Addition and subtraction from cell

**cybershot** · 01-01-2016, 06:19 PM

I am trying to set up a banking ledger and I need some help

In column C, I have all deductions.
In column D, I have all deposits
In a cell in columns H, I want the balance of all transactions. So I put the starting balance in H1 and figured that I could subtract all entries from that balance from column C and add to the balance all entries from column D. So the balance in column H would go up or down depending on what column I put the number in. I am not sure how to do that formula. I got the subtraction going by doing this

=h2-sum(C2:C5000)

H2 is the starting balance of my account. C2 through C5000 would be the subtraction column where D2 through D5000 would be the addition column. How do I change the formula to add and subtract?

**teylyn** · 01-01-2016, 06:24 PM

Hello,

You don't need to do a sum of the whole range in every row. In fact, that is a very inefficient way and will slow the workbook down.

If you have labels in row 1, enter the starting balance into cell H2. Then you can use this formula in cell H3 and copy down:

=H2-C3+D3

which is balance from above minus deductions plus deposits from the current row.

cheers, teylyn

**cybershot** · 01-01-2016, 06:39 PM

I tried that and it didn't work. I have attached a test sheet to this thread for you to see.

**Richard Buttrey** · 01-01-2016, 06:45 PM

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**MrShorty** · 01-01-2016, 07:43 PM

I will agree with teylyn, that his approach would be the most efficient. "I tried that and it didn't work" is often not a very helpful description of what went wrong. It seems to me that it should have worked. What exactly did you try, and exactly what happened that it "didn't work"?

Working in the same vein as your original formula, It seems like it should be as simple as H2-sum(C2:C5000)+sum(D2:D5000).

In your sample file, you tried H2-C2:C5+D2:D5. Since this don't really work as a "normal" Excel function, I'm wondering what you were trying to do with this function.