Data tabs and summary tabs

A workbook with everything on one tab gets crowded fast. The layout most teams settle on: raw data on one tab, lookup tables on another, and a summary tab that people actually read. Formulas connect them.

To point at another tab, put its name and an exclamation mark in front of the cells: =Data!B2 or =SUM(Ads!B2:B7). If the name has a space, wrap it in single quotes: ='Q1 Data'!B2.

You rarely type this yourself. Start a formula, click the other tab, select the cells, and Sheets writes the reference for you. Press Enter and you land back where you started.

Everything you already know works across tabs:

• =XLOOKUP(B2, Territories!A2:A6, Territories!B2:B6) finds a lead's owner in a routing table.
• =SUMIFS(Orders!C2:C13, Orders!B2:B13, A2) fills one row of a summary. A2, with no tab name, means A2 on the tab you're on.

Habits that keep multi-tab workbooks sane:

• Name tabs for what they hold. Data, Rates, Summary. Not Sheet7.
• Keep data tabs raw. Paste new exports there and do the math somewhere else, so a fresh paste never overwrites a formula.
• Renaming is safe, deleting isn't. Rename a tab and every formula pointing at it updates. Delete it and they turn into #REF!.
• Leave room to grow. If the data tab gets new rows every week, point at whole columns like Orders!C:C so next week's rows count too.