Microsoft Office products can be quite annoying. While their GUI-based interfaces are quite intuitive, having to deal with syntax can be quite frustrating. Case in point: Excel. The syntax for manipulating cells and performing calculations can be quite arcane. Thus, I'm writing the following down as I'm sure I'll need it (I didn't say that I didn't use Office).
To count entries in a single colum, the "count" directive is used. Pretty straightforward. It's when you try to count line items that require matching on multiple columns that it gets confusing. For some reason, instead of the "count" directive, you have to use the "sum" directive (intuitive fail right there!) and it also requires an even less obvious key combination to activate it.
To count entries in columns where conditions involve multiple columns (e.g., those where both "On-going" in one column and "assigned" in another column are required), use the sum directive (in this case, it _is_ used to count entries). Just use
=sum((A8:A222="Ongoing)*(G8:G222="assigned"))
After typing this, if you hit Enter, you'll just receive an error. Instead of "Enter", press "Ctrl-Shift-Enter". It should work properly after that.
Source: http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/count-if.htm
<comments>Counting_multiple_columns_in_Excel</comments>