Color-Coding Excel Cells: Visualize Profitability

Anh Tuấn, owner of a small trucking company in Long Biên, Hanoi, struggled to manage his revenue. His trucks crisscrossed busy streets like Nguyễn Văn Linh and narrow alleyways in the Old Quarter, making manual tracking tedious and inefficient.

A chance encounter with an engineer friend introduced Anh Tuấn to the “secret weapon” of conditional formatting in Excel. It sounded complex, but proved surprisingly simple and effective.

What is conditional formatting in Excel? How did it help Anh Tuấn manage his trucking business? Let’s delve into the details with Xe Tải Hà Nội.

Conditional Formatting in Excel: Concept and Application

Definition

Conditional formatting allows you to automatically change the color of cells based on specific criteria. For example, you can set a rule to color cells with values greater than 100 green and those less than 50 red.

Benefits

• Easy Identification of Key Data: Instead of scrutinizing numbers, quickly identify cells meeting specific criteria through color highlighting.
• Enhanced Analysis: Visualizing data reveals trends, anomalies, and facilitates better decision-making.
• Professional Reporting: Well-presented, easy-to-understand spreadsheets impress partners and clients.

Practical Applications

This feature is invaluable for data management, business report analysis, and project tracking. Anh Tuấn could use it to:

• Track Revenue: Highlight high-revenue days in green, average days in yellow, and low-revenue days in red.
• Manage Expenses: Flag over-budget expenses in red, cautionary expenses in yellow, and reasonable expenses in green.
• Monitor Truck Performance: Highlight high-performing trucks in green, average performers in yellow, and low performers in red.

Truck driver reviewing data on a laptop

How to Apply Conditional Formatting in Excel

Step 1: Select the Data Range

For instance, you might want to color-code the revenue column for each truck.

Step 2: Navigate to Home -> Conditional Formatting -> New Rule

Step 3: Choose a Rule Type

Depending on your needs, choose from:

• Highlight Cells Rules: Color-code based on cell values.
• Top/Bottom Rules: Highlight the highest/lowest values.
• Data Bars, Color Scales, Icon Sets: Visualize data with bars, scales, or icons.

Step 4: Set the Condition and Format

For example, to highlight revenue above 10 million VND in green:

• Select “Greater Than”
• Enter “10000000”
• Choose a green fill color.