How to make birthday reminder in Excel?
Managing employee birthdays in a large organization can be a challenge, especially when you want to deliver personalized birthday cards or best wishes on their special day. If you store staff names, birth dates, and other information in an Excel worksheet, you might struggle to determine at a glance whose birthday falls on the current date. Setting up a birthday reminder system in Excel helps you avoid missing any important occasions and allows for timely acknowledgment or notifications. This tutorial demonstrates several practical ways you can create automated birthday reminders, catering to different needs—whether you prefer simple formulas, visual highlights.
Make birthday reminder in Excel with formula
Make birthday reminder in Excel with Conditional Formatting
Make birthday reminder in Excel with formula
With the right formula, you can mark or flag the rows containing staff members who are celebrating their birthday today. Here’s how you can set this up, making your workbook a living, always-updating birthday dashboard:
1. Start with a simple employee table containing at least their names and birth dates. For instance, your worksheet might look like this:
2. To identify whose birthday is today, enter the formula below into a blank column next to your data (such as C2, assuming B2 contains the birth date):
=IF(MONTH(B2)<>MONTH(TODAY())," ",IF(DAY(B2)<>DAY(TODAY())," ","Happy Birthday"))Adjust B2 if your birthday column is in a different cell. For convenience, you can copy this formula to the entire column alongside your staff list.
3. After typing the formula, press Enter. To apply it to additional rows, drag the fill handle from C2 down to cover the rest of your staff list. Any row that matches today’s month and day will display “Happy Birthday”; others will remain blank. For example, notice how the notification appears only for relevant birthdays each day:
Note: Since the formula uses TODAY(), it dynamically updates every day, ensuring your birthday reminders are always accurate and up to date.
- Scenario and Advantages: This approach is direct, lightweight, and doesn’t require complex settings. It’s useful if you regularly review the sheet or compile reminders manually.
- Tips: Be sure that the date column actually contains true date values, not text. If you see #VALUE! errors, check formatting.
- Potential Issue: This method does not account for years, making it suitable for recurring reminders (annual birthdays). If your data includes non-standard date formats or you need to adjust for different time zones, consider those in your data preparation.
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Make birthday reminder in Excel with Conditional Formatting
If you prefer a visual solution, Conditional Formatting lets you automatically highlight any birthday that falls on today’s date. This makes scanning a large table for today’s birthdays much quicker. Try the following steps:
1. Select the column or cells containing the dates of birth (for example, column B).
2. Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. This brings up a rule-creation dialog:
3. In the New Formatting Rule dialog, choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format. In the formula box, enter:
=(MONTH(TODAY())=MONTH(B2))*(DAY(TODAY())=DAY(B2))B2 should refer to the first cell in your selected range. Confirm that your selection aligns with the applied formula.
4. Click Format. In the new dialog, go to the Fill tab and choose a color to highlight birthday cells.
5. After confirming your color selection, click OK in the Format Cells window, and then OK in the rule dialog to apply the formatting. Dates matching today’s month and day will now be automatically highlighted in your chosen color:
Note: This formatting updates automatically as the days change, so your workbook always highlights the correct birthdays.
- Scenario and Advantages: Visual highlighting is great when you need to spot birthdays quickly across large datasets, especially for daily or weekly reviews.
- Tips: You can combine this method with filters—use Excel’s filter feature to show only highlighted rows for an even faster check.
- Precautions: As with the formula, ensure the birth date data are real dates (not text). If Conditional Formatting doesn’t appear to work, double-check that your reference cell (like B2) matches your selection range start.
Summary and Troubleshooting Suggestions:
- If your formula or Conditional Formatting does not update or triggers errors, check data format and whether
TODAY()is recalculating (press F9 to recalculate workbook). - All solutions here refresh dynamically with the system date, so you don't have to manually update reminders each day.
Related articles:
How to convert birthdate to age quickly in Excel?
How to sort birthdays (dates) by month in Excel quickly?
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