Make Sense of an Inherited Proposal Tracker with Copilot in Excel

What This Does

Someone left you a tracker with columns nobody explained, a formula nobody remembers writing, and rows with no date. Copilot in Excel can explain what a formula does, add a helper column that flags rows with no date, and highlight rows coming due soon. You get a working tracker faster, and you still test every formula yourself.

This is for tracker housekeeping. It never produces official spending figures. Those come from your financial system and your own checked formulas.

Before You Start

• Copilot in Excel is part of your Microsoft 365 setup. Microsoft's page says Copilot may not appear if it is not included in your subscription or enabled by your organization, and points to your IT admin for licensing questions. Pricing lives on Microsoft's pages and with your institution's IT.
• Your tracker holds proposal or award codes and dates only. Salaries, effort of named people, personal details and sponsor portal credentials never go into an AI tool. Whether even a codes-and-dates sheet may go into Copilot depends on your institution's AI guidance, so check it. If the answer is no, build a small invented sample with the same columns and learn the workflow there.
• Work on a copy. Save a duplicate of the tracker before you let Copilot edit anything.
• If Copilot cannot edit your file, ask IT about where the file is saved and what your license allows. Microsoft's page does not list a file-location rule for editing, but it does say that importing from other workbooks works with files on OneDrive, SharePoint or your computer.

Steps

1. Find the AI feature

Open the workbook and select the Copilot icon in the lower-right corner of Excel. Microsoft's page says Copilot in Excel opens in edit mode by default and offers three modes:

• Edit changes your workbook directly.
• Plan shows a plan for you to confirm before anything changes.
• Chat only answers in the chat and leaves the workbook alone.

Use Chat only for the first question. Use Plan or Edit for the changes. The page notes that iPad, iPhone and Android versions support fewer modes, so use Excel on Windows, Mac or the web for edits.

2. Tell it what you need

Work in three small requests, one at a time.

Request 1, in Chat only mode. Click a cell with a formula you do not understand and ask: "Explain what the formula in cell F2 does, step by step, in plain language." Compare the explanation with what you see in the formula bar.

Request 2, in Edit mode. "Add a column called Date Check. If the Internal Deadline cell is empty, show No date. Otherwise leave it blank."

Request 3, in Edit mode. "Add a column called Due in 14 Days. Show Yes when the Internal Deadline is today or within the next 14 days. Otherwise leave it blank. Then apply a fill color to rows where it shows Yes."

Microsoft's page lists conditional formatting and formulas among what Copilot can do, and says your content stays editable. If a result looks wrong, say what is wrong and ask Copilot to fix it. The Stop button in the lower-right of the chat box pauses a request.

3. Review and use the result

Click each new cell and read the formula in the formula bar. Then test it against rows you can check by hand, as in the example below. Test one row with a date and one row without. Test a date exactly 14 days out and one 15 days out, since boundary rows are where formulas go wrong.

If you cannot explain a formula to a colleague, do not keep it. Ask Copilot to simplify it or rewrite it another way.

Real Example

Scenario: You inherit a tracker (all values invented). Assume the date today is 2026-10-10.

What you expect, worked out by hand:

• P-201 is 4 days away: Due in 14 Days shows Yes.
• P-202 has no date: Date Check shows No date.
• P-203 is exactly 14 days away: Yes.
• P-204 is 15 days away: no flag.
• P-205 was 7 days ago: no flag, because the rule covers upcoming dates only. If you also want past-due rows highlighted, ask for a separate rule.
• P-206 is 41 days away: no flag.

What you do: Check the new columns against this list. If P-203 or P-204 comes out differently, the formula has a boundary problem (for example, "less than 14" instead of "up to 14"). Ask Copilot to correct it and test again.

Tips

• TODAY-based formulas change every day the workbook recalculates, so the example flags above hold only on 2026-10-10.
• Keep dates as real dates, not text. If a date column is left-aligned, it may be text, and date formulas will misbehave.
• Never ask Copilot for spending totals, burn rates or effort figures to report. Use your institution's financial system and your own formulas, and use Copilot only to explain numbers you already have.

Tool interfaces change. If a button has moved, look for the Copilot icon in the Excel ribbon or window, and ask your IT group which Copilot modes your license includes.