Real situations from working spreadsheets — sales targets, commission tiers, messy exports, aged invoices. Numbered in recommended order: start at 1 and work down, or filter to what you need.
22 exercises — for Accounting
Turn separate year, month and day columns into a real date Excel understands.
DATE
Multiply quantity by unit price to get a line total.
Stamp the current date into a cell as a fixed value.
Subtract cost from revenue to find what each order actually earned.
Work out what a customer pays after their contracted discount.
Work out how many days old each invoice is.
TODAY
Combine date arithmetic with a conditional label.
IF · TODAY
Reach the paste-special dialog to drop formulas and keep results.
Extract characters from the middle of a text value.
MID
Require two conditions to be true at once.
IF · AND
Find rows whose order number appears more than once in the column.
COUNTIF · IF
Combine two logical tests so one condition can override the other.
AND · OR · IF
Use VLOOKUP with exact match to pull prices from a product table.
VLOOKUP
Recall the argument order that differs between SUMIF and SUMIFS.
SUMIF · SUMIFS
Match a weight to a rate band, where the weight will never appear in the table.
VLOOKUP
Diagnose and correct a formula that returns the wrong answer.
IF
Anchor one end of a range so it grows as the formula moves down the column.
SUM
Look up a value that only exists two tables away from what you started with.
XLOOKUP
Use COUNTIF to reconcile two lists and spot what is absent.
COUNTIF · IF
Repair a formula written in SUMIF's argument order instead of SUMIFS'.
SUMIFS
Match two lists where one side has trailing spaces you cannot see.
COUNTIF · IF
Diagnose a match failure where both values look identical on screen.
XLOOKUP
| # | Exercise | Functions | Difficulty | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assemble a delivery date with DATEHarbor Supply — inbound delivery schedule | DATE | Beginner | 5 min | 15 pts |
| 5 | Calculate line totals with multiplicationHarbor Supply — order ORD-1046 lines | — | Beginner | 3 min | 10 pts |
| 14 | Type today's date without typing itNo dataset — this one is about your hands | — | Beginner | 3 min | 10 pts |
| 17 | Work out gross margin per orderHarbor Supply — order profitability | — | Beginner | 3 min | 10 pts |
| 19 | Apply a percentage discount to a list priceHarbor Supply — contracted distributor pricing | — | Beginner | 5 min | 15 pts |
| 34 | Calculate invoice age with TODAYHarbor Supply — open invoices | TODAY | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 36 | Flag overdue invoices with IF and TODAYHarbor Supply — aged debt | IF · TODAY | Intermediate | 9 min | 25 pts |
| 37 | Paste the numbers, not the formulasNo dataset — this one is about your hands | — | Intermediate | 4 min | 20 pts |
| 38 | Pull the year out of an order code with MIDHarbor Supply — order codes | MID | Intermediate | 7 min | 25 pts |
| 43 | Approve orders with ANDHarbor Supply — order approval queue | IF · AND | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 48 | Spot duplicate order numbers with COUNTIFHarbor Supply — order import, run twice | COUNTIF · IF | Intermediate | 9 min | 30 pts |
| 55 | Flag accounts for review with AND and ORHarbor Supply — accounts receivable review | AND · OR · IF | Intermediate | 9 min | 30 pts |
| 63 | Look up a unit price with VLOOKUPHarbor Supply — quote lines and product master | VLOOKUP | Intermediate | 8 min | 25 pts |
| 65 | Which range does SUMIFS want first?Conceptual question — no dataset | SUMIF · SUMIFS | Intermediate | 3 min | 20 pts |
| 67 | Look up a shipping band with VLOOKUPHarbor Supply — carrier rate card by weight band | VLOOKUP | Intermediate | 10 min | 30 pts |
| 72 | Fix a broken commission formulaHarbor Supply — commission run with a bug | IF | Advanced | 14 min | 40 pts |
| 75 | Build a running total that fills downHarbor Supply — monthly sales, cumulative column | SUM | Advanced | 12 min | 35 pts |
| 76 | Chain two lookups with XLOOKUPHarbor Supply — orders, customers and credit terms | XLOOKUP | Advanced | 13 min | 40 pts |
| 78 | Find which customers are missing from a listHarbor Supply — CRM customers versus billing records | COUNTIF · IF | Advanced | 14 min | 40 pts |
| 79 | Fix a SUMIFS with its arguments swappedHarbor Supply — regional totals, formula under repair | SUMIFS | Advanced | 11 min | 35 pts |
| 82 | Reconcile a list with hidden spacesHarbor Supply — export vs master customer list | COUNTIF · IF | Advanced | 12 min | 35 pts |
| 84 | Why does a lookup fail on clean data?Conceptual question — no dataset | XLOOKUP | Advanced | 4 min | 30 pts |