I use these 3 Excel formulas to organize my daily life

Published Nov 6, 2026, 9:30 AM EST Tony Phillips is a senior author at How-To Geek with over a decade of experience working with documents, data, and digital productivity tools. Holding a dual-honors degree in Linguistics and Hispanic Studies, he combines technical expertise with a passion for making complex topics easy to understand. Before joining How-To Geek in 2024, Tony worked as a document producer, data manager, legal document specialist, and content creator. He has also proofread and edited more than 3 million words of academic and professional writing. While Tony specializes in Microsoft 365, particularly Excel, his interests extend far beyond Office. He enjoys testing software, exploring open-source projects, discovering useful companion apps, and finding ways to customize and optimize Windows. Whether he's building spreadsheets, evaluating new tools, or uncovering hidden features, Tony enjoys helping readers get more from their technology. Outside of tech, he enjoys spending time with his dog, watching football, astrophotography, gardening, and golf. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Microsoft Excel isn't just for work. In fact, by leveraging just three single, powerful formulas, I use the popular spreadsheet software at home to track warranties, manage my budget, and ensure I never forget a birthday. Thanks to Excel, I've ditched my chaotic life for one that's highly organized. See upcoming warranty expiration dates Functions required FILTER, YEAR, MONTH, DATEVALUE Complexity Low Formula explanation The formula creates a dynamic list of items from your inventory that have a warranty expiration date matching the month and year you enter. There's nothing more frustrating than realizing a key household item is failing, only to later find out you missed the warranty expiration by a few days. To avoid this, I use the FILTER function to track when product warranties expire, so I can check the condition of my products well in advance. In my spreadsheet below, when I enter a month and year into cells G2 and G3, respectively, the formula checks the Warranty column of the T_Receipts table for matching dates and automatically populates the lookup table with a spilled dynamic array. Achieving this requires only one formula, which I entered into cell F6: =FILTER(T_Receipts,(MONTH(T_Receipts[Warranty])=MONTH(DATEVALUE(G2&"1")))*(YEAR(T_Receipts[Warranty])=G3),"No items") Here's how the formula works. Part 1: Initiating the FILTER function The FILTER function filters an array based on certain criteria. In this case, the array is a table named T_Receipts: FILTER(T_Receipts Part 2: Specifying the filtering criteria The second part of the formula is the inclusion criteria, and since I need it to consider the month and the year, it consists of two segments. The first segment looks for dates in the Warranty column whose month matches the month in cell G2. However, because the full month name is used in cell G2, it needs to be converted into a month number. First, the month in cell G2 is concatenated with 1 to create a date string (such as January 1). Then, the DATEVALUE function converts the string to a numeric value, which the MONTH function extracts from the date. Then, it compares that target month number to the month number of every warranty date in the Warranty column of the T_Receipts table: (MONTH(T_Receipts[Warranty])=MONTH(DATEVALUE(G2&"1"))) The second segment extracts the year from every date in the Warranty column of the T_Receipts table and checks if it's equal to the year in cell G3: (YEAR(T_Receipts[Warranty])=G3) Multiplying these two segments together forces Excel to treat them as a single logical test. Only when both segments return TRUE (represented as 1 in Excel's logic) will the multiplication equal 1. Then, any rows where 1 is the result are extracted into the filtered list. Categorize and track a budget Functions required LET, SUMIF, IFS Complexity Medium Formula explanation The formula determines how close your actual spending for a given category is to your budgeted limit for that category. Managing my personal finances used to mean manually comparing my spending against my budget for various categories, but this was unreliable and time-consuming. Now, I use a single Excel formula to automate this comparison and give me instant feedback on my financial health. As you can see in the screenshot below, this formula is invaluable because it tells me if I'm within, near, or over my budget for each category in a given month. Here's the formula I entered into cell G2, which I then expanded to cell G8 using autofill: =LET(Spend,SUMIF(T_Budget[Category],E2,T_Budget[Cost]),IFS(Spend>F2,"Over budget",Spend=F2,"Budget hit",Spend>(F2*0.9),"Near budget",TRUE,"Within budget")) Let's break the formula down to understand what's going on. Part 1: Defining the Spend variable The LET function is one of Excel's most versatile functions, as it lets me name a result and refer to it multiple times. This makes the final formula easier to parse and faster to execute. In this case, I'm calling the result Spend: =LET(Spend Now, I need to define what the Spend variable represents. To do this, I'll use the SUMIF function to calculate the total cost for the specific budget category in question: =LET(Spend,SUMIF(T_Budget[Category],E2,T_Budget[Cost]) T_Budget[Category]: This is the range to check. E2: This is the criterion. It checks if the category in the table matches the category name in cell E2. T_Budget[Cost]: This is the range to sum. If the categories match, the corresponding value in the Cost column is added. Because I used the LET function, the Spend variable holds the total amount I've spent for the category listed in cell E2. Part 2: Determining the budget status The final part of the LET function uses the calculated Spend variable inside the IFS function to determine the status. The IFS function evaluates multiple conditions from left to right until one returns TRUE. Then, it returns the corresponding value: IFS(Spend>F2,"Over budget",Spend=F2,"Budget hit",Spend>(F2*0.9),"Near budget",TRUE,"Within budget") Spend>F2,"Over budget": This is the first test. If the total spend is greater than the budget limit in cell F2, the formula stops and returns "Over budget." Spend=F2,"Budget hit": If the first test isn't met, Excel moves onto the second test. In this case, it checks whether the spending exactly matches the limit in cell F2 and, if so, returns "Budget hit." Spend>(F2*0.9),"Near budget": If neither of the first two tests is met, I want Excel to check whether the spending for a category exceeds 90% of the budget in cell F2. If this is the case, it returns "Near budget." TRUE,"Within budget": The final test is the catch-all—if my spending hasn't triggered any of the other three tests, the formula returns "Within budget." Work out the next time it's someone's birthday Functions required IF, DATE, MONTH, YEAR, TODAY Complexity High Formula explanation The formula works out whether a date has already passed this year. If it hasn't, it shows you the number of days remaining until that date in the current year. If it has, it tells you how long is left until the same date the next year. If, like me, you're terrible at tracking birthdays, Excel can help you out. This table tells me how many days are left until each person's birthday: This is the formula I constructed in cell C2. Because I entered it into an Excel table, it duplicated down the Days column automatically when I pressed Enter: =IF(DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH([@Birthday]),DAY([@Birthday]))<TODAY(),DATE(YEAR(TODAY())+1,MONTH([@Birthday]),DAY([@Birthday])),DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH([@Birthday]),DAY([@Birthday])))-TODAY() Let me break this complex formula down. Part 1: Establishing the current date and creating this year's birthday date The formula begins by calculating the birthday date for the current year: (DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH([@Birthday]), DAY([@Birthday])) YEAR(TODAY(): This extracts the current year. MONTH([@Birthday]): This extracts the month of the original date in the Birthday column of the current row. DAY([@Birthday]): This extracts the day of the original date in the Birthday column of the current row. Part 2: Checking if the date has passed this year The next part of the formula checks whether the date created in Part 1 has already passed this year: IF(Part 1)<TODAY() If the date is less than (earlier than) today's date, it means the birthday has passed (returning TRUE). On the other hand, if the date is greater than (later than) or equal to today's date, it means the birthday is upcoming or today (returning FALSE). Part 3: Calculating the next target date The IF function returns different outputs depending on whether the criteria are met. If Part 2 returns TRUE (in other words, the date has passed), the formula adds 1 to the current year and calculates the date of the birthday for the next year as the target date: DATE(YEAR(TODAY())+1,MONTH([@Birthday]),DAY([@Birthday])) However, if Part 2 returns FALSE (because the date hasn't passed), the formula uses the birthday date for the current year as the target date: DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH([@Birthday]),DAY([@Birthday])) Part 4: The final subtraction Finally, today's date is subtracted from the target date: =Target date-TODAY()) Subtracting the current date from the calculated future date returns the final number of days until the next birthday. If the result of the formula appears as a date instead of a number of days, change the cell's number format from "Date" to "Number" to display the countdown correctly. It's clear that Excel isn't just for accountants. In fact, you can use it for many everyday, home-based tasks, like planning vacation destinations, tracking your sports team's stats, and monitoring your weight. The introduction of dynamic array functions has made these complex solutions cleaner and faster than ever before, so don't be afraid to experiment with new tools. Microsoft 365 Personal OS Windows, macOS, iPhone, iPad, Android Free trial 1 month Microsoft 365 includes access to Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on up to five devices, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and more.