Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life
I've been working on my monthly budgets
and finally things look the way that I
want them to making formatting decisions
such as what columns to include what
text to include and the text style and
size can be difficult I've already
listed all my bills but now I need to
include my income information so I can
do a couple of calculations calculating
and analyzing numerical information is
really what Excel is intended to be used
for you can use it at home to create
budgets like this one or in the
workplace to create complex spreadsheets
that keep track of company finances
inventory
and more to be able to use Excel to
accomplish these tasks it's important
that you understand formulas in school
you use formulas to calculate math
problems like two plus two equals four
or 20% off of one hundred dollars
Microsoft Excel uses these same formulas
to perform spreadsheet calculations a
formula is an equation that performs a
calculation using values in the
worksheets you're probably used to
seeing equations like two plus two with
an equal sign after it but in Excel
every formula starts with the equal sign
this may be a little confusing but I
promise it will make sense in C 3 you
can see I have my net pay of fifteen
hundred dollars listed and it's C for
the money I made from my extra job that
month let's say I want to add those two
numbers together so the total income for
the month appears in C 5 let's select
cell c5 since that is where I want the
total income for January to appear since
Excel formulas all began with an equal
sign use your keyboard to insert an
equal sign in the cell as you insert the
equal sign
notice how the formula bar changes you
see entering the equal sign makes a
formula bar active you can now see the
cancel icon which removes information
from the formula bar the insert icon
which will accept what you type and the
function icon that provides you with
some other mathematical options let's go
back to c5 and finish our formula we
want to add my $1,500 and $200 so we'll
just type the first number and then use
the keyboard to insert the addition sign
and nail type the second number
the addition sign lets Excel know that
an ADD operation is to be performed okay
now that I have my formula entered in
the cell I can press the Enter key on my
keyboard or click the insert command on
the formula bar and now I can see that
Excel edit fifteen hundred and two
hundred and placed the answer in cell c5
where I typed the formula another way
you can create formulas is by using cell
references instead of typing equals
fifteen hundred plus two hundred and
cell c5 to calculate my total income
that month I can use a cell reference in
the formula a cell reference is when you
use a cell address in a formula and
refer to that specific cell by name for
example the cell address of this cell is
c3 this cell is where column C and Row
three intersect now let's write a
formula using cell references select the
cell where you want the answer to appear
type the equal sign to let Excel know
that we're writing a formula type the
cell number that contains the first
number to be added and then type the
addition sign nails type the cell number
that contains the second number to be
added press ENTER on your keyboard or
click the insert button on the formula
bar so you're probably wondering why we
might want to use cell references it
doesn't seem any easier to type the cell
address rather than the numbers does it
well let's say that I realized I entered
my net pay incorrectly all I have to do
is change the numbers and cell c3 and as
I change it my total income in cell d5
automatically changes if I change the
amount since III I would not see a
change in c5 because I didn't use a cell
reference but instead types the numbers
in the formula cell references are
especially important to know about when
working with columns that contain many
numbers that change regularly as you've
probably noticed in most Microsoft
Office applications there is usually
more than one way to accomplish a task
in this formula I typed in the cell
reference as I wrote the formula but you
can also use the points and click method
to select cells so that you don't have
to type two cell references each time
let's see how the point and click method
works while creating a simple
subtraction formula I have entered the
total amounts of my January expenses in
C 29 now to calculate how much money I
have after paying all my January bills I
just need to write a formula in C 30
that subtracts my January expenses from
my January income so we'll select the
cell where we want the answer to appear
and then insert the equal sign now all I
need to do is left-click the first cell
that is included in the formula the
border of the cell changes to the
marching ants and the cell reference c5
appears in the formula here you can see
the cursor is in C 30 so now I can enter
the subtraction sign to let Excel know
that a subtraction operation needs to be
performed
now just left-click the next cell in the
formula since we want to subtract our
January expenses we'll select C 29
now it appears in my formula if we have
more sales to subtract we would just
repeat these steps until the formula is
complete I'm ready to click enter and
now the formula shows me how much money
I have remaining after paying all my
bills you'll find the points and click
method of selecting sales is really
helpful because often it's just easier
and faster to use the mouse instead of
the keyboard we've created formulas
using the addition and subtraction signs
but you can also use a multiplication
and division signs in your formulas all
four of these math medical signs or
symbols are called operators because
they tell Excel what type of
mathematical operation needs to be
performed you need to know this term
because if you have to use the Excel
help tool this is how it refers to these
mathematical signs