For this week’s discussion, I have  decided to discuss how the SUMIF function is used for calculating  individual hours contributed to a project. The SUMIF function is used  often for financial work, such as budgeting or manpower allocation. It  is a math function based on operators such as less than <, greater  than >,  less than or greater than < >, and equal to = just for  a few examples but also considers other functions such as * and ?.

As with all functions within Excel it  requires a formula that must meet certain criteria. In the case of SUMIF  the formula must contain the following:

• Range 
  • These are the cells we will apply the criteria to.
• Criteria 
  • The provided criteria can be: 
    • An expression 
      • “<5”, “=20”, “= or < 32”
    • A numeric value 
      • Integer, decimal, logic value for example
    • or optionally you can include a Sum range which is a group of cells  that are to be added together if the range entry meets a supplied  criterion.

 One example of how the SUMIF function  works would be if you want to calculate how many hours individual  employees contributed to a project you can use SUMIF to select a  particular name, word, or phrase from a given range of cells and then  add the given number in another range of cells and place the “SUM” in a  separate cell. As seen in the examples below.

So, in this case, we are instructing it  to SUM the inputs from L3 thru L8 if K3 thru K8 contains the phrase  “POWER CABLE” and place the SUM in O11 or if it the phrase says “CAN  CABLE” place the SUM in M11. It is important to make sure that the text  criteria or criteria that include math symbols be contained with  quotations “ “.

I have learned that excel can be a great  tool to make our jobs simpler and more productive and I have also found  it to be very user friendly, in fact, what I have learned about excel up  to this point has been through the use of Google where there is a bunch  of great how To’s and this is a tool I use almost daily from the  simplest of tasks, counting the characters in a part name as we are  restricted to forty where I work, to organizing wide branching projects I  am working on. That being said, I look forward to learning more about  the tool in this class.

REFERENCES:

CFI Team, (2022) SUMIF Function – Formula, Examples, How to Use SumIf in Excel (corporatefinanceinstitute.com)