Calculating with positive and negative numbers

[grantsmith]

Hi,

Firstly this is probably a very basic question, and for that I apologise.

So, I am making a profit and loss sheet which includes both negative and positive values. For example in month 1, sales, I have 0 and in the below cell, cost of sales, which is -197.48. So Gross profit should be -197.48, but when I do a formula for =B4-B5, it returns a figure 197.48. Which is not correct.

How do I create calculations which contain positive and negative numbers?

Also, any tips on handling negative values would be great, for example, I see some people use -, whilst other's put their's into (). Is there a correct way of handling negative numbers?

Thanks

[FDibbins]

You need to add them, not subtract them

Think of it this way - had you made +197.48, you you have subtracted that from 0?

[Jdevil]

Hi,

Firstly this is probably a very basic question, and for that I apologise.

So, I am making a profit and loss sheet which includes both negative and positive values. For example in month 1, sales, I have 0 and in the below cell, cost of sales, which is -197.48. So Gross profit should be -197.48, but when I do a formula for =B4-B5, it returns a figure 197.48. Which is not correct.

How do I create calculations which contain positive and negative numbers?

Also, any tips on handling negative values would be great, for example, I see some people use -, whilst other's put their's into (). Is there a correct way of handling negative numbers?

Thanks

As Fdibbins said, you indeed should put a + instead, but to answer your - vs () notation: It is a common notation to use () to observe negative amount of money, however you should simply write your values as "-n" and you can display them with () instead if you wish.