Calculate a Completion Percentage

Excel & Google Sheets

How it works

COUNTIF counts how many cells in the status column say Complete. COUNTA counts how many status cells are filled in at all. Dividing one by the other gives the completion rate — format the cell as a percentage to display it as 70% rather than 0.7. Because both counts are live, the percentage updates itself as statuses change.

COUNTIF(C2:C11,"Complete")

Counts the rows marked Complete.

COUNTA(C2:C11)

Counts all non-empty status cells — the denominator.

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Divides completed by total. Format the result as a percentage.

When to use it

Use this for any progress metric: project task completion, order fulfillment, survey response rates, migration checklists.

Common mistakes

• ✕Using COUNTA over a whole column that includes the header.

  ✓COUNTA counts the header text too, deflating your percentage. Start the range below the header, or subtract 1.

• ✕Statuses are inconsistent — "Complete", "complete ", "Done".

  ✓COUNTIF misses variants with stray spaces or different labels. Standardize the status column with a dropdown (data validation).

• ✕Denominator includes rows that shouldn't count.

  ✓If some rows are Not Required, exclude them: =COUNTIF(C2:C11,"Complete")/COUNTIFS(C2:C11,"<>Not Required").