Excel Tips


Find the Area of a Circle »

March 9, 2022

I need to order pizza for my department’s staff meeting. The pizza place has two deals. I can buy three medium (12”) pizzas for $18 or two large (16”) pizzas for $20. Which is the better deal?


Calculate a Growth Rate »

March 8, 2022

I work for a quickly growing company. In the first year, we had $970,000 in sales. In the fifth year, we had $6,175,000 in sales. I need to determine our compounded annual growth rate.


Raise a Number to a Fraction to Find the Square or Third Root »

March 7, 2022

Excel offers a SQRT function to find the square root of a number. What do I do if I need to figure out the third root or the fourth root of a number?


Use the ^ Sign for Exponents »

March 4, 2022

I have a room that is 10 feet x 10 feet x 10 feet. How do I find the volume of the cube?


Calculate a Running Percentage of Total »

March 3, 2022

I have a report of revenue by customer, sorted in descending order. Management consultants often argue that it’s important to concentrate the best team on the 20% of the customers who provide 80% of the company’s revenue. How can I calculate a cumulative running percentage of the total so I can determine which 20% of customers to focus on?


Calculate a Percentage of Total »

March 2, 2022

I have a spreadsheet with sales by customer and a total at the bottom. I want to express each customer as a percentage of the total.


Why Is This Price Showing $27.85000001 Cents? »

March 1, 2022

I have a worksheet in which I expect the cells to show dollars and cents. For some reason, a price in the formula bar is showing a few millionths of a cent.


Separate the Integer From the Decimals »

February 28, 2022

I have a column of values that include digits before and after the decimal point. I don’t want to round anything, I just want the whole number. Or, I just want the decimal. How can I easily break those apart?


Round 0.5 towards Even Per ASTM-E29 »

February 25, 2022

Excel always rounds 0.5 up to the next integer. The latest best practice in rounding says to round 0.5 towards the even number.