One of my viewers asked for my help to use the SUMIF Function in Excel to total Year-to-Date (YTD) Sales. Generally, the SUMIF Function is very easy to set up and use. However, when you need to refer to a “date” in the criteria argument, there is a “Got’cha” step.
How to Write the Formula for Year-to-Date Sales
=SUMIF(Date, “<=”&TODAY(), Sales) Notice how the <= comparison operator is enclosed within ” ” (Quotation Marks) and I use the & (ampersand) to join the TODAY() Function. Be careful when you write this fomula. In my experience, when I try to write THIS formula in the “Functions Argument” Dialog Box, I almost always get an Error Message.
Create and Use Named Cell Ranges in SUMIF Function
As a best practice, I encourage you to create and use “Named Cell Ranges” in your formulas. This is especially helpful with the SUMIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIF, COUTIFS functions because you are usually looking inside extensive ranges of data.
Another Way to Total Year-to-Date Sales
For many years, I did not realize that there was a SUMIF Function. So, I used to create an extra column and write to formulas to compute the YTD Sales. If you do want to or need to see YTD sales in each cell, I show you how to do this by writing just one formula.
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