Trying to get my budget to work in the Numbers program

[Anthony1985]

Hey all........ I just recently got a MacBook- I'm new to the Mac world, but so far I love it and its worlds better then Windows 7 or anything else I've used. I'm picking up everything ok, except for a few little things. My biggest problem is in the "Numbers" spreadsheet program. I've searched the help topics and cant figure out how to make the numbers in my budget add up. For example:

Paycheck- $500
Rent-$100
Food-$50
Car-$25
Total Expenses- $175
Difference between income and expenses: ....?

I cant get it to fill in the gap between the income and expenses so I know how much I have left over without having to do all the math myslef. Excel used to do this, is there a way to make Numbers do it too?

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Gregg2]

A1 Paycheck- $500
A2 Rent-$100
A3 Food-$50
A4 Car-$25
A5 Total Expenses- $175
A6 Difference between income and expenses: ....?

A5: =A2+A3+A4
A6: =A1-A5

Why isn't it as simple as that? (I use Excel.)

 

[Anthony1985]

where do I type that stuff in to add those up?
I honestly know nothing about spreadsheets

 

[ashameer]

Just enter your values in numbers, make sure the cell is formated as Numer or Currency, you can find that in the Information window.

Then set up the calculations simply by typing =A1+A2 etc. to calculate the epxpenses, do the same with your earnings and set up field with the balance
=A5-A4 thats it. It works the same as in Excel. Or use the Budget template from numbers.

 

[Gregg2]

Just enter your values in numbers, make sure the cell is formated as Numer or Currency, you can find that in the Information window.

Then set up the calculations simply by typing =A1+A2 etc. to calculate the epxpenses, do the same with your earnings and set up field with the balance
=A5-A4 thats it. It works the same as in Excel. Or use the Budget template from numbers.

Right concept. Not using same cell "names" as the example I posted above.

I edited that to include the equal sign, and that's exactly what to type in those cells. You'll get the hang of it. You just have to provide the cell names and the operation you want done in the cell where you need the results to show up.

 

[Anthony1985]

Thanks for the tips...... I tried typing exactly that and it gives me an error saying

The operator "=" expects a number, date or duration, but cell A2 contains a string

Im using the budget template that came with Iworks, and I have cells A2-A13 as my bills.

 

[Anthony1985]

Nevermind I just figured it out......... thanks so much guys!