What you will learn
If you’re just starting out with Excel, it can feel a little overwhelming. It’s a powerful tool with a wide range of features—and figuring out where to begin is often the hardest part.
In this post, I’ll walk you through 10 essential Excel functions that every beginner should know. These functions will help you work faster, clean up messy data, and build confidence as you dive into spreadsheets.
Let’s get started.
Arithmetic Functions
If you’re using Excel, chances are you’ll need to do some basic math. Fortunately, Excel makes this incredibly easy with built-in arithmetic functions.
1. SUM & AVERAGE
These are two of the most commonly used functions in Excel.
=SUM(A2:A10)adds up a range of numbers.=AVERAGE(A2:A10)calculates the mean of a range.
Use these functions to quickly summarize data like monthly expenses, sales, or scores.
2. SUMIF
The SUMIF function adds numbers only if they meet a specific condition.
Example:
If you have a list of invoices for all your salespeople and you want to know total sales for just one salesperson, SUMIF can help
3. SUMIFS
Need to apply multiple conditions? Use SUMIFS.
Example:
You want to find the total sales made by “John” in Q1
4. SUMPRODUCT
SUMPRODUCT multiplies corresponding values in two or more arrays and returns the sum of those products.
Example:
You have quantities sold in one column and price per unit in another. To get total sales without adding a helper column.
Logical Functions
Logical functions help you make decisions in your spreadsheet.
5. IF
The IF function checks whether a condition is met, and returns one value if true, and another if false.
Example:
You want to assign bonuses to those who made sales above 15,000
6. COUNTIF
Countif counts the number of cells in a range that meet a certain condition.
Example:
Find out how many salespeople are eligible for a bonus
Lookup Functions
Lookup functions help you retrieve data from one part of your spreadsheet and bring it into another.
Text Functions
Text data can often be messy. Excel provides several functions to help clean, combine, or extract text.
Date Functions
Date-based data is common in business reports, billing, and tracking deadlines.
Conclusion
Mastering these 10 functions is a great first step toward becoming confident in Excel. They cover everything from basic math to data validation and dynamic analysis.
If you found this helpful, check out the full video tutorial where I demonstrate each function in action—with examples and downloadable practice files.