Problem with Microsoft excel Please help

Asked By mark jason 0 points N/A Posted on - 11/03/2011

Hi All,

I am having a problem with my Microsoft Excel.

You see, I have a worksheet showing the total hours and minutes worked with the corresponding hourly rate.

However, when I try to multiply these values, I do not get the result that I am looking for.

I am hoping you could tell me what’s wrong and how I could solve this problem.

Thank you.

72. I am having a problem understanding Microsoft Excel.

I am trying to figure out how to display the result when I multiply two values resulting to a negative product.

I noticed that if the product of two values is a positive, the result would show just fine.

However, Excel does not display negative products.

I just need to know why Excel wouldn’t do so and if there’s anything I can do to be able to display negative values eventually.

I hope you can help me.

Thank you.

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Best Answer by Sharath Reddy

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Answered By Sharath Reddy 590495 points N/A #113651

Problem with Microsoft excel Please help

I don't understand why you were unable to display the negative result of a multiplication.

Maybe you are doing it in the wrong way.

Here is the right syntax in doing multiplication using Microsoft Office Excel: =PRODUCT(number1, [number2]..).

If you are multiplying a negative amount and a positive amount, that is, 1 negative number and 1 positive number, the result would be negative also.

 

But, if you are going to multiply values with both negative signs, you will have a positive result.

 

 

If you are using a formula in doing your computations, check it again.

There might be something wrong with the formula you are using.

If you expect to see the results in decimal digits, check the cell formatting because Microsoft Excel automatically rounds off the decimal digit to the specified decimal places set in the cell format.

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Answered By Sherin Viluel 0 points N/A #113652

Problem with Microsoft excel Please help

According to your explanation I can see there are two problems.

Solution for the first problem (hourly rate) given below.

We will just take an example,

 When the time is 1 hour and 30 minutes (assume that you have mentioned it as 1.30) and the hourly rate in 100 the total value should be 150.

However, in you excel you do not get that result (150) instead you get the result as 130 as follows.

 

The reason for the above result is, excel does not understand the .30 as 30 minutes or as half an hour. Instead it will understand it as 30 out of hundred. (30/100)

In order to get the result that you expect I will give you a formula that you can apply on the result column.

The formula is,

=(ROUNDDOWN(B2,0)+(B2-ROUNDDOWN(B2,0))/60*100)*C2

Important: you should apply this formula to Cell D2 if the hours and minute is cell B2 and the hourly rate is in cell C2.However, you can drag it down to any rows which you want.

 

Then you will be able to get the result you expected as shown in the following image.

Solution for the next problem (product) given below.

If you applied the product value correctly to the given scenario you should get the positive and also negative product values according to the situation.

• We will just take an example for a positive product value.

In order to do so both the two values should be either positive or negative.

 

 

• However, for a negative product value,

Either one value should be negative.

 

 

As shown above you should get the positive and also negative product value if applied properly.

There might be an error in applying the formula in your case.

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