Excel’s SEARCH function returns the starting position of a substring inside another text string. It is case-insensitive. If the text is missing, SEARCH returns a #VALUE! error. Use FIND when you need a case-sensitive match.

Syntax

=SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

• find_text: the characters you want to locate.

• within_text: the string or cell to search in.

• start_num (optional): character position to start from (default is 1).

Put literal text in double quotes. Cell references do not need quotes.

Example: flag rows that contain a street name

Suppose column C holds addresses and you want every row that mentions “West Street”:

1. In D2 enter =SEARCH("West Street", C2).

2. Press Enter.

3. Fill the formula down the column.

SEARCH returns a number (the start position) when it finds a match, and #VALUE! when it does not. You can wrap that with ISNUMBER or IFERROR to build a clean Yes/No helper column for filters.

If you set start_num to 20, SEARCH only looks from the 20th character onward, so earlier matches are ignored.

When finance teams use SEARCH

• Spot vendor names or account keywords inside long memo fields.

• Detect a department or location token inside concatenated labels.

• Build helper columns that feed AutoFilter before variance commentary.

SEARCH finds text. It does not refresh the source numbers. Once helper columns are stable, LiveFlow FP&A can keep the underlying Excel reports updating from QuickBooks.

SEARCH vs FIND (quick notes)

• SEARCH: not case-sensitive; supports wildcards ? and * in many Excel builds.

• FIND: case-sensitive; no wildcards.

• Both return #VALUE! when the substring is absent.

• Pair either with IFERROR(..., "") or ISNUMBER(...) before you sort or filter a model for leadership.

Why finance teams use LiveFlow

String helpers clean labels. Live data keeps the model honest. LiveFlow FP&A connects QuickBooks Online (and other books) to Excel so you spend less time pasting exports and more time analyzing the rows SEARCH helped you isolate.

CTA: Book a demo of LiveFlow FP&A for Excel.