Approach to Writing Formulas
Ask yourself these 3 questions before writing a formula.
- What operations will the formula need to perform (add, subtract, multiply, divide)?
- Am I mixing precedences?
- Does this formula need parenthesis?
Tip: Start by conceptualizing the plain English version of your formula. Then you can translate it into Excel by replacing the elements.
For example, if I need to find our how much Bob and Sue spent on the gas over a given number of weeks, I'll write:
= (Bob+Sue) x weeks
The translation to Excel would look like this:
= (C18+C19) x C20