s say you’re a clothing manufacturer who sees high inventory turnover. Managing stock levels to meet market demand can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. With Excel, you can create an inventory tracker that updates automatically and displays results on a dashboard.

By adding conditional formatting, you can highlight stock levels in different colors—red for low, yellow for halfway, and green for full. This gives you a clear view of your inventory trends, ensuring you’re always prepared to meet demand.

4. Project management Excel templates

Running a project? Excel project management templates have you covered! You can easily track tasks, deadlines, assignments, and teams without losing sight of the big picture.

For a product launch, Excel’s Gantt chart and other spreadsheet templates are your secret weapon. They help map out every phase, giving you a clear view of timelines so you can stay on track and handle any last-minute changes smoothly.

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How to Get Started with Excel

Getting started with Excel is easy. Here’s a quick guide to some of the most common functions you will use:

Basic data entry

Data entry with Excel is simple, fast, and reliable. Simply:

1. Open a new spreadsheet
2. Input all the numbers, text, or dates into rows and columns 
3. Format the spreadsheet as needed 

Creating charts

Once you’ve added your data, you can easily visualize all of it at once with these steps:

1. Highlight the data you want to represent graphically
2. Navigate to the Insert tab  
3. Select Create and choose from bar graphs, line charts, or pie charts 

Formatting cells 

You can apply various formatting options and change how your data looks. 

To format your data:

1. Select the cells you want to format
2. Use the Home tab to apply number, date, or text formats
3. Explore options like general or conditional formatting to customize how your data appears

Using Excel templates

Excel offers pre-designed templates for everything. To find a template for your project management, budgeting, or any other needs, simply:

1. Navigate to the Home tab
2. Click on New
3. Scroll down to find relevant templates for budgeting, tracking, charts, calendars, lists, and everything else

Now that you know the basics, let’s look at our Excel formulas cheat sheet.

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Excel Formula Examples

Here’s a quick-reference Excel formulas cheat sheet containing 20 Excel functions. These range from basic math functions to advanced lookup functions, text functions, and logical conditions. Most of them work across one or more worksheets. 

Note that A1, A10, B1, etc., are cell references: A1 refers to the cell in column A and row 1, B10 refers to the cell in column B and row 10, and so on.

1. Summing numbers [SUM]

As a sales manager, you need to track weekly sales totals quickly. The SUM formula instantly calculates and provides the total of all the figures in your current data region [row or column].

Formula:

All department sales are recorded in the range of cells from A1 to A10. ‘A11’ displays the sum of all sales. 

2. Finding the average [AVERAGE]

As a Learning and Development manager, you need to track class performance. The AVERAGE formula is perfect for this. It calculates the median of all scores quickly, so you know who’s doing well and who’s not.

Formula:

Selected cells from the range of B1 to B20 record students’ scores. Cell B21 displays the class average.

3. Finding the largest value [MAX]

Running a team? Use the MAX formula to highlight the highest numbers—whether it’s top sales, project milestones, or high scores. This makes it easy to recognize top performers and their efforts.

Formula:

The range of cells from C1 to C15 contains each person’s sales figures. Cell D2 displays the highest amount.

4. Labeling with conditional logic [IF]

For product quality checks, the IF function can automatically label items as “Pass” or “Fail” based on their quality scores. It’s like having a quality control assistant that never misses a thing.

Formula:

Column D records the product quality, and column F shows the products that pass the check. The condition for a product to pass checks is for the score to be greater than 50. 

5. Conditional summing [SUMIF]

Trying to keep expenses in check? Use the SUMIF formula to add up all costs over a specific amount, like $100. This allows you to easily monitor where your budget is being exceeded.

Formula:

The range of cells from B2 to B10 record expenditure amounts. Cell B12 shows the total amount exceeded over your budget.

6. Counting non-blank cells [COUNTA]

Hosting an event? The COUNTA function helps you count how many people have RSVP’d, giving you an instant tally without needing to sort through responses repeatedly.

Formula:

Column ‘B’ shows which guests have confirmed their attendance and cell B2 shows the number of attendees.

