Excel University Blog
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Functions
Have you ever typed a SUM formula, hit Enter, and stared in disbelief at a big fat zero? The culprit is almost always the same: numbers that are stored as text. Excel sees those values as words, not quantities, so it simply adds up nothing. In this tutorial, we walk through three practical ways to…
If there is one Excel function we use more than any other, it is probably SUM. And because we use it so often, it is worth learning how to insert it as fast as possible. In this tutorial, we cover the Alt+= keyboard shortcut that writes the SUM formula for us, how to sum multiple…
If you’ve ever spent time manually filtering a data table, copying the results, and pasting them somewhere else every single month, this tutorial is for you. The FILTER function eliminates that entire copy-paste routine by creating a dynamic report that updates automatically whenever the source data changes. We’ll also layer in the SORT function so…
Comparing two lists in Excel is one of the most common tasks in accounting, finance, and operations. Whether we need to confirm that every open invoice has been paid, find bank deposits missing from the books, or run a full two-way reconciliation, the right formulas turn a manual, error-prone process into a clean, dynamic exception…
Excel Copilot is a powerful assistant, but left to its own devices it tends to improvise. Sometimes that works great. Other times, not so much. The good news is that we can take control by setting up workbook-scoped rules and custom skills. Rules tell Copilot how to behave inside a specific workbook. Skills tell it…
This post is dedicated to the memory of Jeff Sharp, an active member of the Excel University community and a generous contributor who freely shared his knowledge with fellow Excel enthusiasts. Last year, he sent me this CUBE function example he built, suggesting it might make a good blog post. Jeff, this one’s for you.…
Multi-criteria lookups are one of the most common challenges Excel users face. Whether we need to find a single matching record, retrieve a full list of matching rows, or sum up values across multiple conditions, the approach changes depending on the goal. In this tutorial, we walk through three exercises that show how Copilot in…
Copilot in Excel can save a tremendous amount of time on routine finance tasks. In this tutorial, we walk through three exercises that show how Copilot can assign expense categories from a reference table, generate a formula-based summary, build a PivotTable report, and even write step-by-step documentation for future updates. If your team processes expense…
This tutorial shows how to use Microsoft 365 Copilot like a reusable macro in Excel. Instead of writing VBA or building Power Query solutions, we describe a list of tasks in plain language, paste that list into Copilot, and let it take action directly in our workbook. Video Tutorial We walk through three real-world exercises…
Have you ever opened an old workbook and stared at a formula packed with nested RIGHT, LEN, FIND, INDEX, and MATCH functions, wondering if there is a cleaner way? There is. Copilot in Excel can read those legacy formulas, figure out exactly what they do, and replace them with modern Excel functions that are easier…