Excel like a finance pro.

The modern lookup — find a value and return another, in any direction, with a clean not-found fallback.

The everyday lookup — find a value in the first column and return one to its right.

The classic two-step lookup — works left or right and across two dimensions.

The two-way lookup — cross a row label and a column label to pull one cell.

The horizontal lookup — find a value in the top row and return one below it.

The workhorse of logic — return one thing when a test is true, another when it's false.

Return different results by condition — IFS avoids nested IFs.

Turn errors into a clean fallback so a model doesn't break.

Match one value against a list of cases — cleaner than a stack of nested IFs.

Combine several conditions into one TRUE/FALSE — the logic that powers a real IF.

Ask what kind of thing is in a cell — empty, a number, text, or an error.

Catch only #N/A — so a missing lookup is handled but real errors still surface.

Pull characters off the start, the end, or the middle of a text string by position.

Count the characters in a cell — the quiet workhorse behind validation and cleanup.

Locate where one piece of text sits inside another — the position to slice at.

Stitch pieces of text together — a full name, an address, a dynamic label.

Grab everything before a delimiter — first names, street numbers, the local part of an email.

Grab everything after a delimiter — last names, email domains, the tail of a code.

Break one messy cell into clean columns — split an address or a full name in a single formula.

Strip stray spaces and junk characters so lookups match and lists de-duplicate.

Fix inconsistent capitalization — turn jane DOE and ACME llc into clean, uniform case.

Find-and-replace inside a formula — standardize abbreviations and strip unwanted characters.

Add up a range of numbers — the first function anyone learns and still the most-used.

The arithmetic mean of a range — total ÷ count, with blanks left out.

Answer 'how many?' — numbers only, anything at all, or the empty ones.

The smallest or largest number in a range — and a neat way to cap or floor a value.

The 2nd, 3rd … nth smallest or largest — the top-N list MIN/MAX can't do.

Sum amounts that match several conditions — the workhorse of P&L roll-ups.

Count rows that meet multiple conditions.

Average the values that match several conditions — the mean sibling of SUMIFS.

The smallest or largest value that meets your conditions.

Multiply arrays element-by-element, then sum — weighted averages and conditional math.

Aggregate only the visible (filtered) rows, ignoring other subtotals.

Round a number to a set number of digits — control the pennies before they compound.

Three small math tools that punch above their weight — magnitude, whole part, remainder.

The current date (or date-and-time) that updates itself every time the sheet recalcs.

Build a real date from three numbers, or pull the year, month, or day back out.

The last day of a month N months out — clean period-end dates.

The same day, N months out — clean anniversary, renewal, and due dates.

Format a number or date as text — for labels and headers.

Return the rows that meet a condition as a live, spilling result.

Spill a distinct list — perfect for dropdowns and clean lists.

Spill a range into sorted order — live, with no manual re-sort.

Pile ranges on top of each other into one tall list — combine tabs or blocks before you filter or total.

Set ranges side by side into one wider block — glue separate columns into a single table.

Name a value or calculation once, then reuse it — faster formulas that read like plain English.

Build your own reusable function — no VBA — then name it and call it like any built-in.

NPV and IRR for cash flows on real, irregular dates.

The level payment on a loan, per period.

Build a full loan payoff schedule — principal vs. interest, month by month.

Spread an asset's cost over its life — build an asset register and schedule.

Fixed-declining-balance depreciation — accelerated, at a single rate Excel works out for you.

Variable-declining balance — accelerated depreciation that switches to straight-line so nothing is stranded.