GOAL: Create table of debit card transactions, by month and organized into summed categories (food, entertainment, education, etc.), each of which being compared to income for that month (percentage of)
WHAT I KNOW:
- If statements (haven't ever used them in excel though)
- basics of excel
- some basic formula usage (though I don't know what the $ in $B$2 does?)
- I use excel a lot at work and have for college, so I know some other random things
STARTING SPREADSHEET: I've downloaded a nice little spreadsheet from my online banking site that lists all transactions on my debit card since 2007 and includes the transaction name, date, remarks, debit/credit amount, and remaining balance per transaction arranged in ascending order by date.
QUESTION: How in the world can I accomplish my goal?
DILEMMA: I don't even know how to categorize things. Using the "group" function??? Never used that before, but am willing to learn.
WHAT I'M THINKING: Perhaps assigning numerical values to each category (i.e. food = 1, entertainment = 2, etc.) and manually entering these numbers into a new column for each transaction. I'm hoping there is a shortcut for this (for example, searching for specific words that pertain to food such as "taco cabana" and entering value 1 into my new column for all that contain that phrase--don't know how to do this either!). Then using some kind of if statement for all values in column x that equal value x to be added....
ANY tips or advise will be greatly appreciated. Or does Quicken do this for you and should I just purchase that instead? Heh... Or perhaps you have suggestions of less expensive programs/add-ons for excel that will do this for me? Anything! Please!
Thank you,
- Brigit
WHAT I KNOW:
- If statements (haven't ever used them in excel though)
- basics of excel
- some basic formula usage (though I don't know what the $ in $B$2 does?)
- I use excel a lot at work and have for college, so I know some other random things
STARTING SPREADSHEET: I've downloaded a nice little spreadsheet from my online banking site that lists all transactions on my debit card since 2007 and includes the transaction name, date, remarks, debit/credit amount, and remaining balance per transaction arranged in ascending order by date.
QUESTION: How in the world can I accomplish my goal?
DILEMMA: I don't even know how to categorize things. Using the "group" function??? Never used that before, but am willing to learn.
WHAT I'M THINKING: Perhaps assigning numerical values to each category (i.e. food = 1, entertainment = 2, etc.) and manually entering these numbers into a new column for each transaction. I'm hoping there is a shortcut for this (for example, searching for specific words that pertain to food such as "taco cabana" and entering value 1 into my new column for all that contain that phrase--don't know how to do this either!). Then using some kind of if statement for all values in column x that equal value x to be added....
ANY tips or advise will be greatly appreciated. Or does Quicken do this for you and should I just purchase that instead? Heh... Or perhaps you have suggestions of less expensive programs/add-ons for excel that will do this for me? Anything! Please!
Thank you,
- Brigit
