10 Excel Formulas Every Business Owner Should Know
(To Save Time, Avoid Errors, and Make Smarter Decisions)
Running a business comes with spreadsheets — whether you're tracking sales, managing expenses, or forecasting growth. But not every entrepreneur needs to be a spreadsheet wizard. Just mastering a few essential Excel formulas can save you hours each week and help you make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Here are 10 must-know Excel formulas every business owner should have in their toolkit.
1. SUM
What it does: Adds up a range of numbers.
Formula: =SUM(B2:B10)
📌 Use it to total expenses, revenue, or inventory costs.
2. AVERAGE
What it does: Calculates the mean of a group of numbers.
Formula: =AVERAGE(C2:C12)
📌 Great for understanding average order value or spend per customer.
3. IF
What it does: Returns one value if a condition is true, another if false.
Formula: =IF(D2>5000, "High", "Low")
📌 Use for tagging high-value clients, overdue invoices, or performance flags.
4. SUMIF
What it does: Adds only the values that meet a specific condition.
Formula: =SUMIF(A2:A10, "Marketing", B2:B10)
📌 Total only expenses from one department, or sales from a specific product line.
5. COUNTIF
What it does: Counts how many times a condition is met.
Formula: =COUNTIF(C2:C20, ">1000")
📌 Track how many orders were above a certain value or how many leads converted.
6. VLOOKUP
What it does: Looks up a value in a table and returns a corresponding value.
Formula: =VLOOKUP("Client A", A2:C10, 2, FALSE)
📌 Quickly find a client’s contact info, project cost, or status from another table.
7. XLOOKUP (Modern alternative to VLOOKUP)
What it does: A more flexible way to look up data.
Formula: =XLOOKUP("Client A", A2:A10, B2:B10)
📌 No column indexing needed. Easier to use and more reliable.
8. TEXT
What it does: Formats numbers and dates exactly how you want.
Formula: =TEXT(TODAY(), "mmmm yyyy")
📌 Use to display clean labels in reports (e.g., “June 2025” instead of 6/20/2025).
9. IFERROR
What it does: Replaces error messages with something more helpful.
Formula: =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2, D2:E10, 2, FALSE), "Not Found")
📌 Keeps your templates clean and readable when data is missing or mismatched.
10. NOW / TODAY
What it does: Inserts the current date (=TODAY()) or date + time (=NOW())
📌 Perfect for tracking deadlines, auto-stamping reports, or setting aging flags.
🧠 Why These Formulas Matter
These formulas aren’t just technical fluff — they’re time-saving business tools. With just these 10, you can:
Track your income and expenses accurately
Forecast revenue and inventory needs
Generate clean, automated reports
Avoid manual errors and guesswork
Speed up your monthly accounting
📥 Want a Ready-Made Template?
Don’t want to build from scratch? Grab one of our fully automated Excel templates — pre-loaded with these formulas, ready to help you manage your budget, sales, cash flow, and more.
✨ Pro Tip:
You don’t need to learn every Excel function. But knowing the right ones gives you control over your business — and helps you run it like a pro.
