There is a logic error in the formula, and it is a perfect example of how small assumptions can break a spreadsheet. The user set up a nested IF statement that checks if the quantity in B2 is greater than 30,000, then greater than 150,000, and defaults to 3 days. The problem is the order of the conditions. When B2 is 2,000, the formula asks: is 2,000 greater than 30,000? No. Then it asks: is 2,000 greater than 150,000? No. So it falls to the default value of 3. But the user reports that a 2,000-quantity job is getting 7 days. That means the formula is not evaluating the way it was written, or the data being pulled from the form is not what the user expects.
The most likely culprit is that the form is populating the Quantity column with text values, not numbers. When a spreadsheet compares a number to text, the logic can break in unpredictable ways. A cell that looks like a number might be stored as text, and the greater-than comparison may fail or return a false positive. Alternatively, the form may be inserting leading spaces or hidden characters. The user should check the data type of the Quantity column and ensure it is formatted as a number. A simple `=ISNUMBER(B2)` test will reveal the issue immediately.
This is frustrating, but it is also a familiar pain point for anyone who relies on form data. Forms are convenient, but they strip away the control you have when entering data manually. You cannot rely on what you see in the cell; you have to trust what the spreadsheet actually reads. The fix is straightforward: wrap the Quantity reference in a `VALUE()` function to coerce it to a number, or clean the form data before it enters the sheet. The formula should be `=IF(D2="", "", WORKDAY(D2, IF(VALUE(B2) > 30000, 5, IF(VALUE(B2) > 150000, 7, 3))))`. This forces the comparison to work with numeric values, eliminating the ambiguity.
The deeper lesson here is that AI-native tools should handle this kind of friction automatically. A smart spreadsheet should recognize when a column contains numeric-looking text and offer to convert it, or flag the mismatch before the user wastes time debugging. The future of data management is not about writing better nested IF statements; it is about tools that understand your intent and surface the invisible errors that slow you down. Until then, check your data types and test your conditions in order from largest to smallest.