06/30/2026
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET
*approximate length: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Presenter: David Ringstrom, CPA
Conditional logic is at the heart of many Excel models, yet it’s often where formulas become fragile, unreadable, or error prone.
In this practical session, David Ringstrom, CPA and author of Excel for Dummies, demystifies Excel’s logical and conditional functions so you can build formulas that are both powerful and maintainable. You’ll learn how Excel evaluates logical tests, apply IF effectively, diagnose formulas step by step, and recognize when nested IFs have reached their breaking point.
The session explores modern alternatives such as IFS, SWITCH, and LET, along with best practices for handling errors using IFERROR and IFNA. You’ll also see how conditional logic extends into calculations with SUMIF and SUMIFS. Designed for users who want clearer formulas and fewer surprises, this webinar helps you make Excel’s decision-making work for you instead of against you.
David has more than 30 years of experience as a spreadsheet and accounting software consultant and speaker. He has presented over 2,500 live webinars and is the author or co-author of ten books, including “Microsoft 365 Excel All-in-One for Dummies”, “Microsoft 365 Excel for Dummies”, “Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures”, and “QuickBooks Online for Dummies”.
In his webinars, David demonstrates every technique twice: first on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and then live in Excel for Microsoft 365 for Windows. He highlights any differences in Excel 2024, 2021, or 2019 during the presentation and in his detailed handouts. Attendees also receive an Excel workbook containing most of the examples he uses, making it easy to follow along and apply the techniques later. David additionally supports Excel for Mac users by answering their follow-up questions via email.
Who should attend: Professionals seeking to use Microsoft Excel more effectively.
Topics typically covered:
- Using the Evaluate Formula tool to step through a calculation to see how Excel resolves a formula.
- Using IFNA to trap only #N/A errors while allowing other errors like #DIV/0! to remain visible.
- Avoiding the complexity of nested IF statements with Excel’s CHOOSE function.
- Adding values that match two or more conditions within a range.
- Using MAXIFS to return maximum values by criteria (Excel 2019/Microsoft 365; #NAME? in older versions).
- Adding values that match a single condition within a range.
- Using IFERROR, ISERROR, and LET to handle divide-by-zero and formula errors.
- Comparing values using logical operators to return TRUE or FALSE outcomes.
Learning objectives:
- Identify the menu that contains the Evaluate Formula command.
- State what the CHOOSE function returns when the Index_Num argument exceeds the number of Index arguments.
- Recall the maximum number of criteria pairs that the SUMIFS function permits.
Level: Basic
David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is an author and nationally recognized instructor who teaches scores of webinars each year. His Excel courses are based on 25 years of consulting and teaching experience. David’s mantra is “Either you work Excel, or it works you,” so he focuses on what he sees users don’t, but should, know about Microsoft Excel. His goal is to empower you to use Excel more effectively.