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jojomartin845's avatar
jojomartin845
Copper Contributor
May 01, 2026

Put a specific word in a cell based on the word in another cell

Hey everyone, I need help automating the categorisation of my bank statement in excel. I do not have microsoft 365.  I want excel to look for specific words from my transactions eg Woolworths or McD...
excel
Excel on Mac
IlirU's avatar
IlirU
Iron Contributor
May 05, 2026

Hi jojomartin845​,

Since you don't have Microsoft 365 then I think you can use Excel for the web. I have given my solution below in Excel for the web (see the screenshot).

In cell A5 I have applied this formula:

=LET(
     desc, D5:D10,
    merch, M4:M6,
      cat, N4:N6,
      rwn, SEQUENCE(ROWS(desc)) / SIGN(SEARCH(merch, TRANSPOSE(desc))),
      num, TOCOL(TRANSPOSE(rwn), 3),
           XLOOKUP(num, SEQUENCE(ROWS(cat)), cat)
)

Change the ranges in the formula according to your needs.

HTH

IlirU