How to spreadsheet
Spreadsheets are so powerful, yet so underutilized. Here's 20% of the knowledge to unlock 90% of their magic.
My first job out of college was in the finance department at IBM. It was a great place to start my career. I learned a lot about how to be a professional.
I also learned a lot about the size of company I didn’t want to work in. 😅
But most importantly, I got a crash course on using Excel.
I suppose you could say it quite literally changed my life.
14 years later, here I am building a spreadsheet company.
My first project as an intern was to build a colossal Excel workbook. It was complete with buttons and macros. It was essentially a piece of software in itself.
I got so deep into the Excel world that at night, I would dream I was in a spreadsheet—Bobby in a cell, writing formulas, hopping from cell to cell. Yeah, weird. I know.
Yet my obsession with spreadsheets has remained.
Although I can’t say I still have vivid “I’m in a spreadsheet” dreams, I do dream about building the next spreadsheet.
In building Equals over the past three years, I’ve seen what “spreadsheet” means to others. Every day, I jump on calls and see the hot mess that is everyone’s spreadsheets.
It’s been a harsh reality. Not everyone is as obsessed with them as me. 😅 Or at least, they haven’t gone as deep into them as I have.
But a funny thing happens when you go really deep into any topic; a simplicity emerges. You learn what matters most.
What I’ve learned is that you can “spreadsheet” with just a tiny fraction of features available in a spreadsheet.
In fact, once you know a few fundamental principles, you can build almost any analysis and model nearly any business.
20% of knowledge unlocks 90% of the magic
I wrote the first version of the guide on How to Spreadsheet to give folks who didn’t have the obsessive crash course that I had the 20% knowledge that unlocks 90% of the magic. I shared it a few months ago, drawing a lot of interest and feedback. More than I expected.
Today, we published an updated version of How to Spreadsheet in our help docs.
It’s a free and publicly available resource for anyone to view–complete with videos, screenshot tutorials, and a sample workbook to apply the best practices as you go.
Yet, in the spirit of condensing my learnings even further, here’s the ONE thing I wish I could snap my fingers and have everyone know. It will make you 10x more dangerous in a spreadsheet. Dangerously good.
Get dangerously good using SUMIFS
Give me SUMIFS and my basic arithmetic and logic functions, and I can model just about any business.
It’s the most powerful function in a spreadsheet. Once you know how to use it, it’ll change how you architect your workbook. You’ll learn to make your analysis much more resilient to change. And with it, I’m confident I can model just about anything - any business that is.
We’ve dedicated an entire section of the guide to how to use the SUMIFS function. I suggest that as a great starting point. Or jump straight into any of the other sections:
That’s it. That’s the guide.
Happy spreadsheet-ing.