I have an Excel sheet that calculates Flat Rate VAT (at 9%) on monthly gross
sales, and then deducts that VAT amount and any company expenditure for that
month from the gross sales amount to return the balance.
All the cells are formatted as (UKP) currency to 2 decimal places.
For example:
Cell A1 shows a gross sales value of £5,522.50
Cell A2 shows a VAT value of £497.03 (calculated as 9% of the value in Cell
A1)
Cell A3 shows an expenditure value of £350.20
Cell A4 shows the balance =A1-A2-A3
The result in Cell A4 should be £4,675.27, but the result I get is
£4,675.28. I conclude this is because the true VAT value in Cell A2 is
£497.025, which Excel displays as rounded up to £497.03 for 2 decimal
places.
Unfortunately, when Excel does the calculation for Cell A4, it uses the Cell
A2 true VAT value of £497.025. This gives the result of £4,675.275, which
is then rounded up to £4,675.28, giving the 1p error.
What is the best way to prevent this from happening? Can I force the
formula in Cell A4 to use the displayed figure in Cell A2, or is there a
more elegant way of resolving this problem?

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Mike
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Keith74 - 13 Aug 2007 16:04 GMT
try putting this or similar in your a2 calc
=Round((A1*0.09),2)
hth
Keith
Bob Phillips - 13 Aug 2007 16:13 GMT
or you could also use
=A1-ROUND(A2,2)-A3

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HTH
Bob
(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)
> try putting this or similar in your a2 calc
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Keith
aidan.heritage@virgin.net - 13 Aug 2007 17:20 GMT
> I have an Excel sheet that calculates Flat Rate VAT (at 9%) on monthly gross
> sales, and then deducts that VAT amount and any company expenditure for that
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> -Please remove 'safetycatch' from email address before firing off your
> reply-
It's a common misconception that changing the DISPLAYED value changes
the STORED value, but as you've found out it DOESN'T - so I would
always suggest using a ROUND function (as has been suggested in other
replies) in any calculation where the result is going to be used for
another calculation and SHOULD be used in it's rounded format.
Bernard Liengme - 13 Aug 2007 17:39 GMT
You should read this:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/pennyoff.html
best wishes

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Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email
>I have an Excel sheet that calculates Flat Rate VAT (at 9%) on monthly
>gross sales, and then deducts that VAT amount and any company expenditure
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> formula in Cell A4 to use the displayed figure in Cell A2, or is there a
> more elegant way of resolving this problem?
mlv - 13 Aug 2007 18:06 GMT
Problem solved!
Thanks for your help, guys.
The article at:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/pennyoff.html
was very useful.

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Mike
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