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| The Monthly Budget worksheet already contains a number of formulas—many quite complicated, but all designed to help you best calculate your monthly expenses. To see the formulas used, you can click on a cell, then view the formula in the Formula bar above the worksheet. Here I've selected cell D17—the cell for the Total income to see what formula has been entered. |
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| The formula entered in cell D17 is an IF formula which basically tells the spreadsheet to add the values in cells D12 through D16 if values appear in these cells. You could also enter the simpler formula: =SUM(D12:D16), which also tells the spreadsheet to add the values in cells D12 through D16. |
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| All of the total cells contain formulas. However, the value representing the Total income (cell D6) and the value representing the Total expenses (D7) do not contain formulas. As a result, these values will not change if you make changes to other values in the spreadsheet. Click cell D6 and check the formula bar to confirm that only a value and not a formula is entered in cell D6. |
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| To make your budget worksheet as useful as possible, you need to enter a cell address in cell D6 rather than just a value. The cell address should be the same as the address of the total income. Then, when you change the income entries, the new total will appear in the Summary section of the worksheet. Click cell D6, then enter =D17 as shown. You then press the Enter key to confirm the cell address. Now when you make a change to the income, the value in cell D6 will also change. |
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| You need to make sure that the value for Total income in the Summary section of the worksheet updates when you change your income. Click cell D12, type 2000, then press the Enter key. Note how the Total income in both cells D6 and D17 has changed from 5,653.00 to 4,778.50. Brackets also appear around the values representing the income less expenses since now the income is $198.75 less than the expenses—not a good thing! |
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United States
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