Why this matters
A credit officer in Bolgatanga opens the repayment sheet each morning. If overdue loans are already coloured, she sees them instantly instead of checking 400 dates by eye. Conditional formatting does that: it changes how a cell looks based on its value, and it keeps working as the data changes. It supports the KPI monitoring and data quality checks that MIS and reporting roles ask for.
Where to find it
- Excel (web, desktop and app): Home, then Conditional Formatting.
- Google Sheets: Format, then Conditional formatting.
Select the cells first, then choose a rule.
Built in rules
- Highlight cell rules: greater than, less than, between, equal to, text that contains, a date occurring (such as "last week"), and duplicate values, which is a fast way to spot a phone number entered twice.
- Top and bottom rules: top 10 items, bottom 10%, above average.
- Data bars: a small bar inside each cell, longer for bigger numbers. Good for a quick sense of size in a table.
- Colour scales: shades from low to high. Useful on a grid, such as sales by branch and month.