Return the month of break-even (>0)

Hi,

I have a row of months in ascending order in row 5.
There is various amounts in rows 6:33 of costs/income.
Row 34 is the sum of rows 6:33 (monthly cash flow).

What I'd like to do is return the relevant month (from row 5) based on the break-even point in row 34 (i.e. the first point that cash flow goes from negative to positive, i.e. not less than 0, or greater than 0).

Any help would be appreciated...

Many thanks

Originally Posted by Tony Valko

I was following your explanation up to this point:




See if this does what you want...

A5:Z5 = months

This array formula**...

=INDEX(A5:Z5,MATCH(TRUE,A34:Z34>=0,0))

** array formulas need to be entered using the key
combination of CTRL,SHIFT,ENTER (not just ENTER).
Hold down both the CTRL key and the SHIFT key
then hit ENTER.

thanks. Sorry, I just meant the first point that the cash flow goes from negative monthly returns to positive...

It worked! Genius!

Thanks very much

I was looking for how to do this too, and Tony's solution is very helpful in finding the first break-even point.

I wonder if anyone could help find a 'true' break-even point; that is, in month x (say, 11) we might be in a positive cashflow position for the first time (first break-even point), but there may be costs in month y (say, 12) that drops us back down to a negative cash position.

If there is this sort of fluctuation, but at say month 34 we end up >£0 and it remains positive for the remainder of the term, how can we return month 34 as the 'true' break-even?

Any help would be much appreciated