If you’ve ever found yourself scrolling through a sea of SharePoint data trying to spot what’s urgent, overdue or missing – you’re not alone. Conditional formatting is one of SharePoint’s most effective built-in tools for helping you surface the most important information, fast.
And the best part? You don’t need to write a single line of code (unless you want to go advanced).
In this post, we’ll show you seven practical ways to use conditional formatting in SharePoint lists and libraries. Whether you’re in HR, Finance, IT, or Compliance, these techniques can help you and your team stay focused and proactive.
What Is Conditional Formatting in SharePoint?
Conditional formatting allows you to apply visual styling – such as colours, icons or emphasis – to rows or columns in a SharePoint list or library based on values in the data. It’s a bit like Excel’s conditional formatting, but built for collaborative workspaces.
It works best when you want to:
- Highlight deadlines or overdue tasks
- Surface missing or non-compliant data
- Draw attention to changes in status or performance
- Improve scanning and readability for large lists
- Make SharePoint feel less like a spreadsheet and more like a smart workspace
How to Apply Conditional Formatting (Quick Guide)
If you’re new to it, here’s a quick overview:
- Navigate to your SharePoint list or document library.
- Hover over the column you want to format, click the dropdown, and choose Column settings > Format this column.
- Select Conditional formatting in the formatting pane.
- Define your rule – e.g. “If Status is equal to ‘Delayed’, show red background.”
- Choose your style, then click Save.
Formatting will apply immediately and is visible to all list users.
7 Conditional Formatting Ideas That Make SharePoint Smarter
1. New Starter Tracker – Highlight Incomplete Onboarding
HR teams often manage multiple onboarding activities across departments – contracts, IT setup, equipment, and welcome briefings. Delays in one area can create a poor experience for new employees. By highlighting starters due to begin within the next week who still have incomplete tasks, HR can take swift action.
Example Rule:
- Start Date within 7 days and Status is not “Complete” → Show amber background.
- Status = “Overdue” → Show red text with alert icon.
Why it helps: It makes it instantly clear which starters need attention, removing the need to scroll or filter through the list manually. This small visual change helps the team act quickly, protect the employee experience, and reduce the chance of critical tasks being missed.
2. IT Service Desk – Prioritise Critical Tickets
In busy IT support environments, urgent tickets can get buried. Applying formatting by priority and response deadline helps analysts and service managers visually distinguish between routine and high-impact incidents, reducing the risk of SLA breaches.
Example Rule:
- Priority = “Critical” → Red background
- Due Date is in the past → Warning icon and red highlight
Why it helps: Instead of trawling through a long list of tickets, analysts can spot what’s urgent at a glance. It reinforces responsiveness, helps teams meet their SLAs, and ensures no critical request is lost in the queue.
3. Supplier Contracts – Track Expiry Dates
Procurement and contract management teams often oversee dozens (or hundreds) of contracts, each with different renewal cycles. Without visual indicators, expired or soon-to-expire agreements can go unnoticed, risking service continuity or legal exposure.
Example Rule:
- Expiry Date within 30 days → Yellow background
- Expired contracts → Red background with exclamation icon
Why it helps: Formatting draws your eye immediately to contracts that need action, without relying on reminders or manual checks. It builds confidence that nothing is slipping through the cracks and gives teams time to plan rather than react.
4. Budget Management – Visualise Overspending
Departmental and programme leads need to monitor spend against budget frequently, but raw numbers alone can be hard to interpret at a glance. By applying conditional formatting to budget columns, you can signal areas of concern before they escalate.
Example Rule:
- Spend > 100% → Bold red
- Spend between 90%–100% → Amber background
- Below 90% → Green
Why it helps: Colour makes over‑ or under‑spending instantly visible – no calculations required. This kind of visual cue allows leaders to act early, manage reputational risk, and keep programmes financially on track.
5. Risk Logs – Flag Unresolved High-Risk Items
Use Case: Risk registers are a key tool in project and programme governance. But without formatting, it’s easy to miss items that need escalation or haven’t been mitigated. By styling unresolved high-risk items differently, you make the log more usable and audit-ready.
Example Rule:
- Risk Rating = High → Red background
- Mitigation Status = “Not Started” → Red underline
Why it helps: Visual emphasis makes high risks hard to ignore, helping teams move beyond passive logging into active resolution. It also gives reviewers, auditors or project boards a clearer view of the true risk landscape.
6. Policy Registers – Stay Ahead of Review Cycles
In regulated environments, policy reviews are non-negotiable – but tracking them manually is time-consuming. Conditional formatting helps surface policies that are overdue or approaching review, and flags any entries with missing ownership, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Example Rule:
- Review Date within 60 days → Yellow highlight
- Overdue review → Red icon
- Owner column is blank → Grey text with warning
Why it helps: It brings accountability and visibility to policy management without needing a separate tracker. With a glance, you can see which documents are out of date or need chasing – saving time and avoiding compliance issues later.
7. Training Dashboards – Spot Non-Completion
Learning & Development teams often rely on SharePoint to track training records, especially for mandatory or role-specific courses. Formatting helps line managers and HR advisors immediately see who hasn’t completed required modules, supporting gentle prompts or escalation.
Example Rule:
- Status = “Not Started” → Red text
- In Progress → Amber background
- Completed → Green
Why it helps: This provides a clear, visual snapshot of training compliance – no sorting, no extra filtering. It empowers teams to take action quickly, helps maintain statutory compliance, and supports individual development conversations.
Want to Go Further?
While the built-in panel handles most needs, SharePoint also supports JSON-based formatting for advanced logic – such as combining conditions, applying icons, or transforming entire rows.
If you’re ready to dive deeper, Microsoft offers excellent column formatting documentation to help you get started safely.
Final Thoughts
Conditional formatting is a simple but powerful tool to help you take control of your data and highlight what matters. It improves clarity, helps users take action quickly, and makes SharePoint more responsive to the way your teams actually work.
Ready to start? Begin with a single column, try a few rules, and build from there. You’ll be surprised how quickly even a basic format can shift attention and drive better outcomes.
At Blackbird Corporate we’ve got first class SharePoint training and consultancy that can empower your organisation to make best use of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Contact us today to find out more.