What is the difference between COUNTIF and COUNTIFS?
Short answer
COUNTIF counts cells matching one condition. COUNTIFS counts records for which conditions across one or more aligned ranges all hold. Use COUNTIFS for questions such as how many tasks belong to Alex and are still Open. These functions count matches; they do not add an amount or estimate hours from the matching rows.
With owners in B11:B70 and statuses in C11:C70, =COUNTIFS(B11:B70,"Alex",C11:C70,"Open") counts Alex’s open tasks. If four source tasks include two matching records, the result is 2 regardless of their estimated hours.
Why do COUNTIFS ranges need to align?
Each position across the ranges describes one record. A shifted owner range can pair one person’s name with another task’s status. Microsoft’s counting guide describes COUNTIFS and its multiple criteria.