# Excel 2007 question



## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

I'm wanting to create a worksheet to keep track of certain expenses so that I can track them by using a letter to type them. For example, 'U' for utilities. I know that I can sort them alphabetically/numerically by putting the letter in the first, or 'A' column. What I'm wondering is if there is any way that I can put a formula in a cell where I can get totals for each type based solely on me adding that letter I've put in the first box. 

An example, if I record a year's worth of expenses I would like to be able to get a total for all Groceries bought, Utilities paid, etc. by using that designated letter as the criteria. If I want to tally groceries, I'd like to be able to type 'G' in a specified box at the bottom of the worksheet and get a total of everything labeled as Groceries.

Is such a thing possible? I hope my explanation is clear ... it's late.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Is it possible? Yes
Is it easy? No -- How much do you know about programming and macros? 
A much much easier method would be to have a column for every expense type you want to keep track of and just add each column down.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

What he said. It can be done, but it's not that simple - you would need a macro at the very least.


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

Essentially I want to be able to sort these things out because I have to keep track of financial information for a 'ward' and provide an explanation annually as to what I've spent her money on and it'd be easier to keep everything sorted as we go as opposed to trying to go back through a year's worth of checks & receipts and such.

Yeah, I know absolutely nothing about macros or programming and very little about the 2007 version of Excel although I've a bit more experience with earlier versions.

Of course the easy solution was right under my nose, as opposed to keeping the record as a chronological sort, I just need to do as you say MNN and just separate them out as I go. I know XP had some type of money program on it that I thought would do something like this but couldn't find anything on Vista and thought I'd try to go with Excel. 

Thanks!


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## rzrubek (May 13, 2004)

Here is the spreadsheet I use.








It catogorizes everything and gives you a running total a the far right side. It is easy to customize also. I added rows for all my credit cards, for tithing, for each car payment and so on. Sometimes you have to fix the math formulas, but that is much easier than creating the whole thing from scratch. Check it out and see what you think.Here is the website I got it from Vertex42


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