IF function to define over budget or under budget

[mrose]

Hello I am taking online courses and I have an assignment that calls for using the "if"function. I am working on a personal budget and have to put in over budget or under budget. I am completely lost as to where to put the formula. I am a new user of Excel.

[mrose]

I have manually put in the over and under without using the functions but I need to know how to use the function;

[Sky188]

Good morning mrose,
IF functions are actually quite easy to use (though they can definitely get tricky!). As a basic introduction, IF functions have 3 criteria, the first being what you are testing for (So if A1 has a drop down that has both 1 and 2 as an option and you want B1 to say "yes" if A1 has a 1 in it, or "no" if A1 does not have a 1, you would put it as =IF(A1="1", "yes', "no"). The second criteria (after the first comma, or A1="1",) is the value you want to return if the first criteria is met. The third criteria is what you want it to return if the first criteria isn't met.

So, with your specific example, you will want to do =IF("total monthly amount> total monthly budget", "over","under").

[Russell Dawson]

In P2 - (assuming your budget is the average spend per month in M15)

=IF(M2<=$M$15,"Under","Over")

Then copy down

Regards

Russell

[mrose]

thank you for your help

[mrose]

Ok thank you, I guess my next problem would be where do I enter the formula? I have clicked on insert function and put that in and get an error message that there is something wrong with the formula. I know this is a simple task but... its not simple for someone who has never used it.

[jeffreybrown]

Hi mrose,

Are you speaking about the formula in post #4?

Copy the formula >> go to your worksheet >> select the first cell where the formula should start >> paste

Should be fine from there and then grab the fill handle and drag down.

[Russell Dawson]

mrose - read my post carefully ( I put it next to your manual entries so you can compare)

Come back if you still need help.

Regards

Russell

[mrose]

Aha!! thank you so much