Have you ever spent 30 minutes just writing an IF formula?
Or manually copied columns across multiple CSVs to get a clean report?
Or worse—got stuck writing analysis summaries after making “just one chart”?

You're not alone. Excel is powerful, but traditional workflows are painful.

In this article, we’ll share 4 common Excel + ChatGPT tips that save tons of time—and show you how Excelmatic lets you skip all of that by asking just one question.

Tip 1: Build a multi-condition IF formula (e.g. identify bestsellers)

Scenario:

You want to classify a product as a Bestseller if:

Sales ≥ 100 AND Profit Margin ≥ 30%

Traditional method:

Formula:

=IF(AND(B2>=100,C2>=30%),"Bestseller","Other")

You need to remember how AND() works, how to format %, and debug when something breaks.

ChatGPT version:

Prompt:

Write an Excel formula that marks a product as "Bestseller" if sales are 100 or more AND profit margin is 30% or higher.

ChatGPT replies with the formula + step-by-step breakdown. Useful—but still manual work.

Excelmatic: No formula, just a sentence.

Sample input table:

Product	Sales	Profit Margin
A	150	35%
B	80	40%
C	120	25%

Prompt to Excelmatic:

Mark each product as "Bestseller" if sales ≥100 and profit margin ≥30%. Add a new column for the result.

Excelmatic output:

Excelmatic

No formula. No mistakes. Instant result.

Tip 2: Extract text from a cell (e.g. pull codes from order numbers)

Scenario:

You want to extract the city code from an order ID like SZ-20230401-00321.

Traditional method:

Use:

=LEFT(A2,FIND("-",A2)-1)

This only works if the format is consistent. It breaks easily with extra characters or inconsistent formatting.

ChatGPT version:

Prompt:

How to extract the city code from the string "SZ-20230401-00321"?

ChatGPT will generate the right formula, and even explain it—but again, still manual work.

Excelmatic:

Input table:

Order ID
SZ-20230401-00321
BJ-20230402-00011
SH-20230401-00999

Prompt:

Extract the city code from each order ID and create a new column called "City".

Output:

Excelmatic

One sentence. Smart extraction. Clean output.

Tip 3: Calculate ROI and identify underperforming ad campaigns

Scenario:

You want to find out which ad campaigns have ROI < 1, and sort them.

Traditional method:

Add a new ROI column: =Revenue / Spend
Use filters or SORT()
Optional: Create a chart

All this requires attention to column references and formatting.

ChatGPT version:

Prompt:

Write an Excel formula to calculate ROI and filter rows where ROI is below 1.

It gives the formula and explains, but you still need to build the workflow.

Excelmatic:

Input table:

Campaign	Spend	Revenue
A	500	450
B	300	900
C	1000	800

Prompt:

Show campaigns where ROI is less than 1. Sort them by ROI ascending.

Output:

Excelmatic

ROI calculated, filtered, sorted—chart-ready in seconds.

Tip 4: Generate a trend chart with a written summary

Scenario:

You’re asked to create a sales trend chart for the week and write an analysis.

Traditional method:

Build a line chart
Observe trends
Write insights manually
Update it every day

Exhausting when you do this weekly.

ChatGPT version:

Prompt:

Here's sales data from April 1 to April 7. Can you write a summary?

ChatGPT gives a nice paragraph, but you still need to make the chart in Excel.

Excelmatic:

Input table:

Date	Revenue
2025-04-01	8000
2025-04-02	9200
2025-04-03	8700
2025-04-04	9500
2025-04-05	7000
2025-04-06	7200
2025-04-07	9800

Prompt:

Create a line chart of daily revenue and write a one-paragraph summary of the weekly trend.

Output:

Excelmatic

Chart + summary, exportable to reports and decks.

Summary: What takes minutes (or hours) now takes one sentence

Task	Traditional Workflow	Excelmatic
IF condition formula	Build + debug	One prompt
Text extraction (codes, dates)	Multiple functions	One prompt
ROI filtering and ranking	Calculate + sort	One prompt
Trend chart with insights	Chart + write summary	One prompt

Final Thoughts

With ChatGPT, you can reduce time writing formulas.
With Excelmatic, you don’t need to write them at all.

The future of spreadsheet work isn't about mastering formulas—
It’s about learning to ask better questions.

Ask Excelmatic. Let it do the work.

Try It Free Now

AI

Ditch Your Excel Templates: Automate Data Analysis with AI (ChatGPT + Excelmatic in Action)

Save Hours with These 4 ChatGPT + Excel Tips (and How Excelmatic Does It in One Sentence)