What are some basic formulas and functions you can use in a spreadsheet?

Spreadsheets are fantastic tools to help with calculations and data organization. Here are some basic formulas and functions that can be very useful in a business context: 

1. SUM: Adds up a range of cells. For example, if you want to add up the total sales from cells A1 to A10, use =SUM(A1:A10).
2. AVERAGE: Calculates the average value of a range of cells. To find the average sales from cells B1 to B10, use =AVERAGE(B1:B10).
3. MAX & MIN: Finds the highest and lowest values in a range, respectively. To find the highest sales in cells C1 to C10, use =MAX(C1:C10). For the lowest sales, use =MIN(C1:C10).
4. COUNT: Counts the number of cells with data in a range. If you want to count the number of completed tasks in cells D1 to D10, use =COUNT(D1:D10).
5. IF: Tests a condition and returns one value if it’s true and another if it’s false. For example, to check if the sales in cell E1 are greater than $1,000 and return “Yes” if true or “No” if not, use =IF(E1>1000, “Yes”, “No”).
6. CONCATENATE: Joins text strings together. To combine the first and last names in cells F1 and G1, use =CONCATENATE(F1, ” “, G1).
7. VLOOKUP: Searches for a value in the first column of a range and returns a value from the same row in a specified column. To find the price of a product with a specific ID (H1) in a price list (A1:B10) where the IDs are in column A and the prices in column B, use =VLOOKUP(H1, A1:B10, 2, FALSE). 

These are just a few examples of the many powerful functions available in spreadsheets to make your data work for you!