The Happy Accountant

Last night I braved the torrential rain (and almost didn’t make it through the flooded back roads) to go to an informal networking event, held at the lovely Strixton Manor.  There was also a wine tasting laid on.  Unfortunately, because I was driving, I wasn’t able to try any.
Because it was informal, it was also much [...]

All formulae in Excel begin with an = sign.
Suppose you wish to add the contents of cell A1 and A2 and display the answer in cell A3, put the formua into cell A3:
=A1+A2
To add a column of numbers from A1 down to A10, and put the total in cell B1, you could put
=A1+A2+A3+A4+A5+A6+A7+A8+A9+A10
in cell B1, but [...]

Excel references each cell, co-ordinate style: With absolute references, letters denote columns and numbers are used for rows.  Hence B4, is the second column along (from the left) and the fourth row down.
(There is another style of cell referencing, called relative referencing)
To reference a range of cells (for example, the column of cells starting aown [...]

As with many other Microsoft applications, there are several ways of doing things.
Excel’s commands can be accessed through the menubar at the top.
Clicking the righthand mouse button, while the cursor is in a cell, brings up a mini menu of mainly formatting options.
There are keyboard short cuts (such as [CTRL] and [SHIFT] and $ applies the currency [...]

Excel works in a similar way to all other Microsoft Office products, with the familiar menu bar (by default, it starts with File, Edit, View etc…) at the top, plus a range of other toolbars that can be added, removed or customised. (the standard and formatting toolbars are shown by default)
An Excel workbook can contain several [...]

Completely off-topic, this one, but hey ho, it’s Friday!
I was recently incredibly honoured to listen to a CD pre-release from a brand new artist.  This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day, especially to an accountant.
Well, I’m pleased to see that the artist in question, Tori Beaumont, now has a MySpace page at www.myspace.com/toribeaumont

A debit note might be issued to a supplier as a way of formally requesting a credit note.
Within a business, a debit note might be raised to adjust an invoice that has already been issued as a way of keeping the records straight.  In this instance, the debit note is not sent out.

A credit note cancels a whole or part of an invoice, either because the invoice itself was incorrect or there was a problem with the goods/services that were being invoiced for.
Credit notes are frequently printed in red to distinguish them from normal invoices.
They normally contain similar information to that contained on the original invoice, plus [...]

A sales invoice relates to the business’s sales order (and the customer’s purchase order).  An invoice is raised when a credit sale is made and the goods have been despatched.
The invoice is a request for payment but it is also used for other purposes, too.  For this reason, several copies of an invoice are used within the [...]

This document is produced when goods are shipped to the customer.  It might list the goods, quantities, weights, how it was shipped and the delivery time.  A copy is sent to the accounts department so that they can match it with the sales order and raise a sales invoice for the goods.