Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Growing Up To Excel

Making jewelry is not just about making jewelry. By January 31, I must pay WA the sales tax I collected on their behalf during 2010. This process is not nearly as much fun as making jewelry!

I'm only marginally proficient at Excel spreadsheets, so for 5 years I've maintained a table for each year's sales data using Word. Word has been barely adequate for this purpose. SO...

I'm bracing to stumble up another learning curve- Excel! The syntax of formulas that make Excel such a powerful tool is my biggest challenge at the moment. I must say, I was rather proud of my first sophisticated Excel formula==>

=(IFERROR(F2/(1+H2),"Verify calc")

It determines the base price of an item sold, given (F2) its gross price including sales tax & (H2) the sales tax rate. Excel puts the result in the single cell I highlight (G2). If Excel encounters a problem, IFERRORS places my "Verify" string in cell (G2)instead. I "drag" the G2 cell down the column to perform the same operation on the matching F & H cells.

I think I might be "in like" with Excel, especially if next year, this is a whole lot easier!!

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