7. Looking up data vertically [VLOOKUP]

Managing inventory or product data? Use VLOOKUP to find specific details, like prices, by simply typing in the product name. No more scrolling—just fast, accurate results.

Formula: 

The first ten cells under columns A to C contain information about all your products. Cell A13 displays the price of Product A.

8. Looking up data horizontally [HLOOKUP]

Need to track data horizontally? Use HLOOKUP to pull sales, performance, or any other data from your table across multiple rows, allowing easy comparison and analysis.

Formula:

The first five cells under columns A to F contain information about all sales across regions. Cell A8 displays the total sales from the North region.

9. Concatenating text [CONCATENATE]

Downloaded a list with split names? The CONCATENATE formula can combine first, middle, and last names into one cell. This formula can also be used to combine other text data, such as addresses.

Formula:

Here, cells A2 to C2 contain the first, middle, and last names of the first customer. Cell D2 displays their full name, combined.

10. Calculating percentages 

Want to track project progress? Use Excel to calculate the percentage of tasks completed. 

Formula:

Columns A and B contain the completed tasks against the total tasks. Column C displays the percentage of tasks completed.

11. Calculating the net present value [NPV] of assets

Want to know the value of future investments today? The NPV formula calculates the current value of future cash flows, making it a crucial tool for investors to make informed decisions.

Formula:

Here, Cell B2 contains cash flow values, and NPV is calculated at a 5% discount, displayed in column C.

12. Rounding off numbers [ROUND]

As a chartered accountant, the ROUND function ensures your financial figures are clear and precise by rounding off numbers to two decimal places, keeping reports neat and professional.

Formula:

Column A contains the values to round off, and column B displays the values rounded off to two decimals. 

13. Calculating future value [FV]

After calculating the present value of your investments, use the future value formula to estimate how much your investments will grow over time. This formula is perfect for predicting long-term returns.

Formula:

This formula helps you estimate how much a yearly $1000 investment will be worth in 10 years at a 4% return.

14. Finding duplicates [COUNTIF]

Managing a large email database? The COUNTIF formula finds and removes duplicates to ensure your mailing list is tidy and no one gets multiple emails.

Formula:

This formula will return TRUE for cells that have duplicates and FALSE for unique entries. You can then filter or sort based on this column to clean your email list effectively.

15. Updating sheets based on dates [TODAY]

Managing multiple sheets? Use the TODAY function to automatically add and update the current date, keeping track of deadlines or milestones effortlessly with daily updates.

Formula:

This function adds today’s date where applied.

16. Financial loan payment [PMT]

Need to calculate monthly loan payments? This formula helps you determine payments based on loan amount and interest rate, giving you a clear repayment plan and avoiding defaults.

Formula:

This formula calculates the interest per month on an amount of $5000 at a rate of 5% per month for 60 months [five years].

17. Extracting the year [YEAR]

Working with contracts? The YEAR formula extracts the year from dates, helping you sort and track contracts by year, making it easy to manage renewals.

Formula:

Cell A1 contains the date, while cell B1 displays the year pulled from the date in cell A1.

18. Conditional formatting based on Value

Want to highlight days with sales over $1000? Apply conditional formatting:

1. Navigate to Home  
2. Select Conditional Formatting
3. Select Highlight Cell Rules

4. Select Greater than
5. Enter the number 1000, and 
6. Choose the color green

All the figures greater than 1000 will now be highlighted in green.

19. Matching exact data positions [MATCH]

Need to find a product in your inventory quickly? The MATCH formula locates its exact position in your inventory list, saving you time when searching through long sheets.

Formula:

Cells A1 to A20 contain the list of products. The function will return 1 since ‘Product A’ is in cell A1.

20. Search for text in a cell [SEARCH]

If you’re handling detailed Excel reporting and need to locate a specific term like ‘Total’ in a column, the SEARCH formula shows exactly where it appears. 

This allows you to quickly jump to the relevant section without relying on the search bar or Find function, which can be slow.

Formula:

The function returns a number that signifies the position of 1st character of the search term.

