Can I do this in Excel?

Factual Questions
1

I’m using Excel to manage a project spanning many months, using the =WORKDAY function to increment delivery dates for each step. (Ie, it adds the date in one cell to a numeric value in another cell to generate the next due date.) The worksheet contains two schedules: a fixed one representing the “original” milestone due dates, and a variable one which will change as actual delivery dates are entered into the formulas.

This is what I want to do. I want to create a function that:

  • Compares the final delivery date in the original schedule with that in the variable schedule
  • Returns a customized string depending on the result:
    • If the original delivery date is sooner than the variable date, return the string “Project is days behind,” where x = the variance between dates
    • If the dates are the same, return “Project is on schedule”
    • If the original date is later than the variable date, return “Project is days ahead,” where x = yadda yadda

Excel is, to put it mildly, not my bag. If any Excel whizzes out there can figure out how to do this and let me know, I’d be your friend. And do let me know if this is even comprehensible.

Thanks!

2

Can’t this be done with simple IF() commands?

3

Should be doable with If statements. The trick here is to split it into three columns:

Let A1 = Days until target completion.
Let A2 = Days until calculated completion

The first column will have the text: ‘The project is’.
The second column will have a formula comparing A1 and A2, outputting the difference (ABS (A1-A2)) if they’re different and the text ‘on schedule’ if there’s no difference.
The third column will have a formula outputting nothing, ‘days ahead’, or ‘days late’ as appropriate.

4

You can do this in one nested if statement. If A1 has the orginal due date and b2 has the revised due date:
=IF(A1<B1,“Project is “&TEXT(B1-A1,”##0”)&" days behind",IF(A1=B1,“Project is on schedule”,“Project is “&TEXT(A1-B1,”##0”)&" days ahead"))

& is displaying strange, it is the ampersand (shifted 7)

5

Out of curiosity, is there some reason why you’re using Excel rather than something like Project?

6

Thank you everyone for your responses. The reason I’m doing this in Excel is that our homegrown project management system is going through a lengthy upgrade, and, well, we can’t afford to buy anything.