Pull the Sales team's average salary for the cost analysis
The CFO opens the cost review at 3pm and wants the average Sales salary on the first slide. The roster is on the left, and the small summary table on the right has 'Sales' already pinned in E2 so the formula can reference it as the criterion.
Average salary by department
Practice using AVERAGEIF to solve a real finance & accounting problem. By the end, you’ll know when to reach for it and how to structure the arguments correctly.
The CFO wants the average salary for the Sales department as part of a cost analysis. The roster sits on the left (columns A-C); the small summary table on the right has the department to query in E2 and the average lands in F2.
In F2, use AVERAGEIF to return the average salary from column C for rows where the department in column B matches E2 ('Sales').
AVERAGEIF returns the average of cells in a range that meet a single condition - the arithmetic mean of just the matches, ignoring everything else. Sister function to SUMIF and COUNTIF with the same argument shape and wildcard support.
AVERAGEIF(range, criteria, [average_range])Try the formula first. Hints cost CP for a reason.