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Excel User Communities

Excel is complicated and contains over 500 usable formulas. It is almost impossible for a human to know all the formulas and libraries with all their various options and nuances. With the Excel formulas cheat sheet, we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Here is a list of Excel user communities you can visit for help and to explore all possible Excel capabilities:

Microsoft Tech Community

Tech Community is Microsoft’s official forum for all MS Office products. Their Excel community is where you can go to ask questions, learn Excel hacks that others have come up with, and explore all the possibilities that Excel has to offer.

MrExcel Forum 

MrExcel Message Board is a highly active forum where Excel users, from beginners to experts, discuss all things Excel. You can ask questions, share insights, learn from thousands of Excel problems that others have solved, and get a cheat sheet of Excel formulas. It’s one of the most established Excel help communities online.

Reddit’s Excel subreddit [r/excel]

This subreddit has a large and engaged community of Excel enthusiasts who regularly help each other with challenges. Whether you’re a novice or an advanced user, you can ask your questions directly to Excel experts and find answers to Excel-related problems.

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Excel Challenges and Limitations

While millions of professionals rely on it every day, it’s important to know the limits of Excel, especially if you’re dealing with very large projects or trying to collaborate.

Messy collaboration

Ever tried working with a colleague on the same Excel sheet? Yeah, it’s messy. Excel’s co-authoring features may have improved, but you still cannot expect to have the smooth, seamless experience you’d find in a dedicated collaboration tool. 

Static dashboards and reports

Modern businesses need real-time insights. Unfortunately, Excel dashboards aren’t built with features that will automatically refresh and let you dig deeper into your data.

Error-prone and limited automation

Manual data entry, as well as manually editing data, can result in lots of mistakes, which is all too common in Excel. Tracking down errors in large spreadsheets is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

While macros are helpful for automation, you need to know quite a bit of VBA coding to make full use of it. Setting up and maintaining macros can mean a steep learning curve for beginners, which limits Excel’s automation potential​.

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Excel Alternatives

There are many possible Excel alternatives. 

For example, you can try ClickUp. Like Excel, it can store data, perform calculations, and view data using various charts. But it’s optimized for so much more. Let’s explore its features together. 

ClickUp Table View

If you’re used to Excel, you’ll feel right at home with ClickUp’s Table View.

Using the Table View, you can:

• Assign tasks, set priorities, and track progress within the same grid
• Customize the columns and rows to fit your workflow deadlines and task owners
• View data across your projects to have a holistic view of how your team is progressing without scrolling endlessly

The best part? 

You can switch between Gantt Chart View or Kanban Board View so that you’re never locked into one view of your project. And now, for the next level of data analysis, far beyond mere spreadsheet applications. Enter ClickUp Brain.

ClickUp Brain

ClickUp Brain’s AI-driven automation and insights can take your workflow far beyond what Excel’s manual, formula-based setup can achieve. 

Here’s what it offers:

• Smart Suggestions: Need to streamline your workflow? ClickUp Brain learns from your tasks and can suggest solutions that can help you improve your productivity
• Quick Summaries: ClickUp Brain also provides quick updates and summaries of your project to help you get an overview. It can also suggest which task you can take up next
• Automation: ClickUp Brain can automate repetitive tasks like updating statuses or assigning tasks. Excel might need macros and lots of coding for this, but in ClickUp, it just takes a few clicks

In short, ClickUp Brain is a one-stop shop for all your data analysis requirements. What you can achieve in Excel by setting up formulas manually, ClickUp Brain does automatically! 

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ClickUp—The Ultimate Excel Upgrade

While Excel is great for data crunching, ClickUp’s Table View, ClickUp Brain, and other project management tools offer a comprehensive solution for teams looking to do more with their data. 

ClickUp’s powerful features let you go beyond the worksheets to organize everything in one place—smarter, faster, and easier. Get that data working for you—use it to set up action items and decide the next steps.

The icing on the cake: No More Math! Just get your data into ClickUp and ask it to help you. And it will.

So sign up for a free ClickUp account today and let it take your data places.