Your First Real Excel Formulas (SUM & IF Explained Simply)

This is the point where Excel starts to feel genuinely useful.

In this video, we look at your first real Excel formulas — SUM and IF — and break them down in plain English, step by step. No jargon, no rushing, and no assumptions about prior knowledge.

We cover:

How the SUM formula works

How to use AutoSum from the toolbar

What an IF formula actually means in simple terms

How Excel makes true/false decisions

How these formulas are used in real work situations

This video builds directly on the earlier episodes in the series, where we learned how formulas copy and how to lock cells. With those foundations in place, SUM and IF become much easier to understand and use correctly.

This is part of a beginner-friendly Excel series designed to teach Excel slowly and properly, from the basics through to more advanced skills over time.

👉 In the next video, we’ll continue building on this by exploring AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, and MAX, and you’ll see that these all follow the same pattern as SUM.

🔔 What you’ll learn in this video:

• Your first real Excel formulas
• How SUM and AutoSum work
• IF explained in plain English
• How Excel makes decisions
• Practical Excel examples

If you’re following along with the series, you’re now past the most intimidating part — everything from here starts to feel more logical and manageable.