I would say one of the first things people learn in Excel is how to total up a column or row of numbers. This is done very simply by using the SUM function. The AutoSum button in most cases does this automatically. But what if you want to total up a range of numbers based on particular criteria. Let’s say you have some sales figures and you want to total them up based on sales made in a particular year such as 2013. Well you could use the SUMIF function. However, what if in addition to the year you wanted to also show only a particular product listed in another row or column. Then you need the SUMIFS function.

In this video you will see how to use the SUMIFS function.