9 Excel Functions You Should Know

Chasing Excel mastery will sabotage your productivity.

Why?

Because the “popular functions” we think are so essential…

→ SUMIF
→ IFERROR
→ VLOOKUP

…don’t guarantee the QUALITY of your analysis.

They only guarantee the QUANTITY of data processed.

Thinking “more functions = more insight” is the single worst belief system you can maintain as a finance pro.

Because when you build financial models, you’re focusing on 3 types of functions:

A. Aggregating data efficiently
B. Simplifying error management
C. Enhancing financial calculations

And within these 3 types of functions, you have 4 essentials:

1. XLOOKUP for flexible lookups
2. XIRR for irregular cash flows
3. SUMIF for conditional totals
4. IFERROR to handle errors

When you focus exclusively on mastering every Excel function…

…you’re building the absolute WORST kind of toolkit:

→ Complex formulas that slow down your work and create clutter.

These unnecessary functions quickly lead to frustration, and in the long run, will slow your progress.

A few projects down the line?

You’ll have an impressive spreadsheet…

…but a severe lack of clarity and efficiency.

People who chase every Excel function simply haven’t played the precision game before.

They think that adding more complexity with…

→ Nested lookups
→ Obscure formulas
→ Excessive data connections

…will work forever, because it impresses at first glance.

Spoiler alert:

It won’t.

Because it wasn’t so long ago that:

→ Excessive conditional formatting
→ Overly complex models
→ Endless pivot tables

…used to be the go-to for “advanced” Excel users.

Now? Not so much.

Play the simplicity game—

Or prepare to face the consequences.

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