I have a simple formula for monitoring my checkbook balance. Column A is Date, B

Question

I have a simple formula for monitoring my checkbook balance. Column A is Date, B is a Memo, C is Credit, D is Debit and E is Balance. The formula is in column E. for E3 it should be, =E2+C3-D3. I have selected columns C,D, and E and changed them all to currency. There is text for the column headings ABOVE the formula. I'm getting a #VALUE! error as if there is text in my simple math formula.

Why is this program trying to be 'helpful' and not calculating my formula? I've used this in older versions of Excel without issue? What do I need to turn off to get this to work? This has now taken me over 45 minutes in terms of searching for a solution (Excel help is not helpful it's WAY TOO vague), and typing this post.

Any suggestion??

Explanation / Answer

Hi,

It may look like a number but one or more of those cells is text. Try this in an empty cell

=isnumber(e2)

=isnumber(c3)

=isnumber(d3)

All of the above should return TRUE and if any return false they're text values. Changing the format is sufficient to convert them to numbers. Select each cell in turn and tap F2 and enter.